Winter Battery Storage

Same arguments about covering tires. I have never done so and never had a crack. Same with using 303, never have.

No matter the subject you can get all twisted around!

My batteries (disconnected) sit outside all winter in -20C temp and they are going into their 10th year.

I just leave my trailer plugged in year round. Last battery survived 10 years. It is quite common to see -30F here in the winter

FWIW...

....my power toys primarily live in Los Anchorage. Typical winter sees regular below 0 (F) temps, frequent below -10, and often quite a few days of -20.
....For the boat and the OR Jeep and the summer ATV, I pull the batteries and put them inside; fully charged in circa October / November; trickle charged to full charge about 1x per month after that until "spring" which realistically means mid-May.
....For the spare road vehicles, I typically end up moving them around the driveway at least 1 x per month, so nothing special is done to the batteries, although I make sure the engine runs at least 45 mins during that 1x per month.
....For the PA-12 and the sno-go; trickle charge about 1x per month if not otherwise used; on the infrequent trip to cold country (where -30 is common, -50 is not unheard of), I pull the batteries every night and bring them in the tent/cabin, etc. Particularly when flying the PA-12 somewhere cold, if it doesn't start one is either faced with a very serious situation or faced with the need to hand prop...a very serious PITA.

My batteries typically last at least 8-10 years, but they're all automotive, not golf cart.

Three seasons on the boat batteries with just disconnecting the grounds and winder temp into the single digits. Same goes for my 01 RAM. They both fire off the engines with reconnecting the grounds.

dedmiston only once have I had to clear the panels since 2009.

Even then, there were 17 amp-hours going into the battery bank on Dec 21.

dedmiston wrote:

dapperdan wrote:
I had 300 watts on our previous trailer and now 660 watts of solar on our current trailer, haven’t taken the batteries out since the solar went in! I haven’t had a battery issue yet, the solar keeps the batteries “full”, no freezing. Here in WI it can get below zero, maybe not as cold as Minnesota but cold none the less. :B

Dan

Hey Dan - Question about your solar. We store our rig in the southwest where I worry about dust and crud covering up our panels (700W), but we get enough rain in the cooler months to hose them off.

What do you do in Wisconsin with the snow? Does the snow accumulate and cover your panels?

We sure love having the batteries charged and ready to go 24/7/365.

I also am in southeastern Wisconsin. Where I store mine, the wind blows most of the snow off of the roof. Then, if you get a sunny day, the black solar panels warm up a little and the snow will melt off of them.
I've had the solar for 2 winters so far, (we don't head south until late January) and it's been fine.
JK

The colder it is the less the self discharge. So bringing it inside creates the need to recharge.

Personally the solar charger works well for me.

One thing batteries do not like is being left in a partial state of charge for extended periods of time. So while the battery may not freeze, and it may stay partially charged, it won't remain at 100% SOC, It will slowly discharge. Maybe not a lot, but in any event it's better to make sure it periodically get's fully charged (every few weeks or every month) rather than leave it in a partially charged state. While in an extended partial charge state some of lead sulfate as the battery discharges will become crystals that don't go back to lead when recharged, leaving you with less battery capacity.

bikendan wrote:

rfloyd99 wrote:
I read somewhere that batteries should not be allowed to freeze.

You need to find better resources to read. As was said, fully charged batteries are fine to at least 0°F.

More like fine to below -40F. Many a time I've had a vehicle outside with temps at -40F/C and a reasonably charge battery won't freeze. In fact I've even started my duramax diesel w/o the block heater at -40F after the truck had stat several days/nights with temps at night below -40F. Temp was up to about -35F when I went to start it. Took a while for the glow plug light to go out, cranked slow for a few seconds then started.

don't let the battery get near discharged at low temps.