I was getting my rig ready for a long weekend of relaxation in Palm Springs. Plugged in the external electrical on Thursday night to get the refrigerator cold as per my other half's instructions. Got up Friday morning to take trash out and I noticed as I passed by the AS, a burnt popcorn/rotten egg type smell. Further investigation reveled my batteries were smoking and very hot to the touch.
I Immediately unplugged electrical and disconnected batteries. After a period of cool down I opened the caps and sure enough the cells were dry as a cracker. I put some distilled water in the cells hoping that would fix the smoking battery caper. All looked ok for the first half hour. then I noticed smoke coming out of one of the batteries again. Being cautious, I pulled the one smoking battery out and went and purchased a new one. Put it the new battery and all looked well. Ready to get going on this long weekend (now 11:00 am), I could still beat that Friday out of town traffic. Did an electrical check to make sure that there was no electrical damage to the AS. To make "extra" sure everything was going well, I did a recheck of the battery box and sure enough, the other battery is smoking!
Damn, I knew I should have taken both batteries out for replacement. Fortunately, when I took the 2nd battery to the store they had one battery remaining in their inventory. Put the battery in (now 1:00 pm) and ready to go. Finally got on the road at 1:30 on a friday long weekend.
It's now Saturday evening, I'm sitting under a beautiful sunset in Palm Spring, Calif.
Safari-Rick
__________________ "Better to have more then you need, then need more then you have because you don't have enough!" AIR #: 8129
Sounds like you dodged a bullet. Enjoy the sunset.
__________________
Rodney
Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. - Thomas Jefferson
The nice thing about the 12V batteries in the Airstream is that you could have had your weekend on one battery without any problems whatsoever. Just disconnect the second one, and put the leads on the good one, and you're ready to go, and tow, since you need at least one good battery for breakaway functions. This could buy you time for getting the second one at your leisure.
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