batteries

[Pete Masterson]

My coach was received with a set of 3 smaller engine batteries and 6
'house' batteries in the 4-D size. All were Deka brand AGMs.

After a few months -- and a somewhat less-than-pleasant stay in a
state park with no hook-up and a long 'quite time' ... I determined
that my AGM batteries had probably been mishandled.

One factor was that the (non-standard) Link 2000 R battery controller
had been reset to "factory default" sometime during the 6 months the
coach had been in various dealer's hands. Unfortunately, the factory
default is for flooded cell batteries and it was overcharging the
AGMs -- severely shortening their life.

Since the engine batteries seemed ok, (They're a common size 34 or 37
or some such), I ignored them, but replaced the 6 house batteries
with Fullriver 4-D size AGM. These are a deep cycle battery used in
the solar industry. I've reprogramed the Link 2000 R controller to be
aware that AGM batteries are in use and I note that the charge and
float voltages are lower -- 12.95 instead of 13.4 with the flooded
cell setting.

I also discovered the reason for the poor boondocking performance --
and unfortunately, the batteries are not at the heart of the problem
-- rather the home-type refrigerator draws so much power, that the
batteries can't support that load and other "normal" activities for a
very long time. (I'm exploring other power management techniques to
better "survive" in a boondock situation in the future.)

Pete Masterson
'95 Blue Bird Wanderlodge WBDA 42
aeonix1@...
On the road at Russell Kansas



On Jun 4, 2007, at 9:31 PM, brad barton wrote:

>
> Anyone,
> It may be a simple case of batteries at the end of their useable
> life, but...
> If my coach is not plugged in, my three 4-D starting batteries and
> 6 gel-cell coach batteries drop to between 10.5 and 11.5 volts and
> I have to plug in or run the generator for a few minutes just to
> get a start, even tying in the generator batteri.
> I thought I might have left one inverter on by mistake, but when
> plugged in, they both switched over to charge and fully charged the
> batteries in a few hours. The meter was pegged at +300 amps for
> some time.
> I hope it's something stupid I'm doing rather than needing to buy a
> bunch of new batteries.
> Anyone have any experience with starting or gel-cell batteries from
> Costco? Brad Barton 00LXiDFW bbartonwx@...