This may be painful, so here is the Reader's Digest version.

Because I am such a smart guy, I picked my coach up a year ago last June with little instruction or knowledge of the systems in our Prevost. This included, but was not limited to, the house batteries.

After months of abuse that took the shape of running them down too far, charging them up too fast, boiling the acid out of them, not maintaining the correct water level in them and not paying much attention to the inverter, I basically torched a relatively new set of lead acid 8D batteries. They wouldn't stay charged for half a day.

So, not figuring I will live long enough to make all the mistakes, I turn to AGM Lifeline batteries and a smarter inverter. The old one had grossly overcharged the old batteries and that led to a plethora of issues.

Now I have been diligent to watch after these batteries even though they really don't need much care (other than to not charge them too fast) and to make sure that I am always aware of their voltage and if it is possible for them to run down or if I need to hit the master disconnect and remove the possibility of inadvertently running them down. If you decode all this, it means if I am not in or near the coach when it is running on battery power, I will either have the generator on, have it plugged in to shore power or disconnected.

I launch out for OSH last week with all my ducks in a row. After trying to get some work done and my OSH stuff stored, I circle back by the coach which is in a hanger on the other side of the airport. When I pull up, something is wrong. A new tenant has moved in beside me and.........unplugged my bus

The whole thing is dead and I am in the process of recharging the $2000 worth of virtually new AGM house batteries. There can be several outcomes to this tale and most are not good.

I am committed to charging the batteries back to the float position, then load testing them individually and then collectively with the inverter over time. If they don't return to their original performance, then the new tenant will shortly know how expensive a mistake it is to unplug something and toss the cord back up under the coach.

I post this in the interest of all who are either destine to make this mistake or have already made it and need reminding. Unless you have an endless supply of LewBucks, you had better know what’s going on with your house / coach / generator batteries and they need to be treated with more respect than we give the Mooney pilots.