Charging Batteries

Retyred

Active Member
To day I was installing my two 6 volt batteries in my Grand Canyon in preparation for my Texas trip in a couple of weeks. I had the batteries out as they did not seem to be charging properly. What I had found was corrosion and rust build up on the positive terminals. It seems when I had the batteries out last the wing nuts had loosened on the positive terminals. This had caused corrosion stopping the batteries from charging. I have now done away with the wing nuts and now use a regular nut that can be tightened with a wrench. I also used two flat washers and a lock washer. All of this hardware including the nut is stainless with hopes that it will not corrode. I think when I slid the batteries in the wing nuts loosened a little as the positive wire is very stiff. Before I put the batteries in I hooked up the trailer to the truck to check the voltage from truck to trailer. I found that I had 12 volts coming through to the battery, turning off the cut off switch no voltage coming through. Now I unplugged the truck and plugged into shore power and 13.5 volts from the converter. Again I turned off the battery power switch and no power to the battery. I had always wondered if the batteries still charged when that switch was turned off now I know.

Retyred
 

dieselengineer

Charter Member
This is a good item to talk about. With the shore power plug in, lot of us don't realize that there is a problem with the battery system. I like to test the battery system from time to time by discharging the batteries. I disconnect the shore power and turn on lights, heater, small inverter, etc. With this load on in steady state condition, check the voltage at the fuse box. Then check the voltage at the terminal of the batteries (on the terminals not cables) If the voltage is different by volt or more, you should check for hot connections. Clean the bad connection. Then you are good to go. The battery system will thank you.
 
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