coach batteries went dead

[MT_Pokets]

I had to put my RV in storage in June. Today I went to check on it and the engine battery is fine, but the coach batteries are dead. If I hook up to shore power will the batteries maybe recharge or are they ruined? They're only 2 years old.

[Bordercollie]

A battery sitting disconnected from any loads will slowly self-discharge. The age and maintenance history of the battery may greatly affect how long it will take to self discharge. Allowing batteries to go dead or allowing electrolyte levels to fall below the plates can shorten the useful life and reduce the capacity of a battery

[maillemaker]

I installed cut-off switches on my house and engine batteries, because parasitic loads would drain the batteries. For example, my house battery has a CO/Propane detector hard-wired to it. I don't know what was killing my engine battery but it would slowly drain also. Kill switches solved the problem. We typically use our RV at least every 2 months so it doesn't sit longer than that.

[klutchdust]

lanerd wrote:

klutchdust wrote:

lanerd wrote:
No shore power and you didn't disconnect the batteries... shame. If you parked in it June, those batteries would have been drawn down to almost nothing within one to two weeks. Go down to Costco or Same Club and buy new 6v golf cart batteries.


Ron

Why. If his batteries set from June to September without being charged and a constant load being applied, you can almost assuredly consider them shotI would recharge slowly and once fully charged check with hydrometer. Completely discharged batteries are not necessarily ruined. AlsoI prefer Trojan deep cycle batteries. The big clubs batteries are no better than anyone else's, after all there are few battery manufacturers left. Then again the big club's batteries are no "worse" than anyone else and usually costs much less.
The cheaper they are are the cheaper they are. Low cost batteries have less lead plates and less capacity . Hence less cost to the consumer.Not necessarily. Do you have some factual info to uphold your statement?

Okay here we go, I asked "why" referring to the comment that the poster needed to go buy new batteries. WHY does he need to go buy new batteries? Then I said what I would do.

Pricing batteries ,my factual information comes from my experience purchasing hundreds of batteries and having relationships with Interstate batteries, Exide batteries and Johnson controls. Need written facts, google it.

[lanerd]

klutchdust wrote:

lanerd wrote:
No shore power and you didn't disconnect the batteries... shame. If you parked in it June, those batteries would have been drawn down to almost nothing within one to two weeks. Go down to Costco or Same Club and buy new 6v golf cart batteries.


Ron

Why. If his batteries set from June to September without being charged and a constant load being applied, you can almost assuredly consider them shotI would recharge slowly and once fully charged check with hydrometer. Completely discharged batteries are not necessarily ruined. AlsoI prefer Trojan deep cycle batteries. The big clubs batteries are no better than anyone else's, after all there are few battery manufacturers left. Then again the big club's batteries are no "worse" than anyone else and usually costs much less.
The cheaper they are are the cheaper they are. Low cost batteries have less lead plates and less capacity . Hence less cost to the consumer.Not necessarily. Do you have some factual info to uphold your statement?

[klutchdust]

lanerd wrote:
No shore power and you didn't disconnect the batteries... shame. If you parked in it June, those batteries would have been drawn down to almost nothing within one to two weeks. Go down to Costco or Same Club and buy new 6v golf cart batteries.


Ron

Why. I would recharge slowly and once fully charged check with hydrometer. Completely discharged batteries are not necessarily ruined. AlsoI prefer Trojan deep cycle batteries. The big clubs batteries are no better than anyone else's, after all there are few battery manufacturers left. The cheaper they are are the cheaper they are. Low cost batteries have less lead plates and less capacity . Hence less cost to the consumer.

[Desert_Captain]

All batteries will "draw down" and 12 volts are no worse than 6 volts in this regard {switching from 12 volts to 6 volts will not change a thing for the OP}. If the rig is going to sit for any length of time {and a few weeks should have little or no effect}, either provide some sort of battery maintenance like a small solar panel with a smart regulator or if AC power is available a trickle charge/maintainer.

The key here is to either eliminate all parasitic draws or simply disconnect the batteries. A decent {disconnected}, battery will still "draw down" to some degree while in a storage mode but not enough to do any significant harm unless it is ignored for many months.

:C

[lanerd]

No shore power and you didn't disconnect the batteries... shame. If you parked in it June, those batteries would have been drawn down to almost nothing within one to two weeks. Go down to Costco or Same Club and buy new 6v golf cart batteries.


Ron

[sch911]

For the future you should consider disconnecting the house batteries when the rig is stored.

[Lwiddis]

"I had to put my RV in storage in June."

That's a long sit for batteries without some type of float charge. Solar is how I do it. Heat is another concern.

[Harvey51]

Also, it pays to keep an eye on how charging is working. While charging from the engine or shore power, the voltage at the batteries must go well over 14 to charge effectively, diminishing to around 13.5 to maintain the charge. The % of full charge can be estimated from a voltmeter reading several hours after all charging has ceased - 12.6 indicates 100%, 12.0 50% (as low as you can go without some damage). A battery monitor that shows the % charge accurately at all times can be had for as little as $25 if you have the skill to install it. I have this one from eBay.

[Trackrig]

Charge them and try them before buying new ones.

Next time when you store it, disconnect the negative battery terminal.

Bill

[Desert_Captain]

Put a hydrometer on them and see how they read. Hopefully you will see nearly the same reading from each cell in battery. Even if they all read low the battery may still have some life left. Top it up with distilled water and give it a smart, 3 stage charge and hope for the best.

If however one cell reads significantly lower than the others that cell is bad and the battery is toast. It will take a charge but as soon as a load is place upon it, it will fail. It sounds like you some sort of parasitic load on your house bank that is slowly draining them and until you find it and shut it down the problem will continue. If all else fails and you are able to recover the batteries try disconnecting them when not in use.

I just finished topping up my two group 27 house batteries and they were fairly thirsty. They haven't had excessive use this summer but southern Arizona has experienced its hottest summer in recent history, lost count of all the record highs we have had since the middle of May {at one pointing in June we broke the record high temp 17 days in a row}.

They both read just fine on the hydrometer and are only 2 years old so I should have a couple more years, {perhaps more} on them.