Chassis battery

The "what is best" depends on what you have available where you store it:

1. Shore power-- even 15 amp
2. Solar and not stored under cover

If answer to both is NO, then disconnect is a good answer. And it is not good to just start and idle and engine-- just adds moisture to the crankcase. While you can get the COOLANT up to temperature at idle, you can not get the OIL up to temperature. So, finding an alternative plan is a good idea. Best if you start it to drive 25 highway miles.

Gjac wrote:
I would not use the engine's alternator every 2 weeks to recharge the batteries. Just charge to full and disconnect the neg cable and your batteries will be fine for 3 months assuming your batteries are good to start with.

Yes, this is what I do. I unhook a battery cable between trips in the summer, too. The various parasytic loads can drain a battery down to 50% in two weeks.

Being a little further north, we don't camp in November through April. It gets dark too early and daylight too late, not to mention cold. So I put a charger on the battery overnight once or twice over the winter.

I would not use the engine's alternator every 2 weeks to recharge the batteries. Just charge to full and disconnect the neg cable and your batteries will be fine for 3 months assuming your batteries are good to start with.

I use a battery tender on mine. My chassis battery is the original that Ford installed in '03 and it's still a happy battery.

navegator wrote:
No side effects, also install battery minder to maintain the charge up, provided that you have electric power near.

navegator

I keep a Battery Minder hooked up to chassis battery and also my house batteried when coach is in storage.

Disconnecting house or chassis batteries would be fine-provided you insured a good full charge before disconnecting. The last 10-20 amp hours of battery charge trickles in at a slow rate-generally longer than a run engine every few weeks regimen.

Because of the last sentence above, I think best would be a battery maintainer (if power) or a basic solar system without power-both setup to maintain house and starting batteries. Both are reasonably priced alternatives to new batteries every few years.

i really try not to disconnect chassis batt. computer loses memory and engine runs horribly for a few minutes when you next start

just leave the batt tender on

No side effects, also install battery minder to maintain the charge up, provided that you have electric power near.

navegator