Maintaining coach battery while in storage with no hookup?

coleman among other labels make a solar panel that sits on the dash and plugs into the cigerette light socket. My daughter has one and it keeps the mh battery charged. It worked so good that my son in law wired in a plug for the coach battery. Only drawback, they cant's use the windshield cover to prevent sun damage to the dash. They covered that with a large towel. I think they make like a 15 watt, a 25 and 40 watt. Thats all you need to keep battery charged.

precioustime wrote:
I have a Class C motorhome in storage but have no access to electricity when not in use. Are there any battery chargers available to charge my 12 V coach battery that run on solar power or other small C or D batteries? We get a lot of sun in Miami so that is not a problem. If it is solar powered can I set it on my dash to get sun? We use the rv every 1-2 months for at least a short 5 day trip but find my battery dead when picking it up in storage. Any good brand you could recommend? Auto stores?

If all you want is something to keep your battery charged while stored and not something for dry camping as others have mentioned, then yes, there are small solar panels that can be set on the dash. I have a 5 watt panel I bought on Ebay that I plug into my truck's dash outlet and set on the dash. The truck may not get used for a month or so but the 2 batteries stay charged even in our winter months here. I tried a 1.5 watt unit but it wasn't big enough. I suggest at least a 5 watt panel and have seen slightly larger units on line. If you go too large you will need a controller which complicates the system. I have been doing this for 5 years without any problem.

You can go to a auto parts store and ask for a battery disconnect. Basically you take off the negative battery terminal, install this device (about $9) and it has a thumb screw on the top. Install the battery terminal to the other side of this device. Loosen the thumb screw to disconnect the battery 100% and it will not discharge more than about 10% over 3 months.

Or install a solar panel on the roof. A 100 watt solar panel will also help lower the need to run the generator while dry camping, but will only produce about 30 amp hours per day. It will surely keep the coach battery full while in storage, unless the CO and propane detectors are on, then it will barely keep up with those loads (on 24/7 and draw about 0.8 amps per hour, or nearly 20 amp hours per day).

2 of the 100 watt panels will keep ahead of 'simple' camping power required to keep the battery full without using the generator much.

SunElec.com They sell panels for close to $1 per rated watt. Add to this a PWM controller, some wire (UV rated direct burial #10 wire from home Depot) mounts (2" angle aluminum from Home Depot cut into 6" long). Rubber roof sealant, and run the wire down the back of the refrigerator in that space to the controller).

It is fairly easy to install a solar panel on the roof. Usually people do not bother them while it is in storage. . .

Fred.

Get a ~100 watt panel mounted on the roof and a small controller to charge the house battery.
Get a Trik-L-Start combiner to charge the chassis battery if needed.

https://www.solarblvd.com/product_info.php?cPath=1_272&products_id=2747

http://www.bestconverter.com/Ultra-Trik-L-Start-LSL-Products_c_124.html

Forget that dashboard toy.

Moved from Forum Technical Support

Hi,

Add a modest solar system.

How many amp-hours is the battery bank?

http://sunelec.com/ is in Miami so there is a source for inexpensive panels.

Disconnect one cable when storing. That should stop it.

What do you do when you get there and the battery is dead?

Why not just install an RV solar system on the roof of the MH?