Winter battery storage

[Flapper]

What's the common wisdom here? Over in the boating forums, everyone strongly advocates removing the battery, and storing inside, before putting the gear to bed for the winter. (Minnesota. -30F a possibility). I've taken to leaving my fully charged AGM's in the boat, not on trickle, all winter, without any issues for the last several years. But in the RV, it is a lead acid. Opinions?

[mchero]

Simple answer to this one......
Fully charge batteries and disconnect.

Been doing it for 5+ years here in New Hampshire & never had a problem. If a battery get's discharged it will freeze & it's then HISTORY.

[mena661]

I would put them on a maintainer while in storage.

[MNtundraRet]

When I owned trailers I took the batteries out and stored at home. Checked voltage each month and charged if needed.

With the motor-home (since 2006) stored in a lot without shore-power, I added two 9-watt solar panels. One for the chassis battery, and the other for the pair of T-105's house-battery bank. The panels do not require a controller and are connected 24/7. In the winter they are moved down from the overhead bed window to the dash panel since over-head bed keeps snow off the windshield.

I check the MH once every month to check batteries with a multi-meter to note state of charge, and run the generator, and engine to exercise them. The original batteries lasted 9 years (chassis) and 10 years (house) on the 2003 MH.

Note that the batteries only get charged otherwise when plugged into shore-power if camping on an electric site, or using the generator. This type of usage obviously did not cause early demise of batteries.

I do monitor charging with a clamp-ammeter for amp-rate, and voltage (at the battery-terminals) to insure all charging methods are working; converter/charger, alternator, and solar-panels.

If batteries are sufficiently charged they will not freeze in cold weather. Also; cold weather storage is much better than hot weather storage as mentioned in an early reply.

[harold1946]

As long as the wet cells charge is maintained there is no worry of freezing. Just maintain it the same as if it were summer.

[tenbear]

I have mine plugged in and have a Battery Tender on the house battery and a trickle charger on the chassis battery.

Fully charged batteries don't freeze until -70 to -90 F.

[craig7h]

To me its a matter of where you are storing it for the winter. If its somewhere that you can keep it plugged in then leave the battery in. I have always left mine in, with unit plugged into 110. If you have to store it unplugged then remove.

[westend]

Fully charged AGM's will make it through our MN winters, FLA, nope. Take your FLA out and store it in the garage fully charged and hooked to a trickle charger. If your garage is unheated, run the trickle charger on every payday for 24 hrs. You'll find out the correlation after a few years.

[ib516]

Remove it, wash it down with a water/baking soda solution, bring it inside, and put a trickle charger, or better yet a maintainer on it once every month or so. Some maintainers can be left on indefinitely.