Battery drain in winter storage.

[SailorDon]

During the summer, my 2014 Wilderness 2175RB was disconnected from shore power for up to 2 weeks on occasion. The standard battery (Interstate Group 24) that came with my travel trailer would be about 1/2 charge after 2 weeks of temporary storage. Everything was turned off. There is no battery disconnect switch, so there was still 12 VDC power to the travel trailer.
There must be battery drain items like smoke detectors, LP gas detectors, Carbon Monoxide detectors, etc. that have no off switch.

When I decommissioned my travel trailer for winter storage, I left the battery connected, but disconnected the shore power. After 4 weeks, the battery was discharged.
I plugged into shore power and the battery seems to have taken a full charge overnight.

For remainder of the winter storage, I will leave the positive lead disconnected from the fully charged battery.

I hope that solves the battery discharge problem.
.

 

[cookie]

I would recommend removing the negative (-) cable from the battery rather than the positive (+).
The reason is for safety. If you have a wrench on the positive and happen to touch some metal in the area, bad things will happen when you create a dead short.
If you are wrenching on the negative side it won't matter if you touch any other grounded metal.

Peace
Dave

 

[Hoosier Wolverine]

I would recommend removing the negative (-) cable from the battery rather than the positive (+).
The reason is for safety. If you have a wrench on the positive and happen to touch some metal in the area, bad things will happen when you create a dead short.
If you are wrenching on the negative side it won't matter if you touch any other grounded metal.

Peace
Dave

Good point Dave. Always a good idea when working with batteries.

 

[JohnDar]

The LP detector, TV antenna amplifier (if red light is on) and the radio (if it's a 12V model with a LCD display) are a constant drain on your battery. When we had a TT, I had to disconnect the battery while in storage or have a dead battery. Installing a cut-off switch is the way to go.

 

[SailorDon]

I haven't found a good location for a battery cut off switch. Since I only put it in winter storage (no power) once a year, disconnecting the battery is no big deal.

After reading some replies to my post, I've removed the battery from my travel trailer and the battery is stored in my garage for the winter.

 

[Silverado23]

Don't forget to occasionally top off the battery during the winter.

 

[caissiel]

I park all my equipment batteries out in the cold for the winter or 6 months. Disconnect the ground and fully charge them

In the spring when i return i connect the ground and start the vehicle without boost.
I read somewhere years ago that cold batteries that are fully charge do no loose their charge as much as warm batteries.

In 8 years i never lost one.

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