Newbie with battery question
After the first quick shakedown trip we parked the trailer, unplugged elec, etc. and left. Now it's been a couple of months. Didn't realize about the phantom draw against the battery but I do no...
Forum Discussion
Chuck_thehammer wrote:
Batteries by there nature "Self Discharge" even disconnected...
purchase a battery tender/ smart charger... or leave trailer powered up to 120 full time.
or remove battery and attach battery tender at your home.
Batteries do self discharge but not enough to worry about between trips or even for a few months as long as there is no draw on them.
Case in point. I have 2 group 27 deep cycle batteries that are at least 7 years old and one group 24 cranking battery about the same age that run my boats. I used the 2 deep cycle batteries last fall for extra AMP hours on my trailer while hunting for 2 weeks in cool weather. When done hunting I charged up all 3 batteries which then set until last week (8 months)not hooked up to anything. All 3 batteries had a voltage from 12.2 to 12.4 before being recharged and are now setting at 12.6ish after 3 days of setting idle.
Not sure why people feel the need to keep batteries hooked up and charging all the time but its not needed. A couple of my batteries have been left in the boat hooked up all winter long and have still showed 12.2 volts in the spring.
