Winter storage battery charging.

[ROBERT CROSS]

Doug,

Give Randy a call at Best Converter he won't steer you wrong, the model I linked is the one I got, couldn't be happier.
It was a 45min install in our Classic, plug & play.




Bob

[TinTin]

I installed a PD4655 from BestConverter, Doug. Easy install for an amateur electrician.

[KJRitchie]

4600 series Upgrade Kits

If your converter is the Parallax 7300 the above kit uses the compartment under the AC/DC fuse panels. I got the PD 4655 (55amp).

Kelvin

[Arcticfox]

Thanks folks I will get back to my trailer in a couple weeks and once there I will have the ability to confirm what I've got and call to figure out what I need with Randy.
It would be nice to change this out while I'm south as it will give me a project.....

Thanks again

Doug


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[Bigcgar]

Looking for advise. I pulled my 23D' out of storage today and hooked up my Lifeline Batteries that have been on a battery tinder charger since I disconnected the bats back in the fall. When I hooked it all up I cannot get the external trailer lights (brake lights, blinkers or running lights) to engage after hooking up the trailer cord to the truck. I've checked the truck connector and fuse box and all look ok. I also looked at the fuse box in the AS and didn't notice any blown fuses. Although I didn't see one labeled towing lights. Anyone with possible diagnosis. Much appreciated. I trying to get the trailer staged for selling it and I'm having this one issue. Murphy's Law it's always something. Thanks.

Allan


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[surfpod]

My question is, how does the cold affect a battery? I have my one Group 31 AGM battery being charged from 2-100w panels with a Trimetric 2025 and TriStar 45A controller. It seems to be fully charged all the time, but temps have been getting down to teens and single numbers recently. Does cold kill a battery?

[SSquared]

Originally Posted by Bigcgar

Looking for advise. I pulled my 23D' out of storage today and hooked up my Lifeline Batteries that have been on a battery tinder charger since I disconnected the bats back in the fall. When I hooked it all up I cannot get the external trailer lights (brake lights, blinkers or running lights) to engage after hooking up the trailer cord to the truck. I've checked the truck connector and fuse box and all look ok. I also looked at the fuse box in the AS and didn't notice any blown fuses. Although I didn't see one labeled towing lights. Anyone with possible diagnosis. Much appreciated. I trying to get the trailer staged for selling it and I'm having this one issue. Murphy's Law it's always something. Thanks.

Allan


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The battery in the trailer should not be involved/affecting the trailer turn/stop/running lights.

The fact that all those lights are failing suggests a ground problem. If you have a volt meter or 12 volt test light, check for the presence of power at the truck connector. Turn on the truck running lights and hazard flashers. Then find a ground on the frame/body of the truck and test the pins in the truck connector. Repeat the tests using the ground pin of the connector on the truck.

If it tests OK with the frame ground and not the connector ground, the connector ground is bad.

Since you are really only interested in the trailer side of it right now, you can also test the trailer lights without the truck. One of the pins in the trailer side of the connector should have 12 volts on it whenever the trailer battery is connected. You can touch a jumper wire from that pin to the pin for each of the connectors for the various lights. That should turn on the lights.

Note that when you do the jumper test, you are connecting from the battery to the light circuit without a fuse! That means if you have a short in the lighting circuit, you will get big sparks/melted wires. To be safe, you should get a fuse holder from an auto parts store (one with two short wires hanging off it). Insert a fuse, and do the jumper test with the two wires on the fuse holder.

You can find diagrams of what pin does what in the connector on the web. I think it is also in your Airstream owners manual. My tow vehicle has it printed right on the connector housing.

[lewster]

Originally Posted by surfpod

My question is, how does the cold affect a battery? I have my one Group 31 AGM battery being charged from 2-100w panels with a Trimetric 2025 and TriStar 45A controller. It seems to be fully charged all the time, but temps have been getting down to teens and single numbers recently. Does cold kill a battery?

Sort of a loaded question..........

Temperature definitely affects the voltages that a battery needs for proper charging. As the ambient temps go down, the voltage goes UP and conversely, as temps rise (above 77ºF), the required voltages drop! This is called temperature compensation, and quality chargers (your TriStar 45 included) should have their own temperature sensor located on a negative post of the battery bank.

If your solar is maintaining the battery at 100% state of charge (SOC), then you should have nothing to worry about. The danger zone is charging a discharged battery. When a battery has very low SOC, the sulfur in the battery acid mix (electrolyte) is mostly attached to the plates and very little is in the electrolyte, rendering it very close to water in specific gravity and with a very high potential for freezing. This can happen in AGMs also.

NEVER CHARGE A FROZEN BATTERY.......as it will almost certainly burst from shorting across the cells de to the lack of electrolyte concentrate in the separators.

You should check your solar charge controller to be certain that you do indeed have a temperature sensor connected to it.

[IanPoulin]

All,

This seems to be a fairly relevant thread to re-open to a question I had re winter battery management.

I've been reading/looking at battery tenders to obtain; to keep the two group 24s I currently have in a good charge state in the garage at the house, and it's led to a few questions I have.

Some of the reading suggests many battery tenders are not designed for "deep cycle" batteries as found in RV/Marine use, and may leave them in a state where they are permanently unable to obtain a full charge. Is this correct, and are there tenders available on the market today for which work well with deep cycle systems?

Secondarily, how do these tenders fare with batteries in serial, as the group24s are in use on the trailer normally?

Finally, since I am looking at options including AGM/GelCel and golf-cart parallel setups, how are these tenders with the mix of varied future formats? (Lithium is not in the picture right now, since I do go camping in sub-freezing temps.)

Thanks for any feedback you might offer,

Ian

[dznf0g]

Originally Posted by IanPoulin

All,

This seems to be a fairly relevant thread to re-open to a question I had re winter battery management.

I've been reading/looking at battery tenders to obtain; to keep the two group 24s I currently have in a good charge state in the garage at the house, and it's led to a few questions I have.

Some of the reading suggests many battery tenders are not designed for "deep cycle" batteries as found in RV/Marine use, and may leave them in a state where they are permanently unable to obtain a full charge. Is this correct, and are there tenders available on the market today for which work well with deep cycle systems?

Secondarily, how do these tenders fare with batteries in serial, as the group24s are in use on the trailer normally?

Finally, since I am looking at options including AGM/GelCel and golf-cart parallel setups, how are these tenders with the mix of varied future formats? (Lithium is not in the picture right now, since I do go camping in sub-freezing temps.)

Thanks for any feedback you might offer,

Ian

"Deep cycle" lead acid batteries are fine with the standard automotive 12 volt battery maintainers. AGMs and (of course) Lithiums have different charging needs. Your batteries are in parallel in the trailer....not series. To that end, when I removed my batteries (before solar installed) for the winter, I made up some jumpers to hook the batteries in parallel in the garage. Then the battery maintainer is installed so that the negative lead goes to the negative post on one battery and the positive lead goes to the positive lead on the other battery. This ensures an even charge across both batteries. I'll look for a picture in my archives.