Question About House Battery While In Storage

[jeffdaley]

We have a Tiffin 2016 36LA. The operation Manual for our coach is not the best.

We're looking for the correct procedure for our house batteries when the coach goes into storage. From what we can tell it may be an automatic process when we shut down the 12-volt system for the coach, however that is an assumption on my part and I am looking for a definitive answer.

Our house batteries are located in a very inaccessible location. One has to remove a step cover at the entryway of the coach and when completed servicing is difficult at best so hopefully the process is automated or a cutoff is located elsewhere that is not intuitive for the user.

Many thanks to those that help us, newbies. - Jeff

[hermanmullins]

Jeff, 

Welcome to the Forum. 

You should have a battery disconnect that would allow you to cut the power. Three should be 2, one for the house and one for the chassis. 

Herman 

[rfsod48]

Welcome! Be sure to turn the inverter off if storing for a period of time.

[manholt]

Jeff, he meant "there should be 2 cut of switches"!  I had a 2011 Allegro Bus and mine was between the Co-Pilot seat and the wall, on the floor.  It had a setting for house and another for chassis or you could turn them all off.  If you have an electric connection where you store your coach and it's less than 50A, use a trickle charger for the batteries, then you don't need to disconnect anything. 

[wolfe10]

Jeff,

Yes, welcome to the FMCA Forum.

Several choices, depending on how/where/how long you store your coach:

If you have shore power, just leave it plugged in-- with the inverter/charger properly programmed. Even a 15 amp house-type outlet is adequate for this.

If no shore power and stored outdoors, consider a solar panel and controller.

The other option as mentioned is to turn off as much as you can.  The "salesman switch" usually near the door turns off SOME 12 VDC loads.  Many times it does not turn them all off.  Things like propane detector, refrigerator PC board, etc may not be wired through it.  Probably a good idea if you will be keeping the coach stored for more than a short time to use an AMMETER to check draw with the salesman switch off, to verify that you do not have a significant draw.

Lastly, wet cell batteries do "self discharge"-- so, even if fully disconnected/no load, they will discharge.  This is where the "how long" question comes in.

[hermanmullins]

Another option if you can is to go every couple of weeks and crank up the generator let it run for at least half an hour, or longer, under load. This way you can recharge your batteries and exercise the gen. and A/Cs at the same time.

Herman 

[elkhartjim]

Jeff, welcome.

What are the expected low temperatures where your unit will be stored? If you expect prolonged freezing temperatures, the flooded cell batteries are at risk of freezing if not at full charge.

 

[desertdeals69]

To get the maximum life out of the batteries they should be removed and scrubbed down with baking soda and water solution and thoroughly dried.  Its the moisture that slowly drains the charge.  I would keep them in a warm dry area and have a float charger on them.

[wayne77590]

Yep, on any given day that batteries have not been cleaned, take an volt/amp meter and put it between the two terminals, not touching the terminals and a reading will appear.  The dirt/grime causes the flow across the battery.