Battery charging

[bpetroni]

Hi I'm new to the forum and pretty new to Travel Trailer ownership. I have had issues with dead batteries while boondock camping. I have done current draws and I'm not getting anything but I keep having to replace my batteries and I am using the deep cycle marine units. I have been doing some research online and have read that some of the onboard invertors can do damage to batteries by overcharging them. I wanted to try bypassing my invertor by charging directly from my generator via a smart charger to see if this resolves my issues. Is this I good plan and I'm thinking I should isolate the positive and negative cables from the battery coming from my trailer while charging.

Thank You!

[gmckenzie]

5 days is a lot for 1 battery. Some ideas:
2 golf cart batteries
Switch to LED lights inside
Get a portable solar panel
Get something like this https://www.amazon.ca/305M-Fuse-Buddy-Mini-Tester/dp/B000W8FMXU to test for draws on individual circuits. If there is a big draw and it's not something you need, pull the fuse.

[time2roll]

Yes lead-acid prefers to be 100% tip top charged in storage for longest life. Charge 48 hours continuous and then disconnect a cable for best results.

Your converter is probably a WFCO that says 3 stage charging but is notorious for only charging in normal mode 13.6 volts. Basically this is a trickle charge as the 55 amps taper off very quickly. Your battery needs 14.4 to 14.8 volts for a fast charge and minimizing generator time. WFCO is chronically undercharging the battery. I recommend an upgrade or use a 30+ amp portable.

The single 75ah battery is small for off-grid camping. Really need two group 27 or two GC2 for about 220 ah.

Have you considered 200+ watts of solar?

[bpounds]

bpetroni wrote:

Thank you to everybody who is replying. Sorry about the lack of information. My TT is a 2012 Keystone Hideout 27RBWE. My converter is a 12V 55 AMP unit OEM. I only go for boodock for about 5 days at a time so I am using one battery it is a 75ah unit. I charge it with a Champion 1550 (Starting Watts) 1200 (Rated Watts) generator.

I don't have a battery disconnect switch. Based on your responses I may be damaging my batteries when I store my trailer. Is it best to keep the batteries on a trickle charger while stored?

Your Keystone probably has a WFCO converter. That's mostly what they use. It is a 3 mode charger, and while it isn't the greatest, it works okay and should safely charge and maintain your batteries.

How you handle storage depends on where you store it. If you have the luxury of keeping the trailer plugged into shore power, that is probably the best. Just check the electrolyte level every few months. I prefer that over some kind of trickle charger.

If you store remotely away from power, a properly installed battery disconnect will isolate the battery, and that works well. A fully charged battery, with zero current draw, will store very well. The exception being very cold temps, in which case removing the battery and taking it home with you would be good. Don't really need a trickle charge in that case, but opinions vary on that. I don't have cold weather experience in that regard.

Sounds to me like storage is killing your batteries, but running them down low while camping kills them too. You've got a generator. Use it everyday while camping, including the very first day. Beats me why folks pay good money for a generator, and then avoid using it. A well exercised generator is a happy generator, and happy batteries.

[bpetroni]

bpetroni wrote:
Hi I'm new to the forum and pretty new to Travel Trailer ownership. I have had issues with dead batteries while boondock camping. I have done current draws and I'm not getting anything but I keep having to replace my batteries and I am using the deep cycle marine units. I have been doing some research online and have read that some of the onboard invertors can do damage to batteries by overcharging them. I wanted to try bypassing my invertor by charging directly from my generator via a smart charger to see if this resolves my issues. Is this I good plan and I'm thinking I should isolate the positive and negative cables from the battery coming from my trailer while charging.

Thank You!

Thank you to everybody who is replying. Sorry about the lack of information. My TT is a 2012 Keystone Hideout 27RBWE. My converter is a 12V 55 AMP unit OEM. I only go for boodock for about 5 days at a time so I am using one battery it is a 75ah unit. I charge it with a Champion 1550 (Starting Watts) 1200 (Rated Watts) generator.

I don't have a battery disconnect switch. Based on your responses I may be damaging my batteries when I store my trailer. Is it best to keep the batteries on a trickle charger while stored?

[beemerphile1]

.

[bartlettj]

I use golf cart batteries instead of marine deep cycle. Far more capacity and robustness as long as you don't need to use it to start an engine.

[rbpru]

I put a DC ampmeter in the positive lead. With everything shut off, the phantom loads vary between 1/4 and 1/2 amps or 3 to 6 watts.

So, if I unplug my shore power I can expect my battery to go dead in a few days.

If I were to boondock I would have to locate the sneak loads and pull the fuse or find a way to keep the battery charged.

[aftermath]

Let us know what type of trailer and what kind of converter you currently have. There is a lot that goes into managing a battery so we need more information.

There are one stage converters (not inverters) that charge batteries at the same rate all the time. When the battery is charged the converter continues to charge which over charges and will destroy a battery in short order.

" I have had issues with dead batteries while boondock camping. I have done current draws and I'm not getting anything but I keep having to replace my batteries and I am using the deep cycle marine units."

You have had to replace batteries in the past. How often does this happen? If you let a battery go dead then it will never be able to hold a full charge. Maintaining the battery requires checking the water levels in the cells and careful charging and attention.

Get a good deep cycle battery that does not have "marine" on it. A marine battery is for boats and needs to be able to crank the engine. A deep cycle does not have the cranking amps requirement. They are different beasts.

[bpounds]

Like others advised, we need to know more about your equipment, and about how you use it.

But a couple of thoughts:

Most people kill their batteries by running them too low before charging. You should be charging every day you are camping. Not waiting until the batteries are depleted. Likewise, unless you have power connected in your storage area, you should not leave the batteries connected during storage. You may ruin them in a matter of days from parasitic loads.

Those "Deep Cycle Marine" batteries, probably are not. They are combo starting/house batteries. I can say that with relative confidence, because unless you really search, that is all you will find in the usual places.

Most trailers built in the last 10 years have a decent multi-stage converter, and I don't know what you have, but sitting here I doubt that the problem is with your converter. Much more likely that the problem is in how you use it.

[beemerphile1]

We have no idea what you are doing to care for your battery.

Since we don't know what converter you have nor do we know what portable charger you intend to use, your questions are impossible to answer. Kind of like trying to answer, "How long is a rope?"

[westend]

For better advice, tell us what you have for a trailer and the model of your converter. If the model of converter is known, we can tell you if it's a good converter or a battery boiler.

Off hand, one of the pitfalls of TT 12 V systems is that they come from the factory with a built-in failure waiting to happen. There are significant parasitic draws that exist (circuit boards, alarms, radio memory, etc) and they are always connected to the battery. If the TT sits in storage without the battery disconnected, the battery is drwan down to a damged state of charge fairly quick (a couple of weeks). The remedy for this situation is to install a battery disconnect switch that interrupts the parasitic draws from the battery. The above is a common cause of repeated battery failures.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

What converter do you have? How many amp-hours of battery bank do you have? If there are multiple batteries are they wired in a balanced manner?

Using a smart charger may sometimes be better than the stock converter, and at other times, worse. If you have one already, go ahead and try it. There is no need to disconnect the converter from the battery bank. Simply disconnect it from the 120 volt power source.