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If my house batteries go all the way down can I just drive around or plug into an electrical outlet to recharge? Or would the fact that no light is showing on the panel mean some other method needs to be used to charge them back up? Hasn't happened but just in case...

# 1-- DO NOT let your battery run down. This is a BIG NO NO. (I have done this a few times, so I know)

You can recharge your battery by plugging into an electric socket (30 AMP preferably), riding around will also recharge the battery, a generator will also do the trick.

Linda

OutandAbout wrote:# 1-- DO NOT let your battery run down. This is a BIG NO NO. (I have done this a few times, so I know)

You can recharge your battery by plugging into an electric socket (30 AMP preferably), riding around will also recharge the battery, a generator will also do the trick.

Linda

What Linda said!

As a newbie, I didn't have a clue that I was doing damage when my house battery would run all the way down. In fact, I didn't even know that's what was happening - and why my boondocking was sometimes no fun (fridge wouldn't even work, etc). Learned quickly after having to replace it. It's not one of the most expensive things to replace, but you don't want to be doing it all the time. And just for charging, you are fine without 30 amp. If you are sitting for extended times, disconnect the battery!

The house battery should be a 'marine' type battery. If so, it's designed to be run down from time to time, though it's still not a great idea - so don't panic.

You can charge it just like normal.

You might want to also check the water level in the house battery. Being low will look like discharged (and isn't good for your battery either).

I boondock all the time, so I put in two large batteries besides the one the coach came with. Totally worth it - I haven't totally discharged since I got the rig.

Thank you all, I have two house marine batteries and the water level was checked a few weeks ago. So much to learn but I feel more confident as time goes on!

Not good to let batteries discharge below 50%
When I put the trailer to bed for the winter or am not using it for a long time I remove the battery and put it on a maintenance charger.

Well, again, you ladies taught me something new. And you've left me with a question: I know I can check the water levels in the batteries, but I thought I'd read somewhere that before you do this check, you should undo the cables to the batteries. Seem like a real pain to do this each month. So the question is, can I just open the little round stoppers and look inside without having to totally undo the large power cables on the batteries? Thanks! (Prolly sounds really dumb, but., I suppose it's dumber if I don't ask, eh?)

Li, I've never disconnected when I peeked inside the caps, my dad never did either on the car, I think the main thing is that if the battery is getting ready to boil over and you get some of that battery acid splashed in your eye or something similiar...well, basically a safety issue there. I've been checking batteries for upteen thousand years and never disconnected the cables, I was never told I needed to until now.

Nope, don't have to disconnect the batteries or even have them switched off. Just have to carefully open them to see the levels. And fill, as necessary. With the right water!

There are sealed batteries made that don't need to be checked. Some people love them, others have gone from them back to the ones needing to be checked. They are more expensive initially.

And I concur with the view of NOT letting these batteries completely loose a charge. While many kinds of batteries should be discharged occasionally, that's not true of these. There's a link somewhere on this forum to battery care - will go see if I can find it.

Here's the article I've posted before: http://www.windsun.com/Batteries/Battery_FAQ.htm

Nope, never have disconnected to check water level. Just be sure you don't have something metal that can come in contact with posts.
Marda