[Archived]

Sounds like too much work.

Unless there are issues or phantom loads if your chassis batteries are good they will literally go months without any attention. After 2 or 4 months of storage I turn on the 3 stage charger, but if my use of the bus is less than 3 months between trips I do nothing. But…….I will not use any battery other than Delco 1150 and regardless of condition, at 5 years they get replaced.

For the house, when I had AGM I always had my inverters on as chargers. If I had long term storage with no shore power I would put the coach to sleep, but as long as I had shore power the inverters were on. Again, no effort and 5 year replacement regardless of condition.

Now with Li, inverters are on all the time, but like before they have a “silent” mode, and I expect in 35 years or so I will probably consider Li battery replacement.

[Shelly]

Jon:

What is your procedure to put the coach to sleep?

How long are you comfortable leaving it in sleep?

Chuck

[DON]

I only put the coach to sleep when it is getting longer service and no opportunity to keep power to it or house or chassis batteries connected.

The chassis requires nothing more than flipping a switch.

The house is more involved because I have to turn all loads off. I have to disconnect my generator start system Liberty calls the Watchdog. I then have to turn off power to the inverters, then the inverters, and finally I turn off the battery master switches.

Do not assume that is how your coach needs to be put to sleep. Every converter probably has a specific procedure to follow and it might not be like I described above.

[DON]

Don: Why do you rotate the $5 trickle charger from battery to battery when you already have a Marinco/Guest charger (which I presume is a three-stage smart charger) installed on the coach? If you’re concerned about the batteries going down, why don’t you just leave that on?

I installed a Marinco/Guest three-stage smart charger on the coach. If I inadvertently leave something on (like the clearance and maybe the headlights, etc.) I use the Marinco/Guest charger to bring the chassis batteries back up. Otherwise, its turned off. (I’ve had a very lively Facebook discussion with a well known Prevost guru/inspector over not just leaving the Marinco/Guest charger on all the time.)

We parked the coach on June 21st (Father’s day) after a short four day trip. We were leaving for the weekend at Road America last Saturday (August 1st, 81 days, two month and 21 days later). On Thursday I went to the coach, turned the key to “ON”, and saw about 23.5 or 23.6 volts on the dash voltmeter. I “think” this would have started the coach, but why make the starter work so hard? So I flipped the Liberty installed breaker for the dedicated chassis battery charger circuit. By noon on Saturday when it was time to go I had 25.5+ volts (maybe more, can’t remember) and the Detroit started quickly.

I repeat what Jon said in reference to Don’s procedure … too much work!

BTW … if any reader has an original, 1990’s vintage 24 volt battery charger, be very careful using it!!!!!

1. Its a dumb charger. Turn it on and it charges the batteries until you turn it off. It might overcharge and damage the batteries.

2. Replace it with a current technology, three-stage, smart charger. Shouldn’t damage your batteries.

3. Saves weight, gives you better acceleration and improved gas mileage due to less weight.

[Archived]

Putting our Liberty Classic to sleep. It lives under cover at or TX home:

1) Turn off all the switches in the electrical cabinet next to the frig,

2) turn off the inverters and chargers at the remotes in the same cabinet,

3) Go outside to the bay where the 2 inverter/charger master disconnect switches are located and turn them off.

In this same compartment sits the Craftsman charger already hooked up, just plug it in to a 120v electrical cord just outside the bay.

Then I go back to the chassis batteries and plug in their little trickle charger to its 120v electrical cord.

Done. This takes 3 minutes to accomplish.

It can stay asleep until the cows come home.

I do leave the 12v and 24v masters on all the time, unless I’m working on something electrical. I don’t leave the frig or Cruiseairs on.

A day or two before the next trip,

1) I unplug the Craftsman charger,

2) I plug the bus into our 50 amp shore outlet,

3) reverse the above shut down order,

4) turn on the frig.

I never leave it plugged into shore power between trips unless I need it for mx or something.

[Archived]

Just curious. Why not just leave everything off or on as desired and leave the inverters on 100% of the time. This way any time you want to step in the coach or do something you can turn on the lights or maybe the water pump or any device you want for all the reasons you might have and your batteries are as well maintained as they can be.

I am in and out of the bus often while it is sitting here at home to do all sorts of things ranging from filling out the log books after doing some work on it to adjusting or tightening a cabinet hinge or latch to finding and replacing a non-working light bulb or any of the million little things to do wile it awaits the next trip. Right now all batteries are ready to go, the master switches are closed, but in the 120V electrical panel only the inverters and outlets are powered and on the DC side only the phantom loads are powered so after going to float my inverters go to silent mode and effectively turn themselves off until the battery voltage drops to 25.2 (12.6) at which time they go to float again. I could change the mode to float 100% of the time, but this works.

I am not wearing out or damaging batteries and while the coach is not shut down almost 100% of it has no power to it except as noted above.

What you are doing is OK, but using stand alone battery chargers seems a lot like using a window A/C in a house with central air.

[joel]

Nothing last forever, not $150 Marinco Guest chargers, not $2000+ each Magnum inverter chargers. And since I’m not made of $$$, I prefer to replace a $5 or $10 charger when the time comes.

Same goes for all the batteries in my life. I obviously take good care of them, keep an eye on their condition and capacity, keep them charged properly, and they take good long care of me. Yes it takes a little extra effort.

When I see that somebody has better success with their batteries than me, I’ll adopt their method(s).

Call me crazy.

---

1999 XLV X-6872,  liberty #440

[Archived]

I leave my inverters in charge-mode only when not using the coach for several weeks. This prevents the inverters from discharging the batteries should the power go out.

My last set of house batteries lasted almost 8 years. They could have done a couple more years going from power pole to power pole but were not up to dry docking several nights in a row. Out they came.

[Mark]

Keep my number handy boys, the house batteries have a tendency to fail at the worse possible time while trying to squeak out that last cycle while the inverters are going whacky.

[Archived]

Don,

I agree on the Pulsetech

[Dick]

FWIW, Since I previously replaced my batteries (house and chassis) every 5 years regardless of condition they still had life. Apparently a lot.

The guy that has two of my previously replaced sets had them go another 5 years until I replaced the next set, so my method of keeping the house inverters powered and on all the time does keep them healthy.

I trade in the chassis batteries so I can only assume they were recycled.

[al]

Or sold out the back door for an O/O dump truck or garbage truck.

[Archived]

Mine stays connected to 50A at home. So unless disconnected and reconnected for some reason inverters stay in float mode.

Marathon installed a jump-start solenoid in engine bay. I use a fused jumper lead with alligator clips on the house and chassis terminals on that solenoid. Keeps chassis batteries charged at same float voltage as house using inverters/chargers.