I store my TT at a gated and well secured facility which happens to have a workcamper who knows me located about 25 feet from my space.
How worried should I be about my battery?
I do have access to electric to trickle charge. I am also thinking of adding a small solar tender. Dragging the battery is work as we all know. Plus I have an extra deep cycle which is about a year old which I am thinking of leaving there.
- The first plus is that you have a work camper located near the TT. When they are around that is defiantly a plus.
- If this is a typical storage center with those long steel sheds for other than RV's... then you have a problem with NON-RVing customers, which opens up to a PROBABLY lesser honest category of customers (based on my previous use of them). You should be able to look up all the past police responses to that address on the public services website for that area. I would at least have some sort of basic security for the batteries, like a chain wrapped around the case(s). This should eliminate the group of thieves that just want to go in, grab and run in the least amount of time possible.
I am not sure if you have a "Battery Disconnect" switch, but you will need to install one before thinking about what method you will go with to keep the batteries topped off. All of the TT's electronics (CO alarm, fridge ckt board, radio...) are still creating a load on the battery(s).
As for hooking up to a smart charger, a good/bad idea. As mentioned it is like an illuminated arrow pointing to your battery box(s), I would bypass that idea.
SOLAR.... here is a topic that will have a lot of PRO's/CON's/Opinions. Is your TT stored under a tree or in the open? Shade... I would not go with SOLAR!
First off if you purchase a 2 watt SOLAR charger to keep your batteries topped off, this means that you will need to fully charge the battery(s) before you put the TT in storage. The smart trickle chargers, low wattage SOLAR panels can only keep a battery topped off if fully charged and NO loads on the battery(s).
When someone suggests that a 2 watt panel will do the job... that panel needs to be in FULL sunlight at least 5 hours a day 7 days a week. Clouds, rain bring the output to an unusable output. I never recommend a SOLAR panel less than 50 Watts.... and an output voltage of 17VDC or greater. WHY? You will have more than enough power to keep the battery(s) topped off, with or without FULL sunlight. Even on cloudy/rainy days you will be able to produce enough energy to keep them charged. Oh, and do not forget that a SOLAR panel needs a SOLAR Charge Controller to ensure that the battery(s) do not get overcharged or drain them when the sun goes down.
So, where to put that SOLAR panel. Personally, mount it flat on the roof of your TT. Can't be seen. Installing, is easy, and you install it and forget it... well you still need to clean it every now and then.
If you are thinking of dry-camping in the future.. now is the time to purchase a basic kit that can be expanded to meet your current and future needs. Just remember mount your first panel with a layout that allows you to add more panels. SOLAR is addictive once your get started. A small Renogy 100 watt starter kit would be ideal as a basic system with future options to grow.
I installed a residential 250Watt (31 VDC) panel and (2) Trojan T145 batteries 4 years ago. I have not turned on the TT's battery charge controller since installing SOLAR.
Good Luck,
Don
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