Winter Maintenance for Battery

[kbunning]

Wondering about the best way to maintain the battery through the winter. The camper will stay on the truck, outside through cold snowy CO mountain winter. I’ll drive the truck at least once per week and hopefully take a few trips to the desert.

Should I plug in the camper and charge the battery regularly? Leave it plugged in when not driving? Or ???

Thanks!
Kim

[John Perz]

Kind of depends. Do you have flooded battery(s) or AGM? Old, dumb converter-charger or one of the modern smart chargers with bulk, absorption, & float?

Plenty of warnings in the mainstream RV forums about how the old dumb converters can boil all the water out of batteries if left plugged in all winter

Probably safest to bring it up to 100% charge and pull the ground cable off it. Maybe halfway through the winter put the cable back on and plug it in for the weekend, then pull the cable again.

There are various things like CO and Propane leak alarms that can kill your battery and let it freeze. Some of these BYPASS any battery off-on switches on some RVs so they stay on all the time. Hence pulling the cable.

A smart converter – as long as it’s working right – shouldn’t hurt the battery(s) if left plugged in all winter.

Regards
John
I don't like to make plans. They cause the word "PREMEDITATED" to get used in court!
DON'T FEED THE VULTURES!
My Body is a Temple! Ancient, Crumbling, Probably Cursed . . .

[kbunning]

Thank you for the advice. The converter looks pretty old school. Magnatek series 6700 Model 6720. Also learned the battery is an EnerSys DataSafe 12HX330 Sealed Lead Acid Battery 12.0v 330W/Cell 15 min. Flame Retardant. This is what the sticker on the side of the battery says. Seems like a strange choice for an RV battery (looks like it’s meant to be some sort of back up system for IT applications)

I also talked with the guy who built it out. He says he just kept it plugged in during the winter (used it occasionally as I plan to do).

Any additional thoughts?

[John Perz]

To my mind, a sealed battery and a dumb converter is a bad combo to leave plugged in for months at a time. I’d pull the ground cable, as discussed above.

BTW, just FYI, a fully charged battery will not freeze until it hit’s minus 80 degrees F. A completely discharged battery will freeze at 20 degrees F. A partly discharged battery will, of course, fall somewhere in between, depending on how far it’s been discharged.

Regards
John
I don't like to make plans. They cause the word "PREMEDITATED" to get used in court!
DON'T FEED THE VULTURES!
My Body is a Temple! Ancient, Crumbling, Probably Cursed . . .

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