Best Battery Practices?

[Shane826]

Originally Posted by Shane826

I asked this somewhere else but the thread was deleted. Which is better for off season battery storage? Fully charge the battery then store in the somewhat warm basement with no charger? Or fully charge the battery then store in freezing cold garage with a float charger (not a trickle charger)?

My mistake. I thought I posted this in a thread that was then deleted by the original poster. But I found I asked the question somewhere else.

http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ad.php?t=18339

[Shane826]

Does anyone know what gauge the battery cables are? I'm trying to find an inline blade fuse holder but the ones I'm finding at the car parts stores look really small gauge wire. Anyone have a recommendation? Or better yet, a breaker recommendation? I found a slick inline 30A breaker but it is for 15 gauge and larger cable (for car audio amps) so I don't think that will work.

[Bill]

Shane -

The battery wiring in a factory-built TM is #10, which has a nominal current rating of 30 amps. I don't believe that any TM (again, as factory-built) uses anything heavier.

Bill

[rickst29]

Originally Posted by Shane826

Does anyone know what gauge the battery cables are? I'm trying to find an inline blade fuse holder but the ones I'm finding at the car parts stores look really small gauge wire. Anyone have a recommendation? Or better yet, a breaker recommendation? I found a slick inline 30A breaker but it is for 15 gauge and larger cable (for car audio amps) so I don't think that will work.

The wire between the battery and DC Load Center is 10-AWG. (For DC wiring, TM used this wire size nearly everywhere.) Your "slick car audio breaker" might be the exact one I recommend - "15 gauge and larger", up to about 8-AWG, which works beautifully as a replacement for the failure-prone "spring-loaded cylinder" OEM fuse. There are zillions of EBay sellers, but this one has the highest rating right now, and the best price: http://www.ebay.com/itm/30A-12V-DC-S...-/262955171569.

After you've got that in place, you can easily shut off the batteries-to-TM power connection ("+" terminal) while leaving all of your wires in place. (The batteries and TM frame continue to share "-" Ground, but there's no "+" connection, and no circuit). Then, with phantom loads removed, you can use this maintenance device, it can handle up to about 250 AH of 12V battery capacity: https://www.amazon.com/CTEK-56-864-A.../dp/B006G14FK8

It's a very finicky 8-stage charger. It doesn't work for other battery types, and it doesn't have enough maximum amperage to handle phantom loads and charge batteries at the same time. (It also needs about 2 days to charge a typical pair of batteries from 50% State-Of-Charge.) Here's a picture of mine in action today:

[rickst29]

Originally Posted by DrAudio

I have a 2008 2619 with both the WFCO 3 Stage Charger and factory option Mark PV Controller (solar).

The now-discontinued "Mark 15" and "Mark 22" controllers are 1-stage chargers: ON or OFF, with only one setpoint for Battery Charging Voltage. It will not charge until the batteries are below 13.0 volts, and it will not stop until the batteries have reached 13.6 - 15.2V. (Adjustable, but the default is 14.4 - too high!). Dumb as a brick, but smaller.