Last year was the first full winter that I owned our coach. We store it inside a large building with other RV's. The building is well sealed but is not climate controlled. Our winters can get very cold (come on global warming) and the coach will be in storage from about the first week in November until late April. Last year when they started her she churned for a while and finally started. We have it winterized which includes checking battery water level and adding something to the diesel fuel that preserves it. Should I do anything else? I see these battery tenders advertised in camping world. I am not sure there are reachable outlets in this building but I worry it won't start in the spring and if it is bad for the batteries to sit like that.
A charged battery won't freeze. I would look into the possibility of getting power close to the coach. I use Battery Minders on all batteries, but I'm sure Battery Tenders are the same. I've bought a few from this guy who is a little cheaper & free shipping.
http://www.pacificbattery.com/batteryminder.html
If there are any outlets check into running a long extension cord to power a battery tender....they don't take a lot of power, so a long run with an extension cord will not hurt. This way, when you do come to take it out of storage in the spring you can start the generator to power up the block heater, which will make starting much easier. Hard starts are hard on Detroit Diesels. If no outlet is available for that purpose, then I suggest visiting the coach at least once a month, if not more, and running the generator for at least an hour, or more to keep the batteries charged, or acquire a small portable generator to take over to the storage facility, and run it for a few hours to keep the batteries topped off.
Second what Clarke has stated. Our bird is a power hog, as are the Newell's. they really prefer to be plugged in, even if it's minimal power.
So am I putting this on each battery that turns over the engine? I am not sure I can run the generator that long in this building. I would have to run some sort of exhaust tube to make sure I dont affixiate myself and others. Maybe I should take the batteries out and take them home and put tenders on their?
As rheavn stated a Flooded Lead Acid Battery can Freeze if discharged...then when any charge is applied it could explode. Now if you have AGM Batteries, that type should not have the same issues according to the seminar that I attended and put on by Interstate Batteries. If you are storing where there is no electricity I would agree with pulling the Batteries and storing them where you can take care of them. (should be a real bear with 8D batteries!)
I turn all of the Batteries off on our coach when not in use although our situation is reversed, I store ours in the summer and move into it in the winter months to get out of the snow. The worst job after turning the batteries back on is that I need to reset the clocks since my vintage Newell doesn't require any power when idle.
Todd, you're right, I forget you are inside a closed building, so the next best thing would be to take them home and keep them in the garage on a battery minder, or tender, or whatever they are called. The big thing is to be able to start the generator when you go to take it out of storage in the spring so you can heat up the engine block before starting. An alternative to running the generator would be to, at that time, find an outlet you could run a long extension cord from to run the block heater.....ours draws about 9-10 amps so you, at a minimum would probably need at least a 20 amp outlet to account for the drop in amps over a long extension cord run....it might work on 15 amps if your run is less than 100 feet, and you have a heavy duty extension cord.
The other option is to install some AGMs (maybe Lifelines). I installed these in the boat and have had trouble free service out of them for about 6 years now. They also keep a charge much better.
I still prefer Trojan T-105 6 Volt Golf Cart types for the House but they are Flooded Lead Acid...these are much easier to lift and move around than the 8Ds!
Todd,
If you're leaving the batteries in the coach, one tender (of suitable size) can be connected to any single battery. As long as that battery is connected to the rest, they will all stay topped off. I used to leave mine parked with only a 15A plug and one inverter/charger going. Using the combiner switch allowed me to keep the house and chassis batteries all up.
For clarification, this was a Freedom 2500 with the charger portion on and the inverter portion off. The other Freedom 2500 was completely off. My bird will take a pretty consistent 8-9A charge when parked. By turning all the master switches and such off, I might be able to get it down a little more, but it's not worth the effort. A decent 10A smart charger or tender should keep things well off.
If you're taking the batteries out, then you either need a charger (tender) for each or a way to connect them in parallel. This could be with either custom cables or sime jumper cables.
So today i had the coach home and was going to plug it into house current to see if the charger would in fact charge the batteries as others have said it would. I used the pigtail from 50 to 30 and then another pigtail that went on the 30 that has an end that can be plugged into a house receptacle. I turned off the the house and chassis batteries and plugged it in. A very loud humming sound came from this box on the wall in the electrical bay. I quickly unplugged it because it did not sound correct. The pic below is the box. It has a toggle switch on the side that has an on position either up or down with middle being off. It made the sound in both on positions. Anyone know what this box is and have any ideas or suggestions?
[
attachment=1605]
This is the front of that box with the lid closed.
[
attachment=1606]