Just picked up our new 5th wheel. Was wondering what to do with the battery for the winter? Should I remove the battery from the coach and keep inside till spring? Thanks for your responce

If you can't keep it charged (maintained) in the RV then yes, I would bring it in and put a maintainer on it.

There are a few reasonable options; take your pick.1. If it's not in terrible shape, you can charge the battery fully and physically disconnect it and it will be okay in the trailer for the winter (assuming outside storage). Self-discharge is much lower in cold conditions than in hot/warm conditions.2. If you have power available at your storage location, you can use the built-in converter to keep it charged by plugging the trailer in. Alternately, you could hook up a separate maintainer and use that instead of the converter; depending on the specific converter model and the maintainer, it may be gentler on the battery and less likely to lose too much electrolyte.3. You can take the battery out and keep it hooked up at home. It does not need to be inside a heated area, and you probably don't want it in the living space of your house due to the acid fumes etc.A fully charged lead acid battery will not freeze unless the temperature gets far, far below zero; basically, if you aren't in an actual arctic area, you don't need to be concerned with that. A discharged battery will freeze much more readily.

If you can keep keep it charged, leave it in the RV.

joesann wrote:Just picked up our new 5th wheel. Was wondering what to do with the battery for the winter? Should I remove the battery from the coach and keep inside till spring? Thanks for your responceIf the unit is shore powered leave it in place, the converter will maintain it and a charged battery won't freeze in any Michigan winter.If you are really worried about it, take it out and bring it down to my place and I'll keep it in the warm shop for you, I'm just a bit south of you...The 5er was winterized prior to delivery I presume? You get it at General RV per chance?

Many in cold country leave it in the rig. The trick is to make sure it is disconnected. The battery will freeze if it is ran down, even though you may think you turned off everything there are things that will draw power (i.e. propane detector, Carbon Monoxide detector, etc...) So before storage what is best to do is disconnect the batter and then put it on a charger to make sure it has a full charge. What you should have done (maybe you did) a month or two before was check the water level and then add distilled if it needed it. It takes a few charges to fully mix the distilled into the battery acid. So lets say you just added it now that water will float on the top and could possible freeze and crack the case, while the charged acid below would be good to something like -90f. Other thing is if you do bring it in make sure you don't set it on concrete. This will actually discharge the battery. Place something that's non-conductive (ie wood, foam, etc...) under it.

Battery in Michigan winter ? | Good Sam Community

2oldman
Explorer II
Nov 13, 2017
It's worse for the concrete floor than the battery when acid spills on it. But somehow this old advice just never dies, like cats smothering babies.
wa8yxm
Explorer III
Nov 13, 2017
3 answwes.

1 a FULLY CHARGED battery is good all winter in MI.. However if the battery is just sitting there. even disconnected physically, it will loose charge (Self discharge) over time.. So you need to keep a tender on it.

2: If your RV has a good quality 3-stage converter.. Plugging in will "tend" the battery

3: If you disconnect and bring into the house/garage (where you have power for the tender) BEFORE you unhook take two small cans of spray paint, One red, one black, Spray the wires hooked to the POSITIVE terminal RED.. Black on the negative

If more than one wire is hooked to either Red or Black, tape or tie them together (String or zip tie) one for red one for black.

Insulate the RED wires (Wrap with plastic wrap or tape)
owenssailor
Explorer
Nov 13, 2017
I keep my trailer batteries safe over the winter by taking them South in the trailer.

My boat batteries get to stay home here in Ontario where it gets very cold. For the last 30+ years I have charged them in Nov, disconnected them and checked them in Apr. No problems.

I know one guy who had a trickle charger on his boat batteries. The power cord got disconnected and the charger became a load that ran his batteries down. Two of them split spilling the electrolyte into the bilge. Bad.

Also - the concrete myth is a left over from batteries from the 1940's 1950' or earlier. It does not apply anymore.
babock
Explorer
Nov 13, 2017
John&Joey wrote:
I don't doubt you, but at $70 to $90 a piece I'll stick with best practices. Was nice you were going to store his battery on your concrete floor for him though
Its actually not a best practice anymore. Probably actually better to have it on a cold concrete floor. It will discharge less since it is cooler.
free_radical
Explorer
Nov 13, 2017
joesann wrote:
Just picked up our new 5th wheel. Was wondering what to do with the battery for the winter? Should I remove the battery from the coach and keep inside till spring? Thanks for your responce

I leave my battery in the TC,,have 80W solar panel that keeps it charged up all winter..just have to clean snow off it..no problems yet
SidecarFlip
Explorer III
Nov 13, 2017
John&Joey wrote:
SidecarFlip wrote:
Not that I find it true or false but the old wives tale about setting a battery on concrete went out with hard rubber battery cases. The new plastic cased batteries don't seem to mind at all.

Mine ate all on concrete and I've never had an issue.

I don't doubt you, but at $70 to $90 a piece I'll stick with best practices. Was nice you were going to store his battery on your concrete floor for him though

Actually, I it would have been on a heated concrete floor (my shop has PEX in floor heat) and on a tender. I keep them all on Tenders actually. Bike batteries, welder batteries, truck batteries and lawnmower batteries...
MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Nov 13, 2017

Charged until full then utterly disconnected, batteries do the hibernation snore very well. Cold temps mean minimum self discharge and minimum activity of the battery acid gnawing on the plates. At -20F plate erosion is about a third that at 50F

The only thing to watch for is a smart charger out-stipiding itself and declaring the battery charged at 70% state of charge.

Definition of "Disconnected" either battery terminal with zero wires connected to it.
Lwiddis
Explorer II
Nov 13, 2017
“Trust me taking them out and bringing them inside your house is the way to go”

Why, Rock, if you can keep them charged? 85 percent charged freezes at minus 67 degrees F. See http://www.trojanbattery.com/pdf/WP_DeepCycleBatteryStorage_0512.pdf TRUST ME!
John_Joey
Explorer
Nov 13, 2017
SidecarFlip wrote:
Not that I find it true or false but the old wives tale about setting a battery on concrete went out with hard rubber battery cases. The new plastic cased batteries don't seem to mind at all.

Mine ate all on concrete and I've never had an issue.

I don't doubt you, but at $70 to $90 a piece I'll stick with best practices. Was nice you were going to store his battery on your concrete floor for him though
SidecarFlip
Explorer III
Nov 13, 2017
Not that I find it true or false but the old wives tale about setting a battery on concrete went out with hard rubber battery cases. The new plastic cased batteries don't seem to mind at all.

Mine ate all on concrete and I've never had an issue.