Winter Storage? 1999 Minnie Winnie 31A

[Tbird]

I Just picked up a 1999 Minnie Winnie model 31A and I have a question about storing it over the winter.

If I plug into a 110 volt line and will it charge the house batteries or will it damage the house batteries?

Thanks in advance!

[Morich]

There are many ideas but the general thought seems to be what the manuals shows for the older RV group. Connecting to power and just letting the converter run is easy but with great risk too shorten the life of the batteries.
Assuming they are lead acid, they need close watching to be sure they don't boil off the water. When that happens it is pretty close to fatal for them.
The manual suggests the best way to avoid boiling or sulfate is to charge them monthly as a way to let the run down slightly but then get them back up before going too low. Checking the water is a must!

If the owners manual is not on hand, use this link to check:
https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File...nnieWinnie.pdf
I fully agree with this info from section 10:

[vagabonder]

I've been wondering the same thing. I just bought a 2019 MW 22R. If I have a battery maintainer or trickle charger, could I hook the battery up to that? But, if I do, I'd have to attach the charger directly to the battery and wonder how I would do it.

I suppose I could plug the camper into 110V at the storage facility and then plug the maintainer into one of the camper's 110V outlets(?).

What do you think about that?

[Pointyears]

Wouldn’t solar do the same thing for keeping the house batteries (2 group 31s in my case) charged?

[Morich]

YUP! Most any charging method will do the same things to the batteries and that is what they recommend avoiding!
It is a natural act for a battery to be used and recharged in small cycles frequently. If we don't do that, the chemicals and lead are not going to work in the same way and and there will almost always be some small degree of degradation.

I think of batteries as if they were a pantry to store extra energy when needed. If we ignore a pantry for months, the food degrades and it is of less value.
Much the same happens to batteries if we don't check the "pantry" for too long!
Maybe the batteries don't get bugs or mice but it works out to be the same type nuisance!

[Pointyears]

Originally Posted by Morich

YUP! Most any charging method will do the same things to the batteries and that is what they recommend avoiding!
It is a natural act for a battery to be used and recharged in small cycles frequently. If we don't do that, the chemicals and lead are not going to work in the same way and and there will almost always be some small degree of degradation.

I think of batteries as if they were a pantry to store extra energy when needed. If we ignore a pantry for months, the food degrades and it is of less value.
Much the same happens to batteries if we don't check the "pantry" for too long!
Maybe the batteries don't get bugs or mice but it works out to be the same type nuisance!

In my case I go in periodically and putter around (the newness hasn't worn off yet lol) using both battery and furnace so between the lights and the furnace blower motors my solar controller says it's no longer full and starts charging again.

[JBorst]

I to have a couple of 400w solar panels. I was at the RV this weekend and checked the status of the batteries and the charge controller said it was in float mode. Would you recommend disconnecting the panels for a length of time and then reconnecting the panels? If so, for how long? Won't the 10 degree low temps we're having now hurt the batteries?

[Morich]

How we each need to treat batteries is almost as personal as choosing a wife! There are lots of small points that we need to work out and one of them is solar which I have little to no experience with using in real time!
My solar experience is limited to looking at drawings and talking to the folks who are doing the work! Pretty close to guessing!

But if we look at solar power being the same as any other power source, we might make some changes in the routine to cover the differences?

One way to mod our efforts to help on the problem of full time charging is to put eh charge on a timer. That can reduce the effects of full time charging and help there but it also leaves the question of watching the water!
I have a small lawn mower battery stored in a shed. being a sealed battery, I don't worry the fluid issue but I also don't want the battery setting there on charge full time.
So I set up a timer system that lets me ignore it for the few months when we don't mow. I let it run down a bit, then the timer turns the charge on to bring it back before it gets too low. We do go in/out of the shed often enough to know the power is still good.

When charging with solar, do you have a convenient way to power a small timer on 110AC, as well as the solar output?
A small timer, using 110AC to turn the charge to the batteries on/off occasionally would let you reduce the labor involved and get the normal "cycle" done for the batteries. But then it might take some watching to see how the battery water level is doing. Watching the water is a biggie as running the plates up above water level is really bad for life span!
There are automatic battery water systems but they are not good if the weather is cold enough to freeze the supply! No personal experience with them.

When I was last in really actual cold, I was not in charge of any batteries but when the temps dipped and got down low enough to worry, I often saw batteries moved inside. But that was a long time back and way, way colder than 10 degrees! In town, the meters had power supply provided to keep the engines heaters and batteries good while shopping and such.
When driving out on the lake to fish, the guys often moved the battery inside with us.

One thing we were sure of was that we did not want a dead battery when we wanted to leave! I'm glad I was a rookie and never needed to make those decisions!
I just went with the guys who knew and did what they did!

[Bobn1957]

Originally Posted by Tbird

I Just picked up a 1999 Minnie Winnie model 31A and I have a question about storing it over the winter.

If I plug into a 110 volt line and will it charge the house batteries or will it damage the house batteries?

Thanks in advance!

A 1999 RV will have an outdated converter/charger that may or may not overcharge your batteries, I would recommend replacing the converter/charger with a modern 3 or 4-stage charger, they are not expensive and easy to install, yours should be built into the back of the electrical distribution panel! The modern charger will have a "Float" cycle that will keep the batteries charged without using much if any water!

[PappyDave]

I used a 20 amp 110 breaker to power my 31 ft Winnebago Sunstar LX for a few weeks last summer. No problems except when I overloaded the breaker by running the A/C and microwave at the same time. Separately no problems. Don't overdraw the breaker.
Batteries charged, no problem.