Arctic Fox 860 Boiled the batteries?
I typically leave the camper plugged in 24/7 when stored. Camper was plugged in, fridge working. I'm selling it and someone went to look at it last night. Opened the door to strong sulfur/ battery f...
Forum Discussion
You really should make sure your older ARTIC FOX gets equipped with a good smart mode converter/charger unit. These smart mode converters if you don't have one will almost take care of your batteries for you...
The older converter/chargers only put out 13.6VDC and over time this alone will cause your batteries to boil out small amounts of fluids. If you are not in the habit of checking for this then once the fluid levels gets below the cores then possible battery cell short occurs demanding all the power your converter can muster eventually doing alot of battery damage requiring replacement.
When a battery gets real hot it is even prone to exploding which you don't want to have especially if the battery setup is inside your trailer...
I installed four each 12VDC Interstate batteries on my off-road POPUP when I first got it in 2008 and lost one battery due right away due to boiling out the fluids. I installed a good quality PD9260C converter/charger unit replacing my single voltage older converter and still check my batteries every couple of weeks looking for low fluids which doesn't happen anymore but I still check it... The original 2008/2009 Interstate 12VDC batteries are just now starting to drop off on performance.
I have done alot of camping off the power grid since 2009 with my 255AH capacity Interstate Battery Bank.
The other thing that has really helped me over these few years is NEVER let my batteries get discharged below 12.0VDC which is close to being 50% discharge state before re-charging back up to their 90% charge state..
Roy Ken
The older converter/chargers only put out 13.6VDC and over time this alone will cause your batteries to boil out small amounts of fluids. If you are not in the habit of checking for this then once the fluid levels gets below the cores then possible battery cell short occurs demanding all the power your converter can muster eventually doing alot of battery damage requiring replacement.
When a battery gets real hot it is even prone to exploding which you don't want to have especially if the battery setup is inside your trailer...
I installed four each 12VDC Interstate batteries on my off-road POPUP when I first got it in 2008 and lost one battery due right away due to boiling out the fluids. I installed a good quality PD9260C converter/charger unit replacing my single voltage older converter and still check my batteries every couple of weeks looking for low fluids which doesn't happen anymore but I still check it... The original 2008/2009 Interstate 12VDC batteries are just now starting to drop off on performance.
I have done alot of camping off the power grid since 2009 with my 255AH capacity Interstate Battery Bank.
The other thing that has really helped me over these few years is NEVER let my batteries get discharged below 12.0VDC which is close to being 50% discharge state before re-charging back up to their 90% charge state..
Roy Ken
