Escapees March-April 2024

mark, my words

Electrolyte Loss During Storage

Battery Drain Q. I just bought a Pleasure-way (Dodge Sprinter chassis with a Mercedes Benz 2.7 diesel engine) and when I overnight, the battery drains down unless I’m hooked up to an electrical outlet. I see where the previous owner purchased a new battery last spring, so I’m thinking he had problems, too. I’m totally new to RVing and I don’t have a clue what’s wrong. A. Many things can cause a house battery to run down quickly. Are you being conservative in your use of 12V power when you are dry-camped? If you still have incandescent lights inside, consider replacing all those incandescent bulbs with LED equivalents. It’s an easy and inexpensive way to improve your rig’s dry-camping ability. If you use an inverter to power AC devices and appliances, remember that it takes a lot of 12vdc power to run that inverter. A typical forced-air RV furnace is a big 12V power hog, too, as the fan draws about fi ve amps. A furnace running overnight can fl atten your house battery. A single house battery only has about 100 AH of capacity at best, so you must ration your power usage a bit. If you are conserving power and still having problems, then you may have what I like to call a “phantom load.” That’s a 12V electrical load that’s on and drawing power to which you are unaware. When plugged in, it’s no big deal, but when dry-camping with no electrical hookups, it can run your battery fl at in a hurry! Look for a light inside a compartment that’s been left on or a closet light or fridge light that doesn’t go out when you close the door. If you can’t fi nd a phantom load, you should have the battery system and charger examined by a quali fi ed person who can check the charging and static voltage at the battery and test the battery for overall health. You can do some of this yourself if you are handy with a meter. A healthy and fully-charged lead-acid battery should read 12.6 or better when not under any load or being charged. A fully charged 12V lithium battery should read around 13.5V. This should be checked with the rig unplugged from shore power and no 12V loads on. Then, plug back into AC power and check battery voltage again. Your charging system (converter) should raise that voltage when you are plugged into AC power, it should be 13.5V or higher for lead-acid, and 14V + for lithium.

Q. My travel trailer is equipped with two lead acid RV/ marine batteries. When I leave the trailer plugged in at the house between trips, the battery electrolyte level drops signi fi cantly. Is it better to just leave the trailer unplugged and let the batteries go low? I’ve tried a 1.5 amp battery maintainer, but the same thing happens when I use that. What is the proper way to maintain these batteries when not inuse? Jerry A. Most RV converters will boil off some water when the rig is left plugged in for a long time during storage. To avoid this, you can unplug the rig and disconnect the batteries, then use an automotive battery charger once a month to keep the batteries topped off. Once a month for 8–12 hours will do it. Or you can use a timer to turn on your converter once a day for an hour or so. That will keep the batteries up and not use so much water. Many converters plug into a standard outlet inside the rig, so that’s an easy fi x. Finally, you can just check and fi ll those batteries on a regular basis, like once a month. It really doesn’t hurt them to lose water to the charging process as long as you faithfully maintain the electrolyte level above the plates by adding distilled water when needed. Inverter Turns On and Off Q. Sometimes my Heart inverter will turn on and o ff while charging the batteries. At other times it works just fi ne. Any ideas as to the cause and how to correct this problem? The inverter is about 14 years old. A. Judging from the age of your unit, I’d bet that the cooling fan is either seized up or running too slowly to provide adequate cooling when the unit is charging. When the unit gets too warm, the built-in overtemp protection shuts it down until it cools off. Since it depends on the ambient temperature, it may happen only on warmer days. It’s really just a guess, but check the cooling fan. They are easily replaced if they fail.

DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION FOR MARK? Submissions must not contain commercial advertising or consumer advocacy issues. Due to the large volume of material and correspondence submitted, we may be unable to reply or acknowledge receipt of your material. Material will be edited. Questions and answers with the highest general interest may be repeated in subsequent issues. Questions can be sent by mail to “Mark, My Words” Column, 100 Rainbow Drive, Livingston, TX 77351-9300 or to techquestions@escapees.com.

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March/April 2024 ESCAPEES Magazine