Hi, Bill here, Pink Leopard's other half. I've been working on the batteries while she posted here. I noticed for the first time while we were in Mexico boondocking this winter that the battery voltage dropped rapidly from 13.4 to about 12.7 after charging with the generator. This did not jive with my previous experience, but in hindsight, that may have been more of an observational disconnect than an actual change in performance. This led me to believe that my 2-year old batteries had lost their ability to hold a charge. We bought the batteries in Yuma, so planned to stop there after leaving Mexico and replace the batteries and get a prorated discount because they had a 5-year warranty. When I called the store where I bought them, I was told that Trojan wouldn't honor the warranty because I hadn't followed their maintenance guidelines, which were onerous to say the least--required charging to 14.8 volts twice a day, weekly testing with a hydrometer, monthly or weekly desulfating, etc. etc. etc. I was told that I could come in and for about 5 or 600 dollars they could install all the appropriate systems to maintain my batteries. Given the cost of new batteries and the amount of time I expect to keep the RV, I replaced the batteries at Costco, and low and behold the new batteries did the same thing.
Then yesterday, while lowering the leveling jacks, I noticed the battery indicator light blinking on the dash. I checked the voltmeter and saw that both the house batteries and the chassis battery were rapidly dropping, the chassis battery was dropping even below 12.7. I checked the water level in the chassis battery, which was a bit low, added about two hydrometer bulbs full to each cell, charged overnight, and checked the voltage this morning after turning off shore power. Similar result, both house and chassis batteries dropping to 12.8 but holding there. Having just had work done at the Ford dealer to fix and overheating problem, I feared they may have had something to do with what I perceived to be a battery issue, but was puzzled as to what that might be. After reading these posts (thank you all), my concerns are shifting.
It seems the voltage drop is normal. I'm wondering if the service work somehow affected the alternator's ability to charge the battery. That would explain why the light came on after having just driven 5 hours. The battery should have been fully charged--the water was down but the cells were fully covered. We don't have too much more driving to do before workcamping for the summer, but I'll be checking the batteries after driving to see if the alternator is keeping them charged. I'll also be contacting the service center today.
Thanks again for all your input.
Bill
