Couple of concerns I noticed over the weekend

[bcarroll]

I took my 1 yr old Dutchment 275BHS camping over the weekend, first time without any hookups, and a couple of issued came up...
First of all my battery did not make it thru the weekend. I had plugged in my trailer about a week before we left so it should have been at a full charge.
I have electronic tongue and stabilizer jacks, and after leveling, stablizing and unhooking, I checked the battery charge and it was down to 2/3 charge. First night we did not use the lights, only the water pump. 2nd night we used lights too, maybe about an hour of one or two light fixtures, and the next day the battery showed less than 1/3 charge. I took it to an auto store to get it checked and they said they would have to charge it for an hour to even test it as it showed 0 volts. They charged it, and told me it is a good battery, and that it is now fully charged(after an hour...?). Took it back, re-connected it, and in the morning the battery showed 1/3 charge.
Don't batteries last longer than a night or two?

Second thing...my water pump would run for 5-10 mins after all faucets were turned off, I got to just turning it off when done. When I turned it on again it would start running right away. The water would spit and sputter out of the faucets.

Third thing ...my hot water would come out of the cold tap. This did not happen before when hooked up to water.

What might be going on?

[kckettridge]

wanderingbob wrote:
By the way . on my Dutchman the hot and cold valves are reversed in the shower only ! It is because they are installed up side down so as the shower hose comes out on top !

Ours are too on our Coleman (Dutchman) CTU-289RL. It's a pretty easy switch but still, those BOZO's at Dutchman just slap these things together to get them out the door to the dealers. I'll switch them out myself at some point.

[DE88ROX]

bcarroll wrote:
I must admit that I do not know the proper way to maintain an RV battery. I'm learning as I go, and from posts like this with input with those that have that knowledge.
I do leave my battery on trailer. It did go dead over the winter a couple of times but plugged it in each time to recharge it.
I left it plugged in for about a month once and my worry was overcharging.
I was expecting the battery to be bad but it was tested and was informed it was good.

I did try to go to the web address: http://bart.ccis.com/home/mnemeth/12volt/12volt.htm but my virus blocker would not allow me to go there because of a virus threat.

My tt is always plugged in when not in use during the camping season.
Over the winter I remove my battery and keep it and the lawn tractor battery on a battery tender over the winter. I know some that keep their units plugged in with the batteries still attached with no issues. If you don't have the means of keeping it plugged in where you store it, get a shut off switch or disconnect it all together from the battery between trips.

But our winters up here can be brutal on batteries. I figured no sense exposing it to the elements of old man winter if I don't have to. Not sure if it does any good but it can't hurt.

You also might want to check on the water level of the battery periodically. If low, top of with distilled water only.

[DE88ROX]

bcarroll wrote:


The water pump issue I'm still not sure of...I have had it hooked up to water hook ups at our previous camp out so the lines should have had water in them from that trip...and the water heater should be full.
I have not noticed any water leaking in the trailer, could water drain from the pipes while sitting?

Good camping friends of ours who bought a trailer at the same show we did last year just had his pump go out. About every 10-15 seconds it would kick on and off really quick. He had a bad diaphragm in the pump. It was still under warranty and had it replaced.

[westend]

bcarroll wrote:
Out of curiosity, how can I tell how many amp hours my battery has...the new marine battery I bought only says 690 cranking amps...how does that translate into amp hours?

PS: edited to add: grp 24 12v battery

Since the Marine batteries are, for the most part, a hybrid deep cycle/starting battery, they are seldom rated at the standard 20 amp hr. rate. If I had to estimate, a grp. 24 marine hybrid would have a 75 amp hr. rating.

[bcarroll]

Out of curiosity, how can I tell how many amp hours my battery has...the new marine battery I bought only says 690 cranking amps...how does that translate into amp hours?

PS: edited to add: grp 24 12v battery

[time2roll]

Don't go here: (must be old)
http://bart.ccis.com/home/mnemeth/12volt/12volt.htm

Use this link:
http://www.marxrv.com/12volt/12volt.htm (The 12 Volt Side of Life)

[bcarroll]

I must admit that I do not know the proper way to maintain an RV battery. I'm learning as I go, and from posts like this with input with those that have that knowledge.
I do leave my battery on trailer. It did go dead over the winter a couple of times but plugged it in each time to recharge it.
I left it plugged in for about a month once and my worry was overcharging.
I was expecting the battery to be bad but it was tested and was informed it was good.

I did try to go to the web address: http://bart.ccis.com/home/mnemeth/12volt/12volt.htm but my virus blocker would not allow me to go there because of a virus threat.

[ReferDog]

Look for a thread: the 12 volt side of life. http://bart.ccis.com/home/mnemeth/12volt/12volt.htm. 12.6= 100% charge
Avoid going below 40% charge or 11.9 V. Must be off battery charger for 3hrs with no load or charge. Converters in the RV are a poor compromise in place of a good battery charger.. Better to purchase a good 3 stage charger. 1st stage would be 10.5 to 15V. Then 2nd stage 14.2 then 3rd stage 13.3 to 14.2. At least you could use this in winter, also a Battery Minder for maintenance. That way you leave home with fully charged battery, + they last longer. My 2 cents worth

[westend]

I'm thinking we are missing the start of the story. It may have started out like this: I left my battery at a full charge when I parked it in the Fall. I knew it was low so I plugged in to shore power a week before we left, this Spring.

What may have been happening is that the OP attempted to charge a fully depleted battery. That battery may have lived a full season with little care or proper charging. The Marine/starting batteries that are usually installed in a new TT will not survive a regimen like that for very long. At the least, the capacity of the battery has diminished from sulphation.

The water pump issue sounds like a misconfigured piping arrangement, maybe a valve is open that shouldn't be open (or closed that shouldn't be closed).

[bcarroll]

Thanks all for your responses.
I suppose I did not understand all the little things that draw on the battery, and overestimated how long a battery would last.

The water pump issue I'm still not sure of...I have had it hooked up to water hook ups at our previous camp out so the lines should have had water in them from that trip...and the water heater should be full.
I have not noticed any water leaking in the trailer, could water drain from the pipes while sitting?

[DE88ROX]

there are a lot of things in the backround that can and will drain your battery.
CO detector is always running.
You will always have power going to the radio even though its off.
Fridge needs juice to run the circuit board and to ignite the pilot when the unit is calling to be cooled down.
same with water heater. Takes a spark to get it heated up and that juice has to come from somewhere.


We camp every year at MIS for the NASCAR race. The only time we have no hook-up to power. Some in our group will only have their batteries last about 3 to four days with out charging. I use a genny for about an hour every morning to make coffee and let the wife do her hair and what not. seems enough to keep it charged.

Sounds like your situation is not that out of the ordinary.

[dodge_guy]

I would imagine for dry camping 2 batteries would be the minimum. and a good soloar charger will make those last quite a bit of time!

As for your water....sounds like you still have air in it somewhere. you need to run the water for a bit to relieve it of any air.

[wanderingbob]

By the way . on my Dutchman the hot and cold valves are reversed in the shower only ! It is because they are installed up side down so as the shower hose comes out on top !

[goducks10]

I would make sure that the original battery is in good shape, if it is then fine, and get new one installed.

As far as the water pump running. It maybe that it's having to suck air and water and can't do either and that's causing it to keep running. My does the same thing after winterizing. But eventually stops when everything is primed. I couldn't tell you which valve is open or closed but it should only take a minute or less to re-prime the lines.