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Storage of a Prevost
as a Prevost newbie I am interested in what others have found to be best practices in storing your coach for a longer period of time i.e. like a couple months. I have scored a building to leave mine in that is heated but without a 50 amp service. If i was going to be able to keep the building, I would have a 50 amp cord installed. But this is a rental property of a friend of mine… So it is possible it will go away at virtually any month end. With that said I do have 15 amp standard cord connection and would love to know what others have found to be successful in this set up.
The liberty conversion I have as the standard 2500w heart inverters, and I didn’t set them up to (one of them) only utilize 15 Amps ( my tiffin xantrex does have the digital control for that I was very used to)
currently I have shut everything down at the interior panel.
I didn’t shut off the main battery switches back in the engine bay yetI’m expecting the preference is probably to keep a little bit of a trickle charge on at least the chassis batteries to keep them at float
Just in case anyone is used to ventilating their generator and just allowing it to run when the batteries go low to recharge… This building is fairly airtight and also has offices so there is no way to run ventilation for the Exhaust.
Ah the hardship of getting a free storage space (lol)
thanks in advance for replys – as always the info passed here is top notch and greatly appreciated!!
Mike
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8 Replies
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Mine is stored outside here in FL. I have installed battery tenders on the house batteries to hold a float of 13.2 volts. The engine (Prevost system) seems to hold for more then a month by turning the 12 and 24 volt disconnects in the engine compartment off.
1999 XLV X-6872, liberty #440 -
I would turn everything off inside, but leave the inverters on and set the shore cord size to 7.5 amps each to maintain float charge. I don’t remember which remotes you would have, but my last one had Power Share where you could adjust AC input.
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Also make sure the webasto and gen are not going to start up….
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thank all!
I need to locate a chassis battery charger to confirm if I actually have one. I left the inverters off, but with your suggestion Tom I will get them back up and running. The big question will How to set them at 7 1/2 and current draw piece. Will need to take a look at those remotes to figure that out.
webasto is off, auto start of the Gen is off.
About the the only things still on the other day was my voltage indicators (reading0.0) and the touch panels (when I pressed them)
Jeff – seperate convo. The driver touchpanel was hidden in a drawer in the lower right side of the dash. It is powered up and has the program running, but I don’t think it is wired in properly as it doesn’t control anything.. Olympia didn’t even realize it was there. They were told by the old owner it was removed to make way for the alpine navigation.
Mike
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Mike,
Your starting point for storage has to be an understanding of your coach. Your inverters have dip switches on the rear of the remotes to set the charging current. Set them so the current draw will not trip the breaker in the storage building.
Your chassis batteries will not need any trickle charge unless the batteries are going bad or unless you have a phantom load(s). Instead give serious consideration to your house. A typical Liberty has a number of phantom loads ranging from things like the electric clocks, alarm system, CO detector, as well as from some other sources. Your concern is twofold. You have to determine if you want to put the entire coach to sleep, and thus periodically come in to put a charge in the batteries about once a month just to top them off, or if you want to leave the coach set up with the inverters maintaining the coach batteries with the phantom loads drawing power from the batteries. The key is to determine the risk either way. A loss of power if you rely in inverters or chargers is a recipe to kill the batteries.
With the coach there is power to the DDEC even with the master switches off on the chassis. But healthy batteries and an unmolested chassis electrical system will literally go for months without a charge.
The house is a different story, but if you put the entire coach to sleep via the house master switches (follow the proper procedure exactly) then all you have to do is the same as for the chassis which is an occasional recharge.
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jon,
awesome and detailed response as always.
Through some research earlier today today I found that I would in fact have to manipulate the dip switches.
After further her reading I find that most are replacing their heart freedom 25’s with magnums. I’m going to consider that as well – as we have a brand new Samsung refrigerator and don’t love the idea of a non pure sine Invertor running it. That would have the added (albeit smalll) benefit of not having to remove the freedom remotes each time I bring it back from a trip…
im sure I’ll go the route of using the inverters and put them in a low amperage mode.
Thanks again for all all of the replys !!
Mike
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Hey Mike,
When I lived in Fort Worth, I was about 4 miles from a small airport. Throughout the hangars there, there were probably 12 of us storing our coaches. The beauty of a hangar, is that most of them are already wired for 50amps or more. Since I only needed it for about 3 months (winter), it was nice having it close by and plugged in. The landlord (another Prevost owner) was in Florida during those months, so it worked perfectly for both of us.
Generally speaking, I’d guess it’s the most economical way to store our coaches, if you don’t have the luxury of garaging it at home.
Good luck!
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David,
thanks for the input. I too have a airport close, and have been meaning to go by to see if there was any space someone wanted to lease out.
For the the time being I have my bus feed with two seperate 15a circuits on a 50a split to two feeds. This allowed me to up the inverters to 15a each. – although I’m keeping a close eye on them…I don’t have a option other than 5a or 15a on the heart inverters, – so for considering options.
Mike
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