Battery Life

I keep my trailer plugged in 24/7 to charge the batteries, and yes, the battery switch must be on.

If you have a "smart" charger in your MH, you can leave it plugged in. If not, then you'll boil off your batteries.

I have a Battery Minder on my coach battery and a trickle charger on the chassis battery when in storage. I turn the battery switch off.

Hi,

It depends on which converter is in the RV. Do you know the make and model number?

When I had a Magnatek/Parallax converter, I wouldn't dare leave the battery on. Now that I have a Progressive Dynamics, I leave it on all the time.

Just this week I installed a Battery Tender to my house batteries. They were hooked up in parallel so I disconnected the main negative cable leaving the interconnected cables as they were. The Battery Tender will keep my batteries charged and will not boil them out. I also have a small Battery Tender hooked to the chassis battery.

Depends on the converter/charger.. I have my choice of two

Progressve Dyanmics Intella-Power 9180 with charge wizard
and Xantrex prosine 2.0 (inverter/charger)

Both of these are among the very best converter/chargers, in fact You will not find better ones, though for different reasons they are 3-stage converters with one additional outstanding feature (You will find several as good)

IF I plug in and leave it for a year, with new GC-2 type batteries, I need to add distilled water (As they age I need to water them more often) That is with either of these 3 stage jobs.

Some older trailers have the Magnetek 6300 line of power center/converters.

This unit was designed back when the standard shore power was 110 or 115 volt, it uses a very poor method of voltage regulation so the modern 120 volt standard means it runs a bit "hot" (voltage wise not temp wise, a good regulator would get warmer (Temp) not higher voltage) so it can boil a set of flooded wet cells dry in just a week or two once they are fully charged, and this with only a few amps of current.

So the answer to your question: It depends on your converter

I gave you the best, and the worst, you need to find where yours is on the chart (less I named it) If you have an old 6300... Consider upgrading, pull it gut it (remove the electronics) and drop in a Progressive Intella-power 4600.. that is one of the many mentioned in the first converter description. (Functionally identical to what I have, likely a different last 2 digits).

Thank you all so much for your input. I have a 2015 Feetwood Bounder but don't know what type of converter it has - I'll check and proceed according to your recommendations.

How long will it be left unattended in storage? Good batterys do not go dead in a month, even six months. Disconnected a fully charged battery bank in good condition will last many months with little discharge. Farm equipment, construction equipment, cars in storage lots, boats on moorings, all kinds of things are left for months at a time without access to power for battery minders & such with no ill effect on their batterys.

After checking the RV, I found the "Inverter/Charger" (Magnum Energy, model MS 2000).

I could not find a separate "Converter". Does that mean that my "Inverter/Charger" functions also as a Converter?

And, to answer the last question, I don't expect the motorhome to be in storage more than 6 weeks at a time, or so.

Thanks for the help!