Winter Storage

[Sprint parts]

We have a new to us 2013 Journey 36M. In the past when I have parked our motorhome over the winter I had left it hooked to shore power in to maintain the batteries.

Several places in the owners manual it says to not leave it plugged in. I know a well charged battery will not freeze.

Anyone know why not to leave it plugged in?

[rk911]

only thing I can think of is doing do might damage the house battery(ies) IF the charger does not have a 3rd stage for floating.

[Trend_Owner]

Originally Posted by rk911

only thing I can think of is doing do might damage the house battery(ies) IF the charger does not have a 3rd stage for floating.

I agree. Nothing should be damaged by leaving it connected to shore power. My guess is that they say that in the manual for liability purposes.

Lead acid batteries will self-discharge at the rate of 3-5% per month, and every minute that they are not kept fully charged, some amount of irreversible damage is being done to them. You can recharge them monthly and avoid most of this damage, but many will forget to do that. Leaving it connected to shore power 24/7 avoids all that.

[Eagle5]

If your built-in house battery charger on your 2013 Journey is designed for battery maintenance, it should maintain the voltage just a hair above 13.00 volts; something like 13.05.
Eagle5

[DNC]

I have a 2016 Journey 36M and I leave mine plugged in whenever it's not on the road which is most of the time. I've had it almost two years and haven't had a problem leaving it plugged in.