Winter Storage Question

[Ran]

Folks,

We have an '08 Damon Tuscany 4072 DP. For the past several years, we owned a property where we've had the luxury of inside storage wherein we were able to keep the unit plugged into 110V for battery maintenance during extended periods of non use. We've since moved south (from northern WI)to a home in the Charlotte, NC area where not only is there no space to park the MH, but we are also stuck (at least for now) with a nearby secure outside storage...but without power.

I'm not worried about the MH sitting without being plugged in during the 7 to 9 months of the year that we use it regularly. But I 'am' concerned about the winter months when it will sit idle for 3 to 4 months. Obviously, I'll put the batteries in 'storage mode' (the unit has a switch by the entry door to take residual loads off the batteries during storage), but I'm wondering what advice you guys might have to keep the batteries up during those winter months. Do I remove the chassis batteries and keep them on a maintainer? Do I remove all the batteries? (Yikes!). Do I invest in a solar charging system capable of 'float charging?' Or do I just make sure the batteries have a full charge before storage and hope for the best??

Winter temps in the Charlotte area aren't very 'winter like' compared to northern WI, so I'm not nearly as concerned as I was when we lived up there. But I still need to find a good solution to keep our batteries maintained during storage.

Thanks in advance for your help..

Randy

[Vulcan_Rider]

harold1946 wrote:
There is not a single battery manufacturer that says it is ok to store a wet cell battery for four months without a means of maintaining full charge.

That is a statement that would be hard to dis-prove.....even if someone wanted to take the time to try.

The ONLY significant factor if not connected is the self-discharge rate. That varies by battery make and model; sometimes a LOT.

One should not BLINDLY leave wet cell batteries sitting unattended without checking on them but most will survive just fine if initially fully charged and healthy. This is especially true if the temperature is low.

For "good" wet cell batteries, any degradation over 4 months should be minimal AND likely would even be less than cycling them up and down a dozen times over that same time period.

And finally, if you have healthy AGM batteries, charge them up and then leave them alone. They will do just fine over 4 months with no special attention.

[harold1946]

There is not a single battery manufacturer that says it is ok to store a wet cell battery for four months without a means of maintaining full charge. At the very least there will be sulfating and reduced service life. AGMs are susceptible to sulfating also if left in storage at less than full charge.
I recommend some time reading battery university. It takes some effort on the part of the end user to maintain batteries in a healthy state.

[Ran]

Pass42 wrote:
We winter our MH in Myrtle Beach, SC... in secure outside storage... We drive in, switch off the house batteries, physically disconnect the chassis batteries, drain the water, cover her up, and everything is fine in the spring.....

I can do that! I like that plan. It was going to be another one of my questions as to whether I need to 'fully' winterize here in the Charlotte area. In northern WI, we OF COURSE fully winterize (i.e., drain water, blow out lines, RV antifreeze in P-traps and supply lines, etc.). But I was thinking exactly what you wrote above.

[Pass42]

We winter our MH in Myrtle Beach, SC... in secure outside storage... We drive in, switch off the house batteries, physically disconnect the chassis batteries, drain the water, cover her up, and everything is fine in the spring.....

[Vulcan_Rider]

Ran wrote:
I don't at all mind taking the chassis batteries out for the winter. .

That should also be true of the "chassis batteries".....if you fully charge then and disconnect them in place.

They might be down a bit after 4 months but not enough to hurt anything. If they DO go flat in 4 months, they were due to be replaced anyway.

Average lows in January in Wisconsin are in the 30's ...??????
Not when I was there it wasn't.

[Ran]

Thanks for all the ideas, folks. If we stayed in the area (we winter in FL), I would simply go start it up every once in a while. Or I would go out there and plug it in overnight every so often (the storage facility owner has said he'll allow me to do that). But we won't be around to do that. Which is why I've thought about getting a solar charger with a brain. I don't at all mind taking the chassis batteries out for the winter. They are two monster batteries, but not so difficult that I'm unwilling to yank them. I don't, however, want to remove all four house batteries. But if I understand deep cycle house batteries right, as long as I store them fully charged, they should be good to go after 3-4 months in these moderate winter temps? Average lows even in January here are above 30..

[harold1946]

Solar is the best option if there is no available power for a maintainer charger.
A single solar panel of 100 watts and a dual bank controller will maintain both the house battery bank and starting battery.
Whether AGM or conventional sulfating begins whenever a battery is left at less than full charge.
There is no need for two separate systems, just a dual bank controller.

[Gjac]

If you fully charge your batteries and remove the neg cable they will be fine for a 3-4 month winter storage. I usually equalize and desufate the batteries also before storage.

[WyoTraveler]

Solar is the best but you need two systems; one for the coach and one for the engine.

Actually some RVs charge both the coach and the engine battery with one charging system. Monaco is one of those.

[jplante4]

Vulcan Rider wrote:

jplante4 wrote:
I don't think temps in your area would get low enough to freeze a battery.

I think that's true, since a fully charged battery doesn't freeze until about -70 F. 🙂

However, I have had a discharged battery freeze on Cape Cod. Keeping them up is the key.

[Vulcan_Rider]

jplante4 wrote:
I don't think temps in your area would get low enough to freeze a battery.

I think that's true, since a fully charged battery doesn't freeze until about -70 F. 🙂

[Vulcan_Rider]

Ran wrote:
Do I invest in a solar charging system capable of 'float charging?' Or do I just make sure the batteries have a full charge before storage and hope for the best??

IF you have AGM batteries AND can be sure they really are fully charged going in then what you need to do is: NOTHING.

If not:

Solar is the best but you need two systems; one for the coach and one for the engine.

Failing that, be sure they are fully charged going in and visit your unit about once a month to run the engine and the generator EACH for about 20 minutes or until thoroughly HOT, with the battery switch ON.
If you run the A/C to load the gen, that will help remove excess moisture from the living space too.

That should help get the moisture out of the engines and charge the batteries. Also move it about a foot to distribute the flat spot on the tires.

[sch911]

We live in Michigan, and just disconnect the batteries with the mechanical disconnect switches in the battery bay, and then it's up to the Solar panel to keep them up. I do have to periodically clean the snow off of the solar panel.

[jplante4]

The important thing is to not let the batteries freeze. In more northern areas, this means keeping a good charge on all batteries. I'm surprised that you don't already have solar, but that would be the ideal solution to keep chassis and house batteries up at all times. I don't think temps in your area would get low enough to freeze a battery.

At the very least, bring the chassis batteries into a garage and throw a charge on them before putting them back into the coach in the spring. This will get your motor running and the engine alternator will put enough of a charge on the house batteries to start the genny.