We have a 2004 sightseer and our houseand chassis batterys are going dead when its in storage for a couple of weeks.I know why the chassis is.But everything is off and the house batterys are dead? Was thinking about putting a 15 watt solar panel on the roof.will they keep the batterys charged or iam i throwing away money. thanks for the input.
We have a 2004 sightseer and our houseand chassis batterys are going dead when its in storage for a couple of weeks.I know why the chassis is.But everything is off and the house batterys are dead? Was thinking about putting a 15 watt solar panel on the roof.will they keep the batterys charged or iam i throwing away money. thanks for the input.
Funny, but my experience has been just the opposite of Doug's. I use a Trik-l-start to send part of the charge to the chassis batts and the factory 10 watt solar panel keeps all 5 of my batteries charged. When I took it out of storage Sunday, after about a month of sitting, house batteries were at 13.0 and chassis was reading 12.9 - maybe it's the Florida sunshine....
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Was thinking about putting a 15 watt solar panel on the roof.will they keep the batterys charged or iam i throwing away money. thanks for the input. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Tony,
I have the 10 Watt solar panel that the factory supplies and agree that it is totally inadequate. After measuring (in Florida - plenty of sun), I established that It only supplies 1/2 of what is needed to offset the phantom loads on my coach. As such my batteries are dead after about 2 weeks if I don't leave the coach plugged in. I am putting a larger panel on the roof that will also give me some extra power when dry camping.
You can find out how much your phantom loads are by putting a MA (milliamp) meter in series with either your negative or positive cable going to your house batteries. Safest side is the negative side. Make sure everything is turned off before connecting the meter and you will be able to see how much you are loosing by means of phantom loads.
__________________
Harry
2015 Tuscany 40 KQ
2013 Honda CR-V
A 15 watt or higher always kept my house batteries up. Make sure you have good grounds to frame of chassis for batteries, generator,converter. Clean them up and use a star washer to keep them tight to frame.
I have the same issues as you'all as well. The engine batteries are dead (or won't start) in 3-4 weeks. I'll be installing about 200W of panel as soon as package-man shows up with them. As for the 15W panel; It'll probably do OK as a starting battery charger by itself.
Thank you all for your input sure is a great place to get info. will look for the phantom load. Going to put a panel on the roof and Trik-l-start to keep the chassis battery charged. Again thanks all
I have the Trik-L-Start installed on my m/h and it works as long as you are plugged into shore power.
Once you unhook from shore power it will not keep the chassis batteries charged.
When I store my m/h I simply disconnect the ground cables from my chassis batteries with quick disconnect switches I installed at the terminals. No dead chassis batteries now after 3-4 months in storage.
I suspect the 10 watt solar cell on my rig is not hooked up right or has a loose wire, something else to check out.
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