Battery re-charge question

[dennisl]

I need to recharge the battery in my Mountaineer. If I leave the battery in the fiver, do I need to disconnect the wires from the battery posts, or just hook up the charger as is? Thanks.

[timandsusan]

Just as you would charge a car battery while it is in the car--Turn off all circuits to the battery and connect the battery charger to the battery. Basically you want the battery charger only charging the battery and not providing any electricty to anything else--like lights.

[Charlie]

Before I relocated this past January I had 110V at the back of the trailer and left it plugged in all the time to keep the battery charged. Now I do not have that privilege so I leave the battery disconnected until I get ready to use the trailer. As Tim said, charge it like you would any other 12V battery. The only thing I can add to his reply is there are a couple things that are always connected and are constant drains on the battery.

[noneck]

Maybe I'm confused here...but seems to me if you turn off all appliances, why not just let the coach converter charge the batteries? This shouldn't be an issue on a 20 amp circuit as long as your aware and saves having to pull terminals on battery to connect a battery charger?

[fulltimedreamer]

I just had to replace our coach battery after being in service for 5 years and 2 months. We always just used the built in charger to keep the battery topped off. We kept our coach plugged in all the time. It never seemed to boil the water off until the last month or so. I did use the recondition cycle of my charger on the battery last fall as the battery had been in service so long. If we ever had to park it with no power available, I would disconnect a lead from the battery. We'll see if the higher capacity Wal*mart deep cycle I just installed will do as well as the Trojan I just replaced.

[jimcar827]

Don't forget to check the water level in EVERY cell using distilled water.
Jim

[Bill and Lisa]

Dennis,
Have we answered your question?
- If you have your rig parked where 120V is available, recommendation would be to charge the battery via the installed converter. There is an adapter available that allows your 30Amp cord to plug into a 120v extentsion cord - ONLY charge the battery so as to maximize the charge rate, leave lights, fridge, hotwater heater etc. off.
- If you want to recondition your battery or have other AC loads that you can't or don't want to turn off you could run a seperate cord to a battery charger and charge the battery directly. I would open the battery disconnect switch (red handle in your convience center) to isolate the battery from the rest of the rig's electrical system.