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How often should I be replacing chassis batteries?
Hello all,
I was just advised to replace chassis batteries every two years. Does that sound like an appropriate interval?
While traveling, we had a battery light illuminate and dash gauge indicated 11.9 volts. We ran our generator and used our small battery maintainer/charger. Our voltage on the gauges mode of our dash display went up to 12.7 volts but would drop to 12.3 volts with use of wipers and/or Jake brake.
We have a 50DN oil cooled alternator which I believe is for the house and a Bosch air cooled alternator for the chassis. I think I’ve got that straight.
Tech advised installing new chassis batteries before troubleshooting the alternator so I’m curious if other owners are changing chassis batteries every two years. Our chassis batteries are about two – three years old.
Thanks for your input.
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12 Replies
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The rule of thumb I always went by was around five years so that you didn’t have problems.
As you know, nothing breaks down at home in the bus barn.
It is possible to have one go bad before the five year mark which could lead to damage to some of the others.
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I had a five month old Interstate go bad; failed cell. The chassis batteries would NOT take a charge. Interstate replaced it under warranty. This is an example of one drop of gasoline spoils the whole bucket of lemonade.
Then when the original three were about 3 years and a few months old, I couldn’t get the chassis batteries to take a charge. (I was sensing a slow deterioration for about a week or ten days of moving every day or two.) So I pulled all four and replaced them with NAPA Legend with the most CCAs available.
IMHO (I’m not a mechanic and don’t have the knowledge that Buddy or Jon or Tom or BoaterAL, etc have) I think you’re getting mediocre advice to replace the batteries before testing the batteries and trouble shooting the alternator. I would recommend charging them, pulling them, and having them load tested at NAPA. NAPA typically likes to have them ALL charged overnight before the load test, but who has four chargers. Some of us might be smart enough to wire them together on the shop floor and charge them for a few days.
I suspect you have one or more of the four failing; emphasis on “suspect”. Load test them.
If you have a failed battery, I’ve seen strong recommendations from the smart guys on the Forum that ALL FOUR should be replaced once they are more than six months old. I was kinda in that position when I replaced all four of mine that weren’t very old. But I was already disillusioned with Interstate batteries, had planned on replacing them at some point with NAPA Legend, and didn’t want to screw around and get delayed anymore.
All that said … you might have an alternator problem. But you don’t know unless you test it. Or test the batteries.
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Until switching to LiFePo4 for the house every battery in my coach was replaced on its 5th birthday.
I disposed of a lot of very good batteries over the years. But I was never let down by my batteries. That is not to say I did not have to maintain them or use them properly. Chassis batteries were NEVER left on a float charge, trickle charger or battery maintainer because even if I did not start or drive the coach for 3 or 4 months they were always in good enough shape to reliably start the coach. However during their time when the bus was not used I monitored their voltage and when it reached 24 volts I recharged them with a 3 stage charger.
The house and generator batteries were the opposite. Unless I needed to do work that required all power off, the inverters were always on and were maintaining the house batteries. When not on shore or generator power I manually started my generator and recharged the house batteries to float when they had a SOC of no less than 50%.
My chassis batteries were always Delco flooded lead acid sealed batteries, model 1150, and my house batteries were always Lifeline 8D AGM.
I know my batteries had remaining life when I removed them, but there was no way I was going to willingly take a chance of a battery issue while traveling.
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Tad,
Unless I missed something here you never say what your charge rate is when the bus is running.So before you start pulling batteries I would check the dash gauge and go to the back and check with a voltmeter what your getting. Sorry you did say 11.4 while driving. Something amiss in the charging values.
You need at least 13 to 13.5 to know your charging system is working properly.
Like A1 I’m a 5 year guy.
Later
bv
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Hello all,
Thank you for the advice. I’ll check the alternator output first then go from there. I looked back in my records and I have changed the chassis batteries three times since I bought the coach in 2015.
Thanks again,Tad
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I always used 3 years, Napa group 31 my preference.
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I”m a Napa group 31 too and I got love for my Brother Trucker but how in the hell could you change batteries every 3 years?
You never kept a Bus 3 years?
Later
bv
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Bernie,
LMAO…must get a little dusty and it’s time to change. I’am there also changing batteries every 3 years.
Pretty easy on the wallet with the NAPA card.
AL
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We got 8 yrs out of the 4 NAPA commercial mx free group 31 chassis batteries that I recently replaced. They were still working fine but NAPA had a 20% off sale so I couldn’t pass that up.
Your results may vary.
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There is such a thing as date codes you olé gear jammer.
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Greetings Jon,
Have you heard any bad reports about Interstate 8D Gel/Cell house batteries?
Mine are not taking a charge and am looking at Continental Batteries as replacements.
Happy Holidays and All the Best
Earl Justus
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Lifeline AGM’s all the way. Tom Chilcote can help you make a good decision on them or the alternatives that are available.
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