What is Eating Those Batteries?
I went to Quartzite yesterday to visit an old friend who is dry-camping on BLM land and has been having some electrical problems with his travel trailer, a 2001 KZ model. The problem is that even wit...
Forum Discussion
I think he has a charge controller issue in his motor home. It is not putting out a high enough voltage, maybe stuck in maintenance mode at 13.6 V. Have your buddy measure the voltage at the battery posts while on the shore power charger. At start up and after 5 or 6 hours of charging. The voltage should rise considerably.
You should be able to get that battery up to 1.270 -1.275 or higher for specific gravity when fully charged. Also sounds like he does not have enough solar panel and charge controller with adjustable voltage settings to get the job done properly, he probably needs another 120-200 watts on top of his 100 watt panel. General rule of thumb is 1 watt per amp of battery capacity, and you would need more with the long nights in the winter, and short daylight hours for charging and low angle of sun to get things fully topped off. 300 watts of solar panel for 2 x 110 amps for battery should help get things up there when it's winter time and the nights are a lot longer. Portable, and he should be aiming them at the sun 2 to 3x a day to maximize amps yielded for recharging.
You should be able to get that battery up to 1.270 -1.275 or higher for specific gravity when fully charged. Also sounds like he does not have enough solar panel and charge controller with adjustable voltage settings to get the job done properly, he probably needs another 120-200 watts on top of his 100 watt panel. General rule of thumb is 1 watt per amp of battery capacity, and you would need more with the long nights in the winter, and short daylight hours for charging and low angle of sun to get things fully topped off. 300 watts of solar panel for 2 x 110 amps for battery should help get things up there when it's winter time and the nights are a lot longer. Portable, and he should be aiming them at the sun 2 to 3x a day to maximize amps yielded for recharging.
