Battery storage over the winter

rockhillmanor wrote:
Depends where you live.

For me in the cold temps of Wisconsin.

All batteries in my vehicles not running routinely and stored for the winter become Snowbirds, and come into the warm confines of the house for the winter. :C

Yepper, motorcycle batteries and 5th wheel battery come out and are put on the Battery Tender for the winter. The truck batteries (2) stay in the truck, but are on a battery tender. Worked so far.

Depends where you live.

For me in the cold temps of Wisconsin.

All batteries in my vehicles not running routinely and stored for the winter become Snowbirds, and come into the warm confines of the house for the winter. :C

Batteries (2 GC-2 left outside - disconnected) fully charged October 1st, checked April 15th, down 0.1 volts from full charge.

I too leave my batteries on the tongue of my POPUP TRAILER sitting inside the Black Plastic cases. Our winter months are not too bad with some snow but temps seem to never get below freezing for over a day. Very seldom water froze over in the creek here close by.

My setup has a master disconnect switch in the POSITIVE side of the batteries which I will turn all batteries off feeding my 12VDC Distribution Panel. There is still two three items connected to 12VDC being the ROOF RAISE motor switch, Breakaway switch, and my BATTERY MONITOR PANEL. The two switches have ON-OFF features which are OFF until activated. My Battery Monitor Panel is monitoring 12VDC direct connected to both Battery Banks and a DC CURRENT meter monitoring the OUTPUT of my Main battery switch. If the MAIN BATTERY SWITCH is selected to OFF then there is no DC CURRENT being measure from the battery banks.

If I notice the BATTERIES starting to drop lower than 12.4-5VDC I will kick in my Shore Power connection for a day or two so from my Garage 20AMP Service connection. I have left my Shore Power connections for the whole period over the winter months if it gets into real cold snap for a couple of weeks. I have a OIL FILLED HEATER that is using one of those THERMOCUBE receptacles (AMAZON) that will turn of if the temperature drops to 35 degrees then stays on until the temp raises to 45 degrees.

Been following this procedure since early 2009 with minimal issues. I do however out of habit mostly do a walk around every couple of weeks and observe the 12V meter reading on my built up BATTERY MONITOR PANEL. I will also feel the batteries for over heated and will occasionally check the fluid levels. Probably do this a couple of times over the winter months unless I see abnormal readings on BATTERY MONITOR PANEL...

Works great for me and as long as the batteries are charged they will NOT freeze.

Roy Ken

tenbear wrote:
My house battery is connected to a Battery Tender for the winter and the chassis battery has a battery charger on it.

Since you described those two things differently......how is the "battery charger" different than the Battery Tender ??

A "dumb" charger that is not made for continuous use can be worse than nothing at all.

My house battery is connected to a Battery Tender for the winter and the chassis battery has a battery charger on it. Both batteries are several years old with no problems.

I left both of my batteries in the motorhome all winter without doing anything as I normally do. The engine popped right off on the one, and the generator popped off on the house battery. Neither were started or charged all winter long. Fuel had seafoam, and the batteries where good when put to bed.

I take mine out, make sure they are filled and throw them on the battery minder, I do the same for motorcycle or any other batteries I have.

At low temperatures, FLA battery chemistry slows way down. There is a loss of capacity if left uncharged. That loss may be so insignificant to you that it's not worth the effort.

Sounds like 1 new battery could be in order