Forum Discussion

RUFFSTUFF's avatar
RUFFSTUFF
Explorer
Aug 18, 2015

Storage with Electric

We have a storage location that is on concrete, is covered and has a 120v/20A electrical connection. Is there any harm with leaving the trailer connected to the AC source with the battery connected or should I disconnect the battery? When connected and powered, the battery is at 13.8v. Obviously if the battery is disconnected it will not charge... From experience, my battery will die in about 2-3 weeks without a power source and disconnected.
We usually go camping about once a month, sometimes 2 months. I also try to run the generator about 15 min weekly at which time I run out the slides and then back in. The Cyclone 4200 next to me has a residential refrigerator (lucky!) so he leaves his connected full time for that.
I did think about hooking up a Battery Tender with it disconnected but haven't gotten that far yet.


Thanks!
  • You can leave the RV plugged in all the time, it will not hurt it at all. However you will need to check the water level in the battery every 3 months or so, and more in the warmer months.

    Fred.
  • If your battery dies in 2-3 weeks you need to find the battery disconnect, that will protect the battery while in storage. There are a number of things in the trailer (propane/CO detector for example) that draw power all the time unless the disconnect is pulled.

    I don't keep mine plugged in all the time because it seems to put more load on the converter, the fan runs frequently. I plug it in about 5 days before I am going to use it to make sure the batteries are charged and to bring the fridge online for packing. I also charge the batteries every couple of months if it's sitting for that long using a good quality charger.

    I would recommend looking into a "battery maintenance" style charger for your converter. I was able to add one to my converter for about $25. It allows for float charge as well as a discharge cycle (discharge for 1 day, then charge). This allows me to keep the trailer plugged in without overworking the battery, it has also cut down on the amount of water loss in the batteries. The larger Battery Tenders will work as well.

    If you are leaving the trailer "powered up" on 12v make sure that any maintenance charger has enough power to keep everything going. Some of the small ones are only 1-1.5 amp which may not be enough to keep all the 12v devices running.