Battery questions (Cold Climate)
Hello everyone, the cold weather is settling in and now I must winterize. I live in the North East so it gets cold here. Will my batteries be okay if I left them in the trailer with the trailer plug...
Forum Discussion
I'm up near the start of the Alaska Highway where we have some days at 40 below zero. I have been taking my house batteries indoors for the winter, leaving the chassis batteries in two vehicles we don't use in winter. This year I will leave the house ones in place, too. With the disconnect switch stopping all current draws, they should be no trouble at all. If I don't unhook one cable on the chassis battery, I do need to put a charger on it for a couple of hours every month or so. Batteries handle -40 with no problem when fully charged.
I would not leave the batteries charging all winter. I would check with a voltmeter and only charge them when the voltage fell below 12.6. Actually a trickle charger (quarter of an amp) could be left on full time but I would still check monthly to make sure the voltage is good. I left my 1 amp solar trickle charger on a van battery one winter - we get sunshine very low in the sky for relatively few hours in winter so it probably averaged about 0.1 amp, nicely taking care of computer and clock current.
I lost an engine battery at the airport one time. One of us left a dome light on in the scramble to catch a plane. When we came back 2 weeks later, the battery was totally dead, temperature -40. After a boost start, I drove to a store with batteries. Shut the engine off and there wasn't enough power to operate a dome light. Had to install the new battery myself, outside in the cold.
I would not leave the batteries charging all winter. I would check with a voltmeter and only charge them when the voltage fell below 12.6. Actually a trickle charger (quarter of an amp) could be left on full time but I would still check monthly to make sure the voltage is good. I left my 1 amp solar trickle charger on a van battery one winter - we get sunshine very low in the sky for relatively few hours in winter so it probably averaged about 0.1 amp, nicely taking care of computer and clock current.
I lost an engine battery at the airport one time. One of us left a dome light on in the scramble to catch a plane. When we came back 2 weeks later, the battery was totally dead, temperature -40. After a boost start, I drove to a store with batteries. Shut the engine off and there wasn't enough power to operate a dome light. Had to install the new battery myself, outside in the cold.
