Winterizing - remove batteries or not?

Farmers, construction equipment operators, boaters with boats mooring kept & plenty of others leave batterys unattended for months at a time other than perhaps disconnecting them.

Batterys self discharge. The discharge rate will be determined by battery type, age & temperature.

The big thing is to remove the parasite draws by disconnecting at the battery post.

No problem leaving them in the trailer outdoors as long as they are completely disconnected. either with a lead disconnected, or a battery disconnect that fully disconnects everything. Most RV supplied disconnects do not disconnect various detectors, etc and that parasitic drain will kill the battery over the winter.

I bring them in the garage and hook them up to my battery mimder and let them keep charged up and let it do its desulfation thang

Same here. I pull the batteries from both 5th wheels and all batteries are set on a 2x8 on the garage floor with a bank of trickle chargers. Take care of your batteries and they will be there for you when needed.

I take mine out and store in my garage and have it on a battery tender,to keep it charged.

As stated above it will not hurt them leaving them in,just be sure to keep them charged.

Thanks Jerry.

Super_Dave wrote:
If the battery drops below 12v while disconnected is it a result of the cold or a sign of a bad battery?

If battery was disconnected, with 0 draw, and start out charge at 12.6-12.8, the cold should not take it down to 12. If at 12, about 50 percent, it could freeze at Winter temps below 0.

If dropping to 12v, or less in a short while, even when very cold, I'd suspect a weak battery.

Jerry

If memory serves me correctly it has to get to below -70 degrees to freeze a fully charged battery. The cases I have read where people have frozen battery issues are those where they left their batteries on line and parasitic draws have depleted them and they froze. Disconnect the battery and leave them in place - my 02.

Never do. I makes sure they are charged near maximum and I turn off the switch that shuts every thing down. It's a motor home. Don't know if all RVs have that feature. I start the MH and generator every few weeks for added charge. The batteries seem to last about as expected and it will get below zero here. Oh, we do usually leave for the South during mid-winter.

If the battery drops below 12v while disconnected is it a result of the cold or a sign of a bad battery?