Charging chassis battery in Winnebago view 2012

A trickle charger will take at least a week to fully charge a dead battery.

My Black & Decker smart charger goes up over 16 volts when it senses a battery below 12 volts. I don't know if that is potentially harmful to engine electronics but I do disconnect a battery cable when seriously charging so I don't have to worry about killing a $1000 vehicle computer. It only takes a minute to disconnect and another to set the clock after charging.

How can you tell it is fully charged? A few hours after charging has ceased the battery voltage will be 12.6 or higher.

The idea that the starting battery must be disconnected before jump starting or recharging it is new to me. There should be a warning label near the battery if jump starting or recharging with battery connected, can cause damage or other problems.

A Trik-L-Start is a good way to keep starting battery charged when rig is connected to shore power. Using a "Battery Minder" smart trickle charger or normal battery charger shouldn't normally cause problems.

Our 2014 View on a 2013 Chassis went dead once, after leaving it at our DD after Thanksgiving. Went back at Christmas and it was dead, used the booster switch to start and move it. Next day hooked it up to a battery charger (using the jump start connection) for the night before leaving to take it home.

Driving home the check engine light came on, luckily the Mercedes dealer in Salem got it in and reset everything, many codes about low voltage. All has been well since, but this spring I added 200 watts of solar and a trik-l-start.

Dittos on the battery disconnect. I have a 'Battery Minder' that I use to maintain all my batteries. The thing that differentiates the Battery Minder from a typical trickle charger is the De-sulfation maintenance mode. It is not unique, but I would recommend any charger that has this feature. I have been able to bring batteries back from near death. I use it on my car batteries, boat batteries and on the RV. Getting to the Sprinter battery is a chore, so just connected the Battery Minder to the positive post and ground under the hood. No adverse effects to the Sprinter electronics. When I sold my 2009 Sprinter, it had a ten year old factory battery in perfect condition; tested every year. My 2018 Navion has some sort of problem that causes the chassis battery to go dead in a week to 10 days. I have a plan for this. The battery minder has a quick connect feature, so I will install a permanent connection from the battery posts to a convenient location. Disconnecting the battery ground under the dash will isolate the battery and allow the Battery Minder to do it's thing without any current draw.

On the Sprinter, you cannot leave the chassis battery hooked up for long periods of time, it will go dead. There is a huge amount of parasitic loads on a Sprinter. Most Sprinter owners use the MB provided disconnect under the dash to save the battery.

When you park it in storage or for more than a few days, allow about 10 to 15 minutes for all of the computers to reset and settle down, and then use the ground cable disconnect under the dash near the accelerator to disconnect the battery. The disconnect/reconnect procedure is described in your MB owners manual. That is what it is there for.

The disconnect is a quick disconnect that requires no tools and is relatively easy to do.

Charles

pianotuna wrote:
I use a Trik-l-Start

X-2

Dusty

I use a Trik-l-Start

I've used the Stanley FatMax BC8S smart charger/maintainer to keep the chassis battery charged while plugged in. Doesn't need any installation, or special wiring, so it can be easily moved from vehicle to vehicle, if desired.
To use it, plug your motorhome into shore power to "light up" the coach's AC wall outlets. Then plug the BC8S 110-120AC plug into one of them near an "always hot" 12V DC outlet, and plug the 12V DC cigar lighter adapter into the 12V DC "always hot" outlet, push the mode selector buttons for your particular requirements, and you're done. It has colored charging status lights to tell you what's happening. I have my RV/vehicles parked so that I can see the lights from the kitchen window, when we're not out on the road.
Here's where they can be purchased...
https://www.amazon.com/STANLEY-BC8S-Battery-Charger-Maintainer/dp/B00PZ0PMSA
I think Walmart also sells them for around $40.

My manual says do not charge the chassis battery, also can't connect to anything, sealed gel battery. Thank you for the advice on the Trk l charger

Dead chassis batteries are common in many RV's - that's because some mfg attach alarms, electronics to the chassis batteries and because newer cars have more electronics which consume power even when the rigs not operating. Many get around that problem buy purchasing an inexpensive device called Trik L Charge which allows the chassis battery to charge while your rigs plugged into shore power.

Performing a normal battery charge should not require you to disconnect anything on any rig. I disconnect my rig from shore power anytime I am working on batteries.