Battery or Converter Issues? Or Neither?
We have four, Crown brand 220aH batteries in our fifth-wheel. We bought the batteries in the summer of 2007 when we bought the fifth wheel. The fiver is now in front of our house and has been connected to our home's power outlet.
When I pulled the fiver out of storage on Saturday, the batteries were almost dead and would not drive the landing gear to allow me hook up until I ran some generator time to restore things. I have a solar panel maintainer hooked up while in storage, but the cable which was exposed to the elements had broken from age so the batteries were sitting for a month with no solar input.
I connected the power to the fiver on Saturday at lunch. The initial multi-meter reading from the converter was about 12.91 (WFCO 8955, original to the fiver). When I checked last night, the multi-meter was showing 13.45 and the batteries were warm and with lots of bubbling sound. I disconnected the power cord from the house and let a fantastic fan run all night.
The multi-meter reading this morning was 12.30. I reconnected the house power, and again got the reading for 12.91.
Do all of these reading sound like my converter is operating normally?
Are my batteries likely dead or on their last legs? A reading of 12.30 seems pretty low after charging for over two days and with only minimal draw from a fantastic fan.
We have a guy in town here (Phoenix area) who will deliver to me Trojan T-105s for $95 each. Are those still a good battery or is another brand producing better value?
I am thinking of just biting the bullet and getting a new set of batteries but I want to make sure the converter appears to be operating normally first. I had the existing batteries load tested at a battery store after our summer RV trip last year and the guy said the batteries looked good. As far as I can recall, this past month with the solar panel problem is the first time that the existing batteries have been allowed to go completely dead. I hate to pitch batteries that may still have life, but maybe seven years is good enough service and I should not push my luck.
When I pulled the fiver out of storage on Saturday, the batteries were almost dead and would not drive the landing gear to allow me hook up until I ran some generator time to restore things. I have a solar panel maintainer hooked up while in storage, but the cable which was exposed to the elements had broken from age so the batteries were sitting for a month with no solar input.
I connected the power to the fiver on Saturday at lunch. The initial multi-meter reading from the converter was about 12.91 (WFCO 8955, original to the fiver). When I checked last night, the multi-meter was showing 13.45 and the batteries were warm and with lots of bubbling sound. I disconnected the power cord from the house and let a fantastic fan run all night.
The multi-meter reading this morning was 12.30. I reconnected the house power, and again got the reading for 12.91.
Do all of these reading sound like my converter is operating normally?
Are my batteries likely dead or on their last legs? A reading of 12.30 seems pretty low after charging for over two days and with only minimal draw from a fantastic fan.
We have a guy in town here (Phoenix area) who will deliver to me Trojan T-105s for $95 each. Are those still a good battery or is another brand producing better value?
I am thinking of just biting the bullet and getting a new set of batteries but I want to make sure the converter appears to be operating normally first. I had the existing batteries load tested at a battery store after our summer RV trip last year and the guy said the batteries looked good. As far as I can recall, this past month with the solar panel problem is the first time that the existing batteries have been allowed to go completely dead. I hate to pitch batteries that may still have life, but maybe seven years is good enough service and I should not push my luck.
