22 2100BH with solar power and battery

[grogers]

Just purchased a new 2100BH; being new to solar I have a few questions:
1. I have removed the battery for the winter; should I have left it installed and relied on the solar to keep the battery charged?

2. Here in Nebraska it is cold and windy. Should I use the stabilizing jacks while camper is in storage?

Any advise from more experienced campers than me would be appreciated. Thanks to all who reply.

[Marine359]

Whether to remove the battery depends on what kind of battery you have. LiFePo4 are perfectly happy being stored in the cold. Not so with FLA. You either have to bring them inside or put a battery minder or charger on them, because they have liquid electrolyte that can freeze. Using solar to charge FLA stored is not reliable because you can have too many consecutive days without sun. But there are others in cold climates that may do this, so you might want to hear from them first.

Stabilizers down good. But likely no harm done if you don’t put them down. Just another route for mice to climb up into the camper.

[DavidM]

I store my MH in NW Connecticut with the AGM batteries in place and kept charged up by the solar panel(s). I have a factory installed 100 watt panel on the top which works great- as long as it isn't covered with snow. That can last for several weeks at a time in this climate.

So I hooked up a 50 watt panel and taped it to the south facing back bumper, about 20 degrees from vertical to keep the snow off and ran 18 gauge cable to the existing controller and alligator clipped it to the input terminals along with the existing 100 watt panel.

My MH uses less than a tenth of an amp parasitic load when the battery disconnect switch is off. That is about 2 amp hours daily and even with the small 50 watt panel, that is enough to make up for lots of cloudy, rainy, snowy days.

I actually feel more comfortable with solar keeping the batteries up than being plugged into shore power. When I was a boater, my shore power cord was always being disconnected by some jerk.

David

[creativepart]

When I had TT and lived in Wyoming I would always bring my batteries to the house. I put them on wooden blocks in the garage (to keep them off the cold concrete) and connected them to a BatteryTender maintainer. This was the best way to ensure they were healthy for the next Spring/Summer season.

I live in South Texas now, and I can't do that with my current Class A - the 4-batteries weight nearly 70lbs a piece! But we use the RV all year long and I have 300w of solar on the roof. I park in covered storage but still get a little power anyway. After a month in storage my batteries are at 75% state of charge and we pretty much always use the RV some every month to two months at longest.

But, I think it's best practice to not trust shore power or solar panels in snowy locations. I would bring the batteries home so I could be sure that they were getting power and maintaining a charge. Especially, if I couldn't check on them every few weeks in storage.

[grogers]

Thanks everyone for sharing your knowledge and recommendations. The battery is a Interstate SRM24 which is sealed lead acid type; deep cycle 12 volt. I went ahead and removed it and will store it with a tender in my garage. Winter here can be nasty; but so far the temps. have been fairly decent. But wait till January and February. These months are usually the worst; lots of snow and cold.

[Marine359]

If you don’t mind spending a few extra bucks, get a NOCO 10 for $100. It’s programmable, so in case you get a different kind of battery, it will still work. It also will condition. Nice feature. Kept my old riding mower battery going for two extra years.