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Old 09-21-2014, 12:37 PM   #1
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Battery Question

2004 Adventurer 38G

Something I never did understand, I just replaced my house batteries again, with new NAPA group 27 deep cycle batteries. While parked in my driveway and the coach is connected to 30 amp shore power, should I turn off the coach batteries?, what about when connected to 50 amp shore power in a campground? When plugged in the batteries are always charging, thinking if there are turned off, it would prevent over charging, or am I wrong on this ?
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Old 09-21-2014, 01:09 PM   #2
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Well, first: Sorry about your choice of battery.. Marine/Deep cycle are not the best choice.. True Deep cycle are better. But, well, next time you will know (The most common true deep cycle is the GC-2 Golf car battery, a pair of these give you 230 amp hours and fit on your 27 tray with room to spare (fit a 24 tray) though they are taller and heavier, Your 27's are about 190 Amp hours total, and where you can safely take DEEP CYCLE down to half full.. You should likley try to keep your Marine/Deep cycle up around 3/4 or more. (Do not let a battery sit around in a state of discharge for months on end, recharge promptly)


Now: to your Connect or not question: Make and model of converter please.... Many modern RVs have good 3-stage converters such as the IOTA with IQ4, or the Progressive Dynamics with charge wizard, or the WFCO (though that is perhaps not the best one)..

Some (Quite a few in fact) have inverter/chargers like my Prosine 2.0, these are also usually top end 3-stage chargers.

Some have older single stage of which the WORST group includes the Magnetek 6300, By comparison the Parallax 7300 is much better.

With the Magnetek 6300 you unplug or disconnect (Put in a battery simulator to make the 6300 happy.. odds are that is not what you got)

With most other units.. You should likely leave the batteries connected so the converter keeps them full up.

IF they are NOT maintenance free.. Check monthly for fluid evaporation. and top off with Distilled Water as needed

If the ARE maintenance free, or AGM (Sub set of Maintenance free) you can not do this do do not try.
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Old 09-21-2014, 01:27 PM   #3
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HI,

First off I will disagree with the previous post about using golf batteries. They are not needed in your RV. I had Marine Deep Cycle/RV batteries made by Interstate.

I had a 2004 Winnebago Adventurer for 10 years and only replaced my house batteries once. My coach was parked next to the house and plugged into 30 amp power 24/7 with no problems. Once a month when I exercised the generator I would check the levels in the batteries. The converter kept the batteries up to power with no problem. One thing I did do was I added a Battery Tender on the Chassis battery to maintain it as the electric steps are on the chassis battery and every time we went in and out of coach steps would work.

Now I have a 2014 Winnebago Adventurer and it is plugged in 24/7 to 50 Amp with no problem however again I check batteries every month. I also check connections on batteries.

That 2004 Winnebago is a fine coach and will give you many years of service but you do have to take care of it.

Good Luck and Enjoy!

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Old 09-21-2014, 01:32 PM   #4
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We dry camp twice a year for 6 days, Dover Race Track, I had thought about replacing my 2 group 27 12 volt batteries with 4 6 volt golf cart batteries, never thought about just using 2 6 volt batteries.

My basic question is....when plugged in do I still need the coach batteries to power lights and other 12 volt items, or can I turn them off ?
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Old 09-21-2014, 02:20 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by J Stemler View Post
We dry camp twice a year for 6 days, Dover Race Track, I had thought about replacing my 2 group 27 12 volt batteries with 4 6 volt golf cart batteries, never thought about just using 2 6 volt batteries.

My basic question is....when plugged in do I still need the coach batteries to power lights and other 12 volt items, or can I turn them off ?

What are your power requirements for those 6 days twice a year? Are you running generator 24x7 ? Do you have a residential fridge? Do you have LED lights instead of halogen?

Remember you only want to discharge a lead/acid battery to 50% before recharging....any more and damage is done to the battery and life shortened drastically....so with only 2 6 volt golf cart batteries you would have 220 amp hours (only 110 amp hours usable).

With qty 4 6 volt golf cart batteries you would be able to use a full 220 amp hours (still at the max 50% discharge)

Take an energy audit, add up everything that uses power in amps, and multiply by how many hours you need it to run.......to find out how many amp hours battery capacity you need.
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Old 09-25-2014, 07:33 PM   #6
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When I am plugged in I have 12volt power supply when my batteries are connected or if I push the disconnect switch. The converter supplies while you are plugged in.
As to if the batteries are being charged while plugged in and the disconnect switch is on, I never put a volt meter on the battery terminals to see if they are charging or not.
They are always at full power when I check at the one-place station although the house battery will not show any charge while the battery disconnect switch is in the disconnect position.
I hope this helps answer the OP question.
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Old 09-26-2014, 07:25 AM   #7
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The converter in my coach is wired directly to the house batteries through an 80 amp fuse. The batteries get charged any time the converter us getting 120 vac. The disconnect solenoid is between the batteries and the loads. If the batteries are disconnected via the solenoid, almost nothing in house works but the batteries still get charged. I suggest that you put a meter on your batteries and see what happens.
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