Batteries in winter

[Steve_Guelph]

I see all the articles on preparing your B for the winter but it never mentions removing the batteries for winter storage. Do most people leave the batteries in and take it for a ride once a week or do you remove the batteries and put them on a tender like me?

[markopolo]

With my Roadtrek, I left chassis and house batteries in the vehicle but kept a BatteryMINDer on each.

With my B+, I've leave the rig plugged in all the time. The chassis and house batteries actually combine at charging voltage. Hopefully I won't cook my batteries! It's kind of high for float at 13.6v.

[Davydd]

I am probably not a good source for battery information. I am very sure I abused my battery last winter and I just replaced it last week. It wasn't two years old. What I plan to do this winter (now that I am more knowledgeable) is keep my van on shore power but the battery disconnected. Every two weeks I plan to run the engine and also run the generator with the battery connected. Hopefully this will keep it charged but not overcharged.

[renrut]

I always pull my batteries out and store them in the basement. I lived in the Canadian Prairies so it was best to remove them. -40 temeratures can distroy a battery. I accidentally left a battery in my tractor for part of the winter. It froze and I needed to replace it. At least I'm in a warmer climate now but will still remove the batteries when I store my RV.

If you keep them charged, you should be able to leave them out but if you leave them for a few weeks just sitting, you should remove them an store them in a warm place.

The main thing to remember about any battery is the fumes they can produce when they are charged. When I remove my batteries, I charge them about once a month. I would take them out doors to do that. Battery gases are very explosive.

[julievojo]

We will be driving our PW more this winter. We were afraid to take it up and down our narrow, steep, winding driveway with the crappy tires that we on it.

We just put on some much better tires with some fairly deep tread so the driveway shouldn't be a problem this year. We'll use the PW as a second car this year to keep the batteries charged up and hopefully keep the mice and chippies from moving in.

We'll be winterizing it this afternoon.