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Procrastinator Pain

dirty6

dirty6

Ranger
Good evening,

Looking for some quick feedback if there is anyone out there.

We had our 560 stored for 3 weeks without remembering to flip the DC disconnect switch. I went back to the storage lot and the voltmeter was reading 11.8. I flipped the switch and left.

3 weeks later I yanked the trailer home to winterize it. The low temp tonight will be 33, so we will likely survive even if I don’t get this done. But - it had been forecast for 26.

anyway, when I went to turn the water pump on to do the winterization - no power. DC disconnect switch is “on,” nothing reading on the voltmeter. Battery charger light is a solid green. Plugged in to shore power from a good outlet with a good extension cord, nothing. Tried the dc breaker switch, nothing.

My guess is I killed the battery dead dead. I ripped it out and have it on a charger in the house - maybe I can bring it back to life enough to do the winterization. But the charger in the house is waffling - it seems to charge for a bit then throws up the red light for “bad battery or clamps reversed.”

here’s my 2 questions:

do you agree I’ve nuked my battery by being a lazy dumb-dumb when it came to storage?

and

Can I yank my car battery out of the car and hook it to the trailer right quick to have enough juice to complete winterization? Eh? 12 volts is 12 volts?
 
12 volts is 12 volts….you’re exactly right. Just make sure you don’t short anything that isn’t fused….I’ve used the “Jump packs” to good success a couple times.

water pump draws a lot…hopefully it comes back. How old is the battery and how often have you done this?
 
Sweeney said:
12 volts is 12 volts….you’re exactly right. Just make sure you don’t short anything that isn’t fused….I’ve used the “Jump packs” to good success a couple times.

water pump draws a lot…hopefully it comes back. How old is the battery and how often have you done this?
Click to expand...


Thanks for the reassurance! Battery is original and has generally been well cared for … until now. We used to have a garage in the old house, so the trailer was on shore power when not used. Having to store it separately is a new development.

The charger continues to throw errors at me as the night goes along. I think I’m just buying a new battery tomorrow and that’ll be that.

edit - sorry, by original I mean it’s original when we bought the 560 new in May 2019
 
The battery charger in your camper will not charge a dead battery. It has to first recognize that it is connected to a good 12v battery before it will start charging. The green light on the charger is just telling you that it is powered up and waiting to be connected to a battery. Charge your battery via alternative method such as connecting to the tow vehicle and letting it run or connect up a conventional "dumb" battery charger directly to the battery.

The battery will likely come back to life once you get it charged up enough to show on the meter.

Cary
 
Good point -- I didn't even think about that. The charger I use (and was thinking about) for the car and motorcycle batteries is an OLD dumb charger that just dumps 6/12 volts mindlessly ---- no fancy microcontroller safety checks :) The down side is that if you hook it up backwards it will happy dump those pixies in ...backwards. Never done it --- not in a hurry to try it.

Thanks for the catch...

What is the minimum voltage detected by the onboard charger?

For things like this, give me the ol' dumb chargers....just don't be dumber than they are by reversing polarity....I've got a schumacker that is probably 30 years old...and it still works...I love it.
 
I am not sure the exact voltage where the charger stops thinking it is connected to a 12v battery. Somewhere in the 8-9 volt range is our observation. That is about the same voltage that the built in volt meter also goes dark. So, if the meter is not displaying it is safe to say the charger will not charge also.

Cary
 
Super helpful information, good to know!

I’ve learned:

1) the discharge may have seriously reduced the capacity of the battery, but it might survive well enough to get the water pump going for a winterization after an external charge

2) the threshold of the on board charger and voltmeter display

3) that, in a pinch, any old car battery (12v) will allow me to run the pump for winterization


The temp only got to 33 last night for a few hours, so I think I’m safe as far as the plumbing system. The battery is sitting on a charger in my house and will charge for awhile, then kick an error saying that the battery is dead. If I disconnect the cables, it resets and begins charging again for a few hours before kicking an error.

We are planning to get one last camp trip in before calling it quits for the winter, and we will have shore power/hookups for that trip. If I can get this battery to limp through the trip and run the water pump well enough to winterize the plumbing system, I’ll plan to buy a new battery in the spring. I’m grateful the batteries aren’t as expensive as I thought they were - I was under the impression I had made a $400 mistake until I saw the price of a new battery.
 
Cary Winch said:
I am not sure the exact voltage where the charger stops thinking it is connected to a 12v battery. Somewhere in the 8-9 volt range is our observation. That is about the same voltage that the built in volt meter also goes dark. So, if the meter is not displaying it is safe to say the charger will not charge also.

Cary
Click to expand...

The voltage in the initial was "10%" according to most of the charts....

Probably the best way to tell (oh man, we're geeks!) is to put a volt meter across the +/- terminals of the battery...should read 11.8 --- once the shore power is plugged in, in a minute or lest should jump to 13.8 or so....if it does, then the charger is choochin' and the bulk chart will have begun...
 
For anyone who cares to know the follow up:

after a couple start and stop days on a charger inside the house, the battery seemed to be charging steadily. I put it back in the camper and the onboard battery charger saw it and started charging right away. 2 more days later the voltmeter said it was at 13.1 volts. When I unplugged from shore power it went down to 12.9 right quick.

We went ahead and launched our Veterans Day trip without buying a new battery. Hardly needed any battery for the trip - the car charged the battery for 6 hours en route, and then we had a shore power hook up when we got there. No issues, though I don’t have a warm fuzzy about the overall health of the battery long term. We have made it to winter, at least.
 
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