Charging starting battery

[TNGW1500SE]

I have a 2003 Sunova 30B and it stays plugged in over the winter. My house batteries are charged up but the starting battery is not charged off the 110 volt. I was thinking of adding a battery maintainer that gets it's power from the campers 110. There's also the option of a switch that connects the house batteries to the starting battery while parked. Ideas?

[YC_1]

Ditto on the trik-l-start. I installed one on my 05 Sightseer. Works great. Ten minutes to install.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

Also consider the Amp-L-Start

[TNGW1500SE]

harley-dave wrote:
I added a trik-l-start to our class c and it works like a charm.

Dave

Thanks everyone. That's what I was looking for.

[haydoracin]

I use a maintainer charger that plugs into the cigarette lighter socket from an ac plug inside the MH. It is a "smart" charger that does not overcharge the battery. Thought of wiring it directly to battery but I use it for other batteries as well.

[wildtoad]

Lots of options for keeping the starting battery charged. Solar panel, trickle chargers that use 110, chargers that connect house battery to starter battery that only charge if the house battery is being charged, battery tenders, or simply remove the starting battery and take it into your house. It should last quite a while there.

[harley-dave]

I added a trik-l-start to our class c and it works like a charm.

Dave

[DrewE]

There are several reasonable options. An AC powered maintainer/float charger is one reasonable one; however, do be aware that most need to be disconnected from the battery whenever they are disconnected from the AC power.

Another possible option is a solar maintainer; how possible or reasonable does very much depend on where you keep the RV, of course.

It may well be possible to activate the battery isolation relay (such as via the "emergency start" switch if you have one) to connect the batteries together. This would in my opinion be simpler and better than installing a duplicate switch to interconnect them.

One popular and effective solution is the Trik-L-Start, a gizmo that diverts a little of the house battery charge power to keep the starting battery charged. It's not too expensive, easy to install, and once installed needs no additional attention. This would be my first choice of all the options. (They also make a somewhat more powerful version called the Amp-L-Start, and a few different companies make other similar products...that usually are much more expensive while offering no great advantages that I can see.)

[WyoTraveler]

For about $25 they have a charge maintainer that can be mounted and plugged into your MH AC outlet. it is permanently connected to the start battery and maintains a charge. Amazon sells them. I use them on farm equipment.

charge maintainer