Maintenance & Restoration

GeorgeR · 10-26-2011, 04:56 PM

We left our trailer for 3 months and found their 3 27 series Interstate deep cycle/starting batteries dead. They had tendency to self-discharging and with the trailer store under the roof the solar system did not work. Charging recovered them to at best to 50% of their capacities. One of the batteries leaked a little of acid so tongue tray corroded in few places. I combined repainting, installation of new batteries with installation of recently purchased 25lb. fiberglass LPG tanks into one project. Lifting 30lb LPG steel tank was a dreadful event, a key reason for getting new fiberglass tanks. It was tight squeeze but I managed. New batteries are 27 series Exide NG27, real deep cycle batteries and they are about 1” taller and 15lb/ea. heavier (65lb/ea.) than old dual purpose Interstates. The mount of steel LPG tanks had to be removed and replaced with my own design simple fiberglass tanks mount. I painted the battery tongue tray with polyurethane paint (truck bed liner). See the pictures. The end result is 315AH of deep cycle batteries with 50lb of LPG visible through the fiberglass tanks; and dreadfulness of refueling the heavy tanks is gone.
George.

honda03842 · 10-26-2011, 06:09 PM

We keep our batteries under continuous charge when we are away and have had extraordinary battery life.

Our motorhome batteries, Trojan 105s have lasted for 14 years. We kept them charged with a Progresive Converter with Smart charger. Our traditional Ford Truck battery was replaced after 9 years.

We're usually gone about 7 months and the water level is usually down a little but the plates were never above the water/acid level. We simply add a little distilled water and everything's normal.

With the Scamp the batteries are never off the charger, either from the Converter, Solar panels or the tow vehicle except at night when boondocking.

GeorgeR · 10-26-2011, 06:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by honda03842

We keep our batteries under continuous charge when we are away and have had extraordinary battery life.

Our motorhome batteries, Trojan 105s have lasted for 14 years. We kept them charged with a Progresive Converter with Smart charger. Our traditional Ford Truck battery was replaced after 9 years.

We're usually gone about 7 months and the water level is usually down a little but the plates were never above the water/acid level. We simply add a little distilled water and everything's normal.

With the Scamp the batteries are never off the charger, either from the Converter, Solar panels or the tow vehicle except at night when boondocking.

We are storing the trailer in the covered storage with no access to 110V. My options are to store it in open storage, or next to the house with solar or grid power available, or to have absolute disconnect (Link 10 and Morningstar are wired permanently). We travel about 3 month every year so before the next trip I will pick one of these options. The Interstate batteries were weak from the get go, no near ½ of total 3 x 105AH. Without disconnecting Link10 meter and Morningstar Controller my drain is around 30mA, so 3 month would represent about 65AH, way below batteries rated capacity. I believe the self-discharge was the key issue with these batteries.
To store the trailer next to the house I need to engineer a custom gate and be good enough with backing or pushing the trailer downhill with 8 clearances on each side.

George.

honda03842 · 10-26-2011, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeorgeR

We are storing the trailer in the covered storage with no access to 110V. My options are to store it in open storage, or next to the house with solar or grid power available, or to have absolute disconnect (Link 10 and Morningstar are wired permanently). We travel about 3 month every year so before the next trip I will pick one of these options. The Interstate batteries were weak from the get go, no near ½ of total 3 x 105AH. Without disconnecting Link10 meter and Morningstar Controller my drain is around 30mA, so 3 month would represent about 65AH, way below batteries rated capacity. I believe the self-discharge was the key issue with these batteries.
To store the trailer next to the house I need to engineer a custom gate and be good enough with backing or pushing the trailer downhill with 8 clearances on each side.

George.

Maybe a 50 watt Solar Panel on your Covered Storage roof. This would probably solve the issue for about $200.

Our first year RVing we left our Bounder in storage in SC and came back to find the 3 batteries discharged. We were not smart enough to simply disconnect the batteries for 2 weeks.

One thing I have neved did on the motorhome was to see what the motorhomes drain was just sitting. On the surface I know of only two drains, propane and CO detectors though I suspect the fridge, water heater and heater control boards draw power all the time. Did you measure your drain or is the 30ma an estimate?

GeorgeR · 10-26-2011, 08:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by honda03842

Maybe a 50 watt Solar Panel on your Covered Storage roof. This would probably solve the issue for about $200.

Our first year RVing we left our Bounder in storage in SC and came back to find the 3 batteries discharged. We were not smart enough to simply disconnect the batteries for 2 weeks.

One thing I have neved did on the motorhome was to see what the motorhomes drain was just sitting. On the surface I know of only two drains, propane and CO detectors though I suspect the fridge, water heater and heater control boards draw power all the time. Did you measure your drain or is the 30ma an estimate?

Unfortunately the roof is about 20' high and it is in the public storage so I am not certain if owners would allow it.

Yes, I measured the drain current with DC clamp-on amp-meter (AEMC CM605). I will measure again but this time separately current drain on Morningstar and Link10. Current meter on Link10 was oscillating between 0.0 A to 0.1 A. when it was on. The Link10 turns off its digital display for energy savings and then the clamp meter read 30 mA. Master relay disconnects all other devices potentially causing current drain.

George.

Daniel A. · 10-31-2011, 01:10 AM

Really a nice looking job George. What would your tongue weight be.

GeorgeR · 11-01-2011, 07:51 PM

Thank you for your comment. I measured the tongue weight and it is 750lb. See the attached table showing how this tongue weight relates to tongue weight as a percentage of the trailer weight. For dry camping I carry full tank of water, 30 gal. All variable fresh and waste water weight is located at the trailer rear end and fresh water tank at the rear wall. Trailer tows superbly; like on rails. Part of this is good percentage of tongue weight as well as modified original Bigfoot leaf spring suspension.

Bigfoot added 400lb of steel for generator mount (two 2”x5”x6’ solid steel frame crossmembers) which is about 210lb additional tongue weight. I could partly remove that weight if tongue weight would need to be reduced.

George.