Batteries in winter

[DickO]

Moving from AZ to Michigan. Have never had to winterize before. Do I remove 2 Interstate batteries and put on a trickle charger in the home basement?

 

[cookie]

I remove my battery and put it in my garage hooked up to a small maintainer.
Do keep an eye on the electrolyte.
I'm in Wisconsin.

Peace
Dave

 

[rhodies1]

Yes . I also remove and charge during the winter. Keeps batteries from sulfating.

 

[CoveredWagon]

A battery tender not a trickle charger.

 

[NYSUPstater]

I only have 1 batt and I remove it upon putting it in storage. Take downstairs, put it in a board and hook up a battery tender to it till spring.

 

[CoveredWagon]

I only have 1 batt and I remove it upon putting it in storage. Take downstairs, put it in a board and hook up a battery tender to it till spring.

I've been reading that putting a stored battery on a board is no longer necessary. Supposedly since battery cases are made of new materials.
Personally I still put a board underneath.

 

[hoefler]

If you can plug the trailer in, leave the batteries in the trailer, your convertor will maintain the batteries

 

[CoveredWagon]

I store my batteries in the RV, but hook them up to a solar charger. Been doing this since new. Never had an issues.

 

[jerryjay11]

If you can plug the trailer in, leave the batteries in the trailer, your convertor will maintain the batteries

I've been doing this for years with the camper and my bass boat with 3 trolling batteries and a cranking battery. No issues with batteries.

 

[CoveredWagon]

I've been doing this for years with the camper and my bass boat with 3 trolling batteries and a cranking battery. No issues with batteries.

If you have a plug in source

 

[taskswap]

I've been reading that putting a stored battery on a board is no longer necessary. Supposedly since battery cases are made of new materials.
Personally I still put a board underneath.

Yes. For decades, actually. The board won't hurt it but it definitely isn't necessary.

You don't need to remove them from your camper, either, but unless you have some type of tender (solar, plug-in, etc) you definitely want to disconnect them, either via a disconnect switch if you have one or disconnecting the cables. Almost every camper these days has small parasitic drains - the CO2 detector, sometimes a radio, OneControl receiver, etc. 300mAh isn't going to hurt anything over a week, but over a winter it can definitely kill a battery.

 

[CoveredWagon]

Yes. For decades, actually. The board won't hurt it but it definitely isn't necessary.

You don't need to remove them from your camper, either, but unless you have some type of tender (solar, plug-in, etc) you definitely want to disconnect them, either via a disconnect switch if you have one or disconnecting the cables. Almost every camper these days has small parasitic drains - the CO2 detector, sometimes a radio, OneControl receiver, etc. 300mAh isn't going to hurt anything over a week, but over a winter it can definitely kill a battery.

I obviously leave the batteries in the RV. I turn off all the disconnects and charge the the batteries with a solar charger through a battery tender. I use this set up for a minimum of 6 months.