Battery discharged after storage

[giddyup]

Originally Posted by Camper_bob

Just to clarify and distill some info:

-Parasitic drain will kill a deep cycle battery on a stored RV in 2-3 weeks (at the longest).
-Prevent that dead battery by removing the inline 30A fuse, installing a battery disconnect switch or removing your battery.
-Your tow vehicle will charge your battery, but it cannot resurrect a completely dead battery.

Camper Bob - Great job of summarizing the entire thread. Thanks!

[Big Sky]

X2 - Exactly what Bob said.

[herewego]

X2 On the 30 Amp Fuse ( we have that as well)

[docmarrin]

Gosh, guys; and thanks for all of the GREAT information on this issue. I'll have to tell the so-called "pros" at Interstate Battery that they do not know what they are talking about with respect to the TV charging my HTT battery. The only thing I can think is that they were talking about charging a dead or nearly-dead battery which it sounds like may be the truth. Thanks again!

[bucko]

Originally Posted by 33 RLDS

Minimally it should be un-plugged as the CO2 and Propane detector will suck it down quick. Ideally you want to take it with you and leave it on a trickle / maintainer charger like a battery tender or such. If it was discharged and froze its probably shot. If not, it should come back up again when plugged in to shore power..

^^^ This. I remove my battery at the end of a camping event, and take it home with me and connect it to a trickle/maintainer charger. They are cheap (around 30 bucks or less).

I have three of these chargers; one for the camper battery, and the other two maintain the batteries in the jet skis. I used to replace the jet ski batteries once a year it seemed. With a trickle charger, they go well over three years of good service.

[FPM III]

Also, be advised that if you tow with a depleted battery, should the TT disconnect from the tow vehicle and trip the breakaway switch, there will not be sufficient voltage to energize the electric brakes to prevent it from becoming a runaway.

[bucko]

Good point!

[Jeff61]

Pull fuse is the simplest. Clean your battery terminals and the scum off the top between the terminals with baking soda, a little water and a toothbrush, rinse thouroughly. top off cells with distilled water, charge fully... if you want the maximum life from your deep cycle battery

[Clayton4971]

Originally Posted by docmarrin

I stored my 2014 X19H for only about a month and when I took it out of storage the battery seems to be very low to completely discharged. What can I do now, hopefully short of getting a new battery? What should I do in the future when putting the unit in storage. I live in Arizona and it does get cold (around freezing in the winter)!

I have found that if you have a disconnect switch it is best to turn off if you are not using your rig . Seems their is always something running that pulled a little power. This is our second rig and it's the same on it. A battery getting too low and freezing is not good . On the first rig the battery lasted nine years doing this.

[robp]

Great info in this thread thanks.

I just pulled our TT from storage and the battery is dead (wish I had read this thread before!).

The TT is 2months old and it was in storage for 4-5 weeks.

My question is can I bring the battery back to life by having my TT at home for the next 5 days plugged into my domestic 110 or must it be replaced?

Thanks

[Mustang65]

Originally Posted by robp

My question is can I bring the battery back to life by having my TT at home for the next 5 days plugged into my domestic 110 or must it be replaced?

You can give it a try, but there are no long-term guarantees..
Your AC power to the TT's battery charge controller will be ok for re-charging the battery, but initially since your battery voltage is "0"VDC, the inline fuse by the batteries may blow. In that case you may want to use a heavy duty battery charger (connected to your battery for an hour or 2) to get the batteries voltage up, and then use the TT's battery charge controller to finish the charge.

I would keep an eye on the battery, and the temperature of the battery case, as it could get hot. Get a Volt/ohm meter and keep checking the voltage at the batteries. On the 3rd day, disconnect the AC power to the trailer, take out the 30amp inline fuse to the TT located by the battery, take a voltage reading (should be about 13.2VDC) and let the battery sit for 5 hours. Take another voltage reading after 5 hours (with no load), it should still be near the 13VDC mark (12.8 - 13.2). If it is, you may get some more usage out of it. The problem is that your Ah's will be lower than what it says on the battery. You can read 12.8 volts all day long, but as soon as you put a load on the battery (radio, fan..) the voltage tends to drop fast. If you are not dry-camping, you should be OK, as you will have shore power and TV charging while in transit.

If you have to use a heavy duty battery charger, use it only for a couple hours, then disconnect it and go back to the TT's charge controller as it a SMART battery controller and a micro-controller controls the charging process. Don't forget to reinstall the inline fuse when going back to the TT's charge controller.

Don't forget to check and make sure your batteries water level is about a 1/4 inch below the ring (that is what the battery mfr's consider full), before and AFTER the charging process.

Just my thoughts,

Don

[robp]

Thanks Don.
I will keep an eye on it and see how it goes, we are camping with full hook ups next weekend so we can manage if it's dead.