Optima battery replacement or charging system

davidkerry wrote:
Hi folks, my toy hauler is a 2004 WW FS 22 with an inboard Onan generator , the generator starts right up and runs great...Tow vehicle is an 09 3500HD duramax silverado with the factory pin connections

my problem is blue top optima batteries are not holding a charge anymore ...

or not getting a charge

typical case....after a 3 hour drive from home to desert ..all the battery status lights are green but after only 30
minutes with just the cabin lights on , the green is now yellow and red is about an hour away.

ill run the generator for 30 minutes , the green lights come back on, but drops again within 30 minutes

the batteries were bought new in 2009, so 5 years old , toy hauler spends a lot of cold nights in the desert camping and a lot of hot days sitting in storage in OC.

Are the batteries just worn out/..OR ...is my charging system not working ? ...or both?
I have voltmeter , can anyone explain how to check? or is there a website?

Are the cheaper RV batteries from autozone any good? or better to replace with the $200.00 (or more) optimas?

any advice , information greatly appreciated! THANK YOU!!

couple things
- fully charge your battery's and have them load tested; this will determine if they are operational or toast
- if batt's are good you need to validate that you are fully charging them and storing them in a charged state (charge then disconnect is the easiest); here is simple voltage http://www.energymatters.com.au/components/battery-voltage-discharge/chart http://www.energymatters.com.au/components/battery-voltage-discharge/
- 30 min doesn't do anything from a charging perspective; depending upon the state of discharge and the amount of current going back in, it can take many many hours to recharge batteries. Basically you need to put back in the number of amp hours the battery has given. So 50% of a 200 amp hour battery would be 100 amp hours which is 10 amps for 10 hrs for example. So find out how discharge you are; then find the amp hrs for your battery, then determine the amps of your charger and the math will tell you the number of hours to plan for.

If you need new batteries don't waste your money on optima's in a deep cycle application; they are very little capacity for the money. Be thinking Trojan sc225's for example if you want a high end deep cycle battery.