DEAD BATTERY

maggie blair · February 29, 2016

Could someone give me some advice on buying a battery charger? My RV has a new (June 2015) battery and it's been sitting for two weeks. I tried to start it and it is totally dead. A friend told me to buy a battery charger but I do not know the type or size. Once I get it hooked up how long do I leave it plugged in?

Thanks in advance for any and all support you have to offer.

Maggie

Selah · February 29, 2016

If your talking about a portable battery charger that you plug into a 110 circuit then you want a three stage charger that has a switch for AGM and standard type batteries. I carry one from Sears.

If your talking about one that will keep the chassis batters charged when the coach is on shore power then your probably talking about something like an Amp-L-Start. These are very small trickle chargers that plug into me of the coaches non-inverter 110 plugs. It supplies just enough charge to keep the battery from running down.

LFDR3116 · February 29, 2016

Do you have a battery shutoff switch for the chassis battery. Many class A's do. That will keep your battery good while you sit. We have one for one for both the chassis battery and the house batteries. Both of ours are in bays, but I have seen comments that lead me to believe that some are on the dash and some are next to the exit door. Just a thought.....

Kirk W · February 29, 2016

I would recommend that you consider something like the Schumacher SSC-1000A, Speed Charge, 2/6/10 Amp Battery Charger from Amazon or from some other seller. In this case you need a true battery charger to recover your battery to full charge and this particular one can also be used as a maintainer when you store the RV. The other thing about one like this is that you do not have to be concerned about how long it is applied as it automatically shuts down once the battery is fully charged. There are several others that would work but I have come to prefer Schumacher products for charging.

Two weeks does seem to be a little short for the battery to be too low for starting the engine. I suspect that you have some of what we call parasitic loads that don't turn off when the ignition is off. It is normal to have some but two weeks seems pretty short. You can also use a battery cutoff switch on the negative terminal to do that same thing, but doing so will also mean that things like the radio will loose their memory in time. Amazon also has several different types of such switching devices which are easy to use and that prevent this problem. Amazon also has battery maintainers that will prevent this from happening without isolating the battery. It is my preferred way to do this and I use one of those from Schumacher as well. This type of device will greatly extend the life of your chassis battery.

maggie blair · February 29, 2016

I would recommend that you consider something like the Schumacher SSC-1000A, Speed Charge, 2/6/10 Amp Battery Charger from Amazon or from some other seller. In this case you need a true battery charger to recover your battery to full charge and this particular one can also be used as a maintainer when you store the RV. The other thing about one like this is that you do not have to be concerned about how long it is applied as it automatically shuts down once the battery is fully charged. There are several others that would work but I have come to prefer Schumacher products for charging.

Two weeks does seem to be a little short for the battery to be too low for starting the engine. I suspect that you have some of what we call parasitic loads that don't turn off when the ignition is off. It is normal to have some but two weeks seems pretty short. You can also use a battery cutoff switch on the negative terminal to do that same thing, but doing so will also mean that things like the radio will loose their memory in time. Amazon also has several different types of such switching devices which are easy to use and that prevent this problem. Amazon also has battery maintainers that will prevent this from happening without isolating the battery. It is my preferred way to do this and I use one of those from Schumacher as well. This type of device will greatly extend the life of your chassis battery.

Thanks so much. Your advice gives me starting points and now I will try to follow up and get this rig started. Thanks again!

maggie blair · February 29, 2016

Do you have a battery shutoff switch for the chassis battery. Many class A's do. That will keep your battery good while you sit. We have one for one for both the chassis battery and the house batteries. Both of ours are in bays, but I have seen comments that lead me to believe that some are on the dash and some are next to the exit door. Just a thought.....

Thanks and I will check that out. I am new and learning.... there's a big learning curve here for me.

rmader · February 29, 2016

I would check into Battery minder a very good product. http://www.batteryminders.com/

Kirk W · February 29, 2016

If you need to get it started, find someone who has jumper cables and knows the proper way to use them. I suggest that you also buy a quality pair of jumper cables and carry them with you. Take the time to learn the proper way to connect them as it is important and not everyone knows how.

rmader · February 29, 2016

This is the one I was thinking about.

BatteryMINDer Model 128CEC1 12V 2/4/8 AMP Charger/Maintainer/Desulfator

scouserl41 · March 1, 2016

If you need to charge it up from dead some of the battery chargers mentioned are NOT going to achieve that in a reasonable time,

From experience(!!) I would recommend taking the battery out and taking it to Sears or a battery store that has a computer controlled charger. They will be able to fully charge it in about 2 hours without damaging the battery.

If the battery totally discharged in just 2 weeks I'd recommend looking for a drain on the battery like a storage locker light left on or a light in a closet. Best to look after dark as things like that show up readily that way.

BnB

mscans · March 1, 2016

If your talking about a portable battery charger that you plug into a 110 circuit then you want a three stage charger that has a switch for AGM and standard type batteries. I carry one from Sears.

If your talking about one that will keep the chassis batters charged when the coach is on shore power then your probably talking about something like an Amp-L-Start. These are very small trickle chargers that plug into me of the coaches non-inverter 110 plugs. It supplies just enough charge to keep the battery from running down.

The Ampl-start is designed to take some of the charging power from the house battery and supply it to the starting battery. It only works when "something" is charging the house battery, converter, solar etc. Having said that, I did have the smaller Trikl-start and it worked great.

maggie blair · March 1, 2016

Thanks so much. Your advice gives me starting points and now I will try to follow up and get this rig started. Thanks again!

I went to order the battery and for some strange reason they will not ship to California!

maggie blair · March 1, 2016

If you need to get it started, find someone who has jumper cables and knows the proper way to use them. I suggest that you also buy a quality pair of jumper cables and carry them with you. Take the time to learn the proper way to connect them as it is important and not everyone knows how.

Yes, and thanks. That is excellent advice! I am very trusting and unfortunately it has got me into lots of trouble. Not everyone knows everything they think they do...

my goal is to become educated on as much as possible about my RV. Thanks again.

mscans · March 4, 2016

I went to order the battery and for some strange reason they will not ship to California!

Lead based batteries are "dangerous" to Californians according to safety code section 25249.5 and companies don't want to deal with the legalize involved so don't deal with California.