Storing Batteries in Winter

I had two group 31's in the truck camper and never took them out. With the class C I am building an additional battery box and putting in two group 31's and they will stay in.

With the TCer I left it plugged in all year long, the motor home has a small solar charger that tops up. If you do not have solar or a plug in charge the batteries up then disconnect and they will be fine.

I leave mine connected all the time but I do have a complete disconnect BLUE SEA switch (BAT1-BOTH-BAT2-ALL OFF)

I check my batteries ever so often and they very seldom gets below 12.4-5 VDC over the winter months here in Northern Neck Virginia...

Too many parasitic low drains in my trailer setup to leave the batteries connected...

I too have a small 2amp trickle charge setup as well. Here lately I have been using a small solar panel connected. It does help keep the batteries up.

My 2008 Trailer setup has the smart mode charging system in it (Progressive PD-9260C ) for my upgraded 12V battery bank. Your 2004 Model trailer most likely still has the single mode charger in it unless someone has previously upgraded it. That would be a good thing for you to upgrade and this will almost look after your batteries for you. A single voltage charger that only puts out 13.6VDC is known to boil out your battery fluids over time. If you still have the 13.6VDC single mode charger be sure to keep a close eye on your battery fluids when being left on-charge...

Roy Ken

Previous discussions:

Clicky

Clicky

Bill

I keep mine in the coach.. turn off the battery disconnect switch , unplug the power from it.. and hook it up to a battery tender . .

Lots of people do. I certainly do (in Vermont). I do have electricity at my storage location next to my garage, so the house battery is maintained by the PD converter.

If the battery is fully charged, it won't freeze until the temperature drops down to truly arctic conditions (somewhere around 90 degrees below zero IIRC). In cold conditions, the battery self-discharge is also greatly slowed. Because of these, it's also reasonable to charge the batteries (fully), and then disconnect them and leave them for the winter. In the springtime, they'd probably have self-discharged to maybe 75% or 80% charged, though it does of course depend on the conditions and the battery.

If they're in a warmer place, it's rather more important to use a battery tender or a periodic bit of charging to keep them from self-discharging too far.

We leave our heavy T-105's in our rig disconnected all winter. But the rig is in our driveway so I can easily charge them up if I need to. I will check the voltage about once a month.

If its parked where you can plug it in, I see no reason to pull the batteries. If you cannot plug it in, then pull the batteries and put them on a trickle charger