Battery Issues

[aabear54]

When traveling is the house battery switch on or off?
When camping is the chassis battery switch on or off?
Or better yet what batteries switch should be on when traveling? And camping?

Thanks!!!!

[Winterbagoal]

There's a chassis battery switch? Who knew?
I leave all batteries enabled, all the time. Personal preference.

[creativepart]

All battery disconnects are to be on the entire time the RV is in use. The only time they should be off is when you RV is put in storage, regardless of whether you are storing for a long time or a short time.

[Morich]

Some RV have both, some only one and others neither! But when you do have them there is good reason to leave the coach batteries and certainly the chassis connected as a way to let them stay connected to the engine alternator and get some charge back. But keep in mind that there are small drains on the coach and the start batteries when we store the RV, so if we don't provide some way to charge them, both will often go down and how far for how long makes a difference how much they may be damaged! When not running, the start and coach are NOT connected, so one can go down while the other goes down less, etc. There are some small items still left connected on some RV even after the disconnect it used. Some of these may be the CO or propane detectors, radio presets, door locks, etc.
Just to be aware of the details is critical to get the best long term use of the batteries.

[rprochnow]

Our 21VD has an AMP-L-START, which charges the chassis battery from the coach lithium batteries.

The only time we would consider disconnecting the batteries would be if we are going to place the RV into storage for a long time without connecting to shore power. Since our RV storage has a 110 outlet, we haven't needed to disconnect the batteries.

When driving, you want the coach batteries on, since they can be charged from the chassis engine.

[Motorman]

Rprochnow ..... I thought the coach batteries only charged from the generator or shore power ? As in... the systems are separate unless you activate the emergency jump feature.
I am new here so please correct me if I am wrong , or possibly it depends on the model?

[creativepart]

Motorman... the engine alternator charges your House batteries and your Chassis battery. I don't know which you are calling your "coach batteries" - the House or the Chassis batteries?

On Shore Power and Generator it depends on your motorhome and how it's set up as to what's being charged. I see you have a Sightseer but have no idea of the year or how your motorhome is set up.

On some motorhomes the House batteries alone are charged when on shore power/gen power. On others they come from the factory with a solenoid that charges the Chassis battery AFTER the House batteries are near full charge.

On yet other motorhomes previous owners have installed a "Trik-L-Start" or an "Amp-L-Start" (or similar) so that the Chassis battery gets some charging when the House Batteries are charged on Shore/Gen power.

[71_340]

Before installing a TRIK-L-Start on my 2019 Sprinter based RV my chassis battery was dead in less then two weeks; I no longer have that problem after spending $55.00. In my opinion it's the way to go IF you have a solar system.

[Motorman]

Originally Posted by creativepart

Motorman... the engine alternator charges your House batteries and your Chassis battery. I don't know which you are calling your "coach batteries" - the House or the Chassis batteries?

On Shore Power and Generator it depends on your motorhome and how it's set up as to what's being charged. I see you have a Sightseer but have no idea of the year or how your motorhome is set up.

On some motorhomes the House batteries alone are charged when on shore power/gen power. On others they come from the factory with a solenoid that charges the Chassis battery AFTER the House batteries are near full charge.

On yet other motorhomes previous owners have installed a "Trik-L-Start" or an "Amp-L-Start" (or similar) so that the Chassis battery gets some charging when the House Batteries are charged on Shore/Gen power.

Thanks for the information .... I've just had the 2006 Sightseer for about a month so I'm in a learning phase of how the systems function. The previous poster referred to the "house" batteries as "coach" so I followed suit. I was not aware they were also receiving charge from the alternator. The 2006 has what I will call a "jump start" switch so you can start the vehicle if your chassis battery goes low and I was thinking that was the only cross connect between the systems. I kind of like the idea of the Amp-L-start and may check into adding one. Thanks again.

[Rick 99037]

I have an 2005 Sightseer. I'm guessing we have a similar configuration.
If I switch off the batteries (by the door,) and am plugged into 110, everything still works inside.
I was told to turn off the batteries when I was parked at a sight, so I didn't keep percolating water out of the batteries from being charged by the inverter. Naturally, you'd flip it back on when traveling, and still be topped off then.
If the front radio is switched to those batteries, you loose your presets in doing this.
Just a thought.

[creativepart]

Originally Posted by Rick 99037

I was told to turn off the batteries when I was parked at a sight, so I didn't keep percolating water out of the batteries from being charged by the inverter. Naturally, you'd flip it back on when traveling.

Don't know who told you this... and I don't know EVERY Winnebago but I'm 100% confident that you ONLY turn off the batteries when you STORE the RV between trips. You would never turn off the batteries during a trip. It's for storage only.

So I looked up your Operator's Manual. Here's a link to the PDF:

https://winnebagoind.com/resources/m...5Sightseer.pdf

It clearly says you turn off the batteries ONLY FOR STORAGE:

[Rick 99037]

Thanks for your input. Clearly the document you show says that. And yet percolating floated batteries and the therein losing of water, resulting cell damage, reduced life span, and reduced output; is a fact of life too. Oh and the person that mentioned turning it off also said it guaranteed you wouldn't come back to dead batteries due to some unknown system drain too, but that would only be the case if you were dry camping, not plugged in.
As I cautioned, and your info reinforced; if the 110 power does go off you lose radio presets etc. But we are not causing some catastrophic event here ether.
The manual aside, we each need to decide which greater concern we have. This is just a personal choice here.

[creativepart]

Originally Posted by Rick 99037

Thanks for your input. Clearly the document you show says that. And yet percolating floated batteries and the therein losing of water, resulting cell damage, reduced life span, and reduced output; is a fact of life too.

Yes... and NO. While using your RV and driving or plugged into shore power and or generator you are not in any risk of boiling away your fluid in your batteries. If this were the case no one could even use their RVs. How do you think folks that live full-time in their RVs could even function if that were the case?

The chargers in your RV are smart enough to not boil away your battery fluid with normal use.

That risk is real when in storage, not being used and plugged in constantly. Especially if you are not checking your batteries fluid level regularly (monthly).

The only way this "boiling" would be a real risk is if the converter charger or inverter charger is malfunctioning and applying to high charging voltage for too long. But that is not a normal occurrence only a malfunction.

[Elkman]

Best for the health of the house batteries is to have them fully charged during cold weather where the RV is not in used. For lithium batteries a 80% charge is better for storage. There are differences between the old FLAT and AGM and Lithium batteries so one cannot generalize.

[rprochnow]

Our 21VD has two 125Ah lithium batteries, 480W of solar and an AMP-L-START.

The lithium batteries are charged from shore power, Sprinter engine and solar.

The engine battery is charged from Sprinter engine and (because of the AMP-L-START) from the coach batteries.

Since our RV storage has a 110V shore power outlet, we'll never disconnect the batteries. We'll leave the RV plugged into 110 power, which will keep both the coach and engine batteries charged.

Plus, because we'll likely be using the RV at least once each month, we aren't planning for any long term storage.

[powercat_ras]

When I am dry camping for more than a day or two , I turn off the chassis battery switch, this makes the battery drain on the chassis battery minimal. On my 2015 vintage Vista 27N this also reduces drain on the coach battery slightly as the Intelligent Battery Monitor connects the coach battery to the chassis battery whenever it senses the chassis battery needs to be charged and it sees charging voltage on the coach battery side, so this happens rarely with the drain on the chassis battery minimized.

The only effect of doing this is that the Ford F53 information display trip miles reset to zero.

[Elkman]

Originally Posted by 71_340

Before installing a TRIK-L-Start on my 2019 Sprinter based RV my chassis battery was dead in less then two weeks; I no longer have that problem after spending $55.00. In my opinion it's the way to go IF you have a solar system.

If your house battereries are lithium phosate then something like the Precision Circuits Li-BIM 225 is what is needed to charge both house and starter (crank) batteries while the RV is parked. This is the lithium BIM and they also make a standard one for AGM or FLAT batteries only. The shorepower or solar panels will first fully charge the house batteries and then when they are at 100% it will divert charging to the chassis battery or batteries.

I need to verify it but it appears that two 100W solar panels are enough to keep all the batteries, house and chassis, at full charge and also to be able to run the compressor fridge to do a pre-trip cooling down prior to putting anything insde. Norcold manual states to bring the unit to the set temperatures before putting anything inside.

[rprochnow]

The company that makes TRIK-L-START also makes AMP-L-START which adds support for lithium batteries.

However... If the lithium batteries have BMS (the Lithionics batteries Winnebago is installing View/Navion have that built-in), TRIK-L-START may work, since the BMS will protect the battery from being fully depleted.