Killed my battery in 1 season. What happened?

[Mickeyfan0805]

We bought our new trailer in September of 2012. By the end of last season, the battery would not take a sufficient charge. It will function for a very short period of time, but I can't as much as disconnect the trailer with the power-jack without draining it's power. I now need to be connected to the truck, or shore power, to accomplish much of anything.

Any ideas what I did wrong that killed my battery so fast?

[AH64ID]

If there are no loose connections your battery has probably been overcharged. I would check the output voltage of the converter. Maybe a new converter is in order.

[Mickeyfan0805]

Ok - for clarification...

We do no dry camping. We are always connected to shore power when camping, and are usually plugged into a 20a outlet at home between trips in season. I did keep full with distilled water and connections are all good.

[mena661]

ah64id wrote:
What kind of battery?

What are you using to monitor its charge?

How low do you let it go?

How are you charging it?

Have you checked the connections and water level?

This.

[mlts22]

What type of charger do you have? A single-stage unit will trash your batteries in short order unless you go AGMs (and even then, you need to make sure the AGMs can handle the charging voltage coming in.)

If you have a single-stage converter, by all means, toss it, and get something decent, preferably a 4-5 stage model so you have equalizing and desulfating capabilities with a pendant. Or, if you want to spend the bucks, go with a converter/inverter so you can run small appliances without needing the generator.

[NinerBikes]

One last major service item.

Always refill with distilled water, after you have completely recharged, and you should always strive to recharge a battery as soon as possible when it gets low on charge, never letting the battery get below 50% state of charge.

[azrving]

They pretty much covered it.

Keep the water over the plates
Don't over discharge. I dont go below 12 volts
Get a digital meter so you can see the voltage
One battery wont last long if you are using incandescent bulbs
RV heaters suck propane and batteries
Go to LED's
Use a catalytic propane heater
I went to a 14 speed fantastic vent and often run it on low. Low amp draw.
If you use an inverter, shut it off when not using

[RoyB]

I still have the GP24 standard issue 85AH deep cycle INTERSTATE batteries that came with the trailer in 2008. I am running three of these batteries in parallel giving me 255AHs of battery capacity.

I think what helps me the most is I use smart mode converter/charger and monitor my battery bank DC VOLTAGES all the time when camping off the power grid. I follow the rule to not let my batteries get below 12.0VDC over night and then re-charge them the next morning. My inside BATTERY MONITOR looks at the 12VDC for each bank and also measures how much DC current is being drawn by the battery bank as well as how much the battery bank is demanding when being charged.


My older trailer had to inspected for battery fluids every week so I still do that with these batteries but since I now use the smart mode converter/charger I never find them low on fluids.

Nothing fancy here just three batteries connected in PARALLEL using BLUE SEA battery switches...


I am just now starting to see performance fall off for these batteries which have been cycled alot between their 50% and 90% state of charge when camping off the power grid like we do.

Found out early on you got to take care of your batteries if you want them to last.

I imagine around 5 years of use is pretty much normal for still getting full performance out of them... Some guys go alot longer...

Roy Ken

[Larryect]

Also, killers are letting it drain down and sit discharged, overcharging boiling water out and letting the plates go dry.

[PUCampin]

This wouldn't be a standard car starting battery would it?

[AH64ID]

What kind of battery?

What are you using to monitor its charge?

How low do you let it go?

How are you charging it?

Have you checked the connections and water level?

[OpenRangePullen]

Either a large power draw, discharging the battery to almost empty over and over and then recharging, or just a bad battery.