House Batteries

[truk4u]

I knew my house batteries where heading south for a couple of reasons.

First, the charging system through the Traces Inverters are working properly, keeping the batteries on the 12v side at 13+ and the 24v side 26+. The alternator also is doing it's job when running.

Second, as soon as shore power is unhooked, the batteries go to barely 12v and 24v, with only the fridge running. I could tell they were getting worse when dry camping since they would only last 5 or 6 hrs at best, before getting down into the low 11's and 22's.

Third, the batteries where very hot since the charger had to work all the time to keep them up.

So, I pulled them all out, 6 Lifeline AGM 4D's and after load testing, I had 5 bad ones and one good. 3 of them where so bad they couldn't even stand the 10 second load test without dropping to the bottom of the gauge. When I bought the bus, I miss read the date codes and thought they were 2003's. Once I got them out I found date codes of 3/01 instead of 1/03. The 2 generator batteries are 27T's and one of them was weak, also date code 3/01. Pretty good batteries from Lifeline lasting 5 1/2 years.

The moral of this ugly story is check your batteries with a load tester and that is not an easy task since the cables have to be removed. Caution, on mine I had to disconnect the ground from the equalizer, kill all 12 and 24 breakers, shut down the inverters and kill the breakers. If you only have one bad one, it will drag down all the others. Also, the batteries will live a long time if not discharged below 50%, which is 12.2v or 24.4v. My autogen is set to start at 12.2v. Doing this myself using new Lifelines cost 2100.00 and I was quoted a range of 3800.00 to 4300.00 at Marathon and Prevost.

Now if I could just get Big Jerry to fly down here and lift the new batteries into the compartment, I'll be all set, 134 lbs each.

[ken&ellen]

Tom, I thought those were " life time " batteries? When I got my Liberty I found out a couple of days prior to a trip to Atlanta that my house batteries were in very poor condition. $1500 later and six new L161 Trojan, @ 121 lbs ea., we headed for GA. I keep those babies watered weekly and keep an eye on charging rates from both the alt. and my Xantrex inverter / charger. Ken

[win42]

Ken
Batteries UGGH !!
I fought this battle long and hard on both coaches. overcharging, cooking the water out, killing them.
Finally a solution to the problem: I use 8 ea. 6V Trojan golf cart batteries ( $65.00 ea. wholesale ) connected in pairs (Series)to make 12V. tie them all together in paralell. Connect the + at one end of the group and the - at the other. Connect a 12V " Battery Tender " charger to each pair of batteries (4 chargers total). These little chargers will not over charge the batteries, they come on, charge to an upper limit, shut off, and come back on at a lower limit. I leave the main 12V coach charger shut off at the dash switch unless the little guys fall behind while parked with heavy 12V use ie; two ceiling fans running all day. Boost the batteries up to full charge and shut it off again.
See EBAY for "Battery Tenders".
No more acid smell permeating into the coach, no more batteries destroyed by over charging. Waa Laa !!

The 24V starting batteries are another case. One battery would start to get weak causing a constant full charge to cook the others. Simple remedy: Plug the charger into a day timer (sprinkler type works) set it to go on for an hour in the middle of the night and Waa Laa !! problem solved.
" Lifetime Batteries " ? What living creatures lifetime are they reffering to?
My 6V Trojan batteries last aprox. six (6) years in the coach and in my electric Golf Cart. $ 65.00 x 8 = $ 520.00 every six years is not a bad deal.
Remember to not over fill with water, but check them periodically ( your maintenence calendar )
If one battery in a group goes bad, change them all or trouble is around the corner. Use the good ones somewhere else until they die also.
Several battery companies have had to close their doors since I solved my problem.
Good Luck

[lewpopp]

We speak of Lifeline batteries, not Lifetime. Nuf said for the very best battery and the most expensive.

Wish I understood how you did the battery thingie. Sounds easy, but it is above me to understand.

BTW, the Lifeline batteries are sealed and do not need watching.

[win42]

Lew
Lets face it, the battery people have us by the gonads no matter which way we turn. Every 5-6 years were back at their door with more $. I'll consider Lifeline next time around. The math seems to be 2100 minus 520. For the $1580 difference I'll put the water check on my maintenence calendar. The new "Optima" deep cycle no water batteries may be another way to go.
The last group of lifeline battery's I saw were in a big pile on the ground after being replaced in less than six months. They were being replaced at no cost by the manufactuer of the the batteries or the coach. They came out of a brand new Newell.
We'll just have to put up with the man made stuff until the robots take over completely. You can check out my battery thingie in Santa Fe if you wish. Nothing I do is perfect, but only an attempt at survival.
Harry

[truk4u]

Harry,
Some of us have no choice but to use the AGM's. My dual 4000 watt Trace Inverters have a software update that requires only AGM or Gel and the battery compartment has a placard warning of using anything else. The orginal Lifelines in the Bus (1997) lasted until Jan 2001. The group I just took out lasted 5 1/2 years and I think that's pretty good.

Anyone with a Marathon that's interested, here are a couple pictures of the finished product...


6 New 4D's and 2 New 27T for Generator


This is what the Equalizer looks like, ground must be removed prior to doing any work on the batteries. There is one up front for the house batteries and also one in the rear for the start batteries.

It's a big job, but the end result is knowing it's done right.

[ken&ellen]

Tom, Nice work. Great pictures. With those twin 4000 watt inverters can you run the AC? Ken

[win42]

Tom
Thanks for the input and the great pictures. Your coach is six years newer than mine and I would expect it to have more modern equipment. I would welcome you and the other guys to critic my battery and other systems in SFNM. Like I said before, I have been winging the Prevost thing alone for the last 9 years. It is nice to have others to bounce stuff off of. I'll try and take a crash course in battery equalizers. There is a Trace inverter in our coach that we use to run the refrigerator while on the road, (size wise? ).
Harry

[truk4u]

Ken,
Yep, it will run an A/C and will be interesting to see how long it will run until reaching the 12.2 voltage where the gen starts.

[Coloradobus]

When we picked up our "H" Oct 2004, we did a battery/auto-gen start test.
With 2 cruise airs on, the bedroom ceiling fan, lights, TV (tubed typed) and of course the frig, it took a little over 3 1/2 hours before the generator started. We thought not bad for all that load. So , we have no trouble making it thru the night and then some.
Had the house batteries load tested the first of the year, after almost 2 years, still in great shape.