New dual 6v's. Need some advice plz

brianosaur wrote:
Okay so after 24 hours of rest inside my house I got a series reading of 12.64v.

12.7v is full correct?

What should my new Costco Interstate's be reading so I know the difference between a bad charger and a bad newly manufactured 6-month-old battery?


I just put them in the garage and clipped the shop charger to them.
Charging now at 14.78v. All six cells are bubbling while charging, the trailing battery in the series was doing so a bit more so than the leading one. ...not sure if that matters.

To confirm what everyone is saying (and as previously posted) my WFCO converter was charging at 13.67v yesterday. Then I saw THIS sticker on the power center



We dry camped perhaps 10-12 nights last year on weekender trips.
Four or five trips ranging 4-7 nights at family resorts & screaming kids parks with electric.

Should I worry about the 3 stage WFCO when it's less than a dozen nights without shore power per year?

I am thinking before I spend $200 on a good 4 stage converter I will just throw the shop charger into the pickup bed and charge the batteries that way.

If I do should I flip the battery disconnect on the TT so 14.7v volts dont harm my trailer?

well, that label is not from the typical WFCO charger. While it could stuff 55A into a battery at 13.6V,if it was pretty deeply discharged. A good 3 stage will have around 13.6V at the output at max charge current on a deeply discharged battery. Then the voltage slowly rises to 14.6 or so as charge current drops and lets the voltage rise. Once it hits 14.7V or so and current drops to a low value you want the voltage to drop back to 13.2-13.6 as a float charge.

The more important fact is that it is only 13.6V max as I intepret it, you won't get a full charge, it won't rise to the 14.6 or so volts.

Now, if you do have another charger to get the full 14.7 V for bulk charging that will finish the charge. In reality when dry camping I and many others don't get the batteries to full charge every day etc. Get it to 85% or so. The time to get from 85ish% to full charge is pretty long and not really worth running the generator for. That's where solar helps.

then when we return home plug into shore power with my built in PD charger to get it finished charging. A few days won't hurt it, just don't leave it partially charged on return home.

you could flip the battery disconnect, but IMHO don't need to. A good built charger will go to 14.7V