how long does your battery last?
Well I hope everyone had an enjoyable Labor Day weekend camping! I have a couple questions after camping this weekend in Mammoth with no hookups. Our 18ft TT only has one battery and I had it chargi...
Forum Discussion
clg82 wrote:mrw8i wrote:clg82 wrote:
Anyone else with some input from my previous findings in my last post?
Pretty sure that is a single stage maintenance converter/charger. Puts about about 13.6 or 13.8 volts. Not ideal if you are trying to charge quickly. A few companies make replacement "guts" for that, in the $200.00+ dollar range. Lots of threads on this forum about 3-stage chargers and their pros/cons and reality of what a 3-stage charger really is.
I myself, had almost the same converter in my new/used 5th wheel and replaced it with a 3-stage charger with Bulk/absorption/maintenance. While out camping, I prefer to hit my batteries with a bulk charge of 14.4-14.8 volts until about 90% charged; as opposed to a 13.6V maintenance charge when I need it charged quickly.
Also sounds like your batteries might be done. Need to pull them out and try to get them properly charged and see if they are any good. I don't think your current converter/charger will be able to get them charged back up; whether they are good or not.
I already bought two new batteries.....so you're telling me that 12.6 OHM reading on my new battery means its bad now too?!? also strange question but while we were camping and I had this issues if I would have had the leads crossed on the battery coming from the trailer would this have drained it even faster? or would nothing have worked at all to begin with....
You keep saying Ohm. I've never tested my battery or charging system using Ohms. Ohms will give you resistance, possible looking for a short in a wire. I have no idea what an acceptable range of ohms is across a 12V battery.
If you are saying you are measuring 12.6 volts at the battery, those sound charged.
I use both amps and volts to check when charging. Amps is not easy to measure, requires a special tool that clamps around a single cable (that is DC capable) - or a shunt on the negative cable and a meter that hooks to that shunt to measure amps (load across the shunt).
It's possible to ruin a converter/charger if the cables were crossed. I think the Progressive mentioned has protection in case that happens.
