Battery draining question
I'm pretty new to RVing. We have been inveterate tent campers, but last fall purchased a used '07 (or '05 - somewhere around there) hybrid travel trailer (Jayco JayFeather 19-H) so I'm pretty new to ...
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Well J,
I'm glad you got 6 days out of the new battery, but as you pulled it down to 8 volts, you probably never will again. Discharging any Lead/Acid battery below about 12V can start a permanent capacity loss.
You have a lot to learn about living on batteries. Idling the TV main engine is almost a lost cause. The vehicle alternator will not be at full output. L/A batteries take time to recharge and there is just no way around that. When depleted as far as you did, it will literally take a day - or more to get back to 100%. It is best to start recovery long before that.
The only hope for your situation is to have some other means to charge the house bank. At your current level, solar could do a lot, but you would still do well to either plan to run the TV for hours or get a little genset. It has been my (painful) experience that the sun has a habit of being AWOL when you most need him.
Your choice is pretty much that or give up the lights, pumps and reefer. And don't try to run anything else either.
Matt
I'm glad you got 6 days out of the new battery, but as you pulled it down to 8 volts, you probably never will again. Discharging any Lead/Acid battery below about 12V can start a permanent capacity loss.
You have a lot to learn about living on batteries. Idling the TV main engine is almost a lost cause. The vehicle alternator will not be at full output. L/A batteries take time to recharge and there is just no way around that. When depleted as far as you did, it will literally take a day - or more to get back to 100%. It is best to start recovery long before that.
The only hope for your situation is to have some other means to charge the house bank. At your current level, solar could do a lot, but you would still do well to either plan to run the TV for hours or get a little genset. It has been my (painful) experience that the sun has a habit of being AWOL when you most need him.
Your choice is pretty much that or give up the lights, pumps and reefer. And don't try to run anything else either.
Matt
