wopachop wrote:
StirCrazy wrote:
wopachop wrote:
Most people here drive to campsites and plug into 120v. So the batteries never get cycled. Never see a strong charge. Sits there on solar and ruins the flooded battery.
If that same person did not have solar their batteries would self discharge and then get recharged at a high amp rate. Which i think would improve the life of the battery. Sitting there on float all day is no bueno. From what ive read on the trojan website regarding flooded batteries.
Makes me think some of those bad costco reviews are probably from people with solar hooked up and never give the battery a proper charge.
I dont know I have solar and am pluged in with my fith wheel pretty much 90% of the time. the 14 years I got out of my four 6V GC batteries tend to disagree with you. I think what would be the real cause is people not checking the water enough or draining them down to far causing dammage. shallow discharging is the way to make them last longer.
Steve
Sounds like you have a huge battery bank and rarely used it. If plugged in 90% of the time. Ever take SG readings and compare them over the years? Thats cool your batteries lasted so long. But im not really seeing any info to prove their performance. Run the furnace all night? Power an inverter? Just because the battery holds a voltage doesnt mean its performing well. Leaving them on a constant float charge when you are standing right next to them is a mistake in my mind. Its so easy to just flip a switch and let them rest. Self discharge. Then flip the charger back on as needed. Now if you leave the RV stored somewhere for many months at a time then yeah, keep it plugged in. Dont have any other choice. Ive seen someone on this forum say they would use a cheap little wall timer to turn a charger on. Instead of leaving it plugged in 24/7. That approach might work well for some.
Im not familiar with the modern solar chargers. They might have some special features that turn a charge off and on. Dont really know. That would be fun to have custom charging parameters you design yourself. Temp compensated.
yes I run the furnace for a week, run the inverter to make coffee, microwave, let the kids watch movies. I do about one or two boondocking trips a year and draw the batteries down pretty hard then. but the rest of the time it is pluged in except when Im pulling it. the battery bank is four 235ah 6V batteries.
the solar system on the 5th wheel is pretty basice, PWM 3 stage charger, three 160 watt pannels gopower special. I am going to upgrade it probably to a good MPPT controler, three 325 watt pannels and so on. the one I just put in to my Camper is a single 325 watt pannel with a renogy 30 amp controler with bluetooth conection. you can design your own custom charge profile with that one.
the biggest thing I have found is you have to keep an eye on the water levels and have a good converter , not the **** that comes with the camper.
Steve
