Long Term Storage--Use Battery Disconnect?

[smo99]

Carl, thank you so much for taking the time to really explain things...it all makes very good sense. My last question is why do I have a battery tender located in my rear electrical bay. I have a 120v outlet in that bay and there's two things there...a block heater plug and the battery tender.

But if I have to be plugged into shore power for the 120v system, and it charges the chassis batteries, why would I need the battery tender?

Another option might have been that the previous owners didn't/wouldn't/couldn't hook up to shore power at their storage place and were only allowed a standard extension cord hookup to the tender...unfortunately, the former owner isn't with us any more, so I can't ask him! I may check with the storage facility...maybe they can tell me more.

Any suggestions/speculations are appreciated! And many thanks for all the tips Carl!
Mark...

[ckabrahamson]

Mark:

My guess is that the previous owner installed the battery tender because the batteries were not charging with the disconnects opened...

Another possibility: If the previous owner had to plug the coach into a GFCI outlet, and he was using a surge supressor on his shore power cord, the supressor may cause the GFCI to trigger. This happened with my coach in storage. Once I removed the surge supressor from the shore power cord, the power stays on reliably. The coach that is stored next to mine experienced the same problem, but his Surge supressor is built in.

If your batteries are charging with the coach plugged in, you really don't need the battery tender.

My storage just has a 15A power outlet. I use adapters to connect the 50A shore power cord to the 15A outlet. It's not enough power to run everything, but it's plenty to run the battery chargers and the refrigerators.

One tip... When storing, I keep all the adapters and the shore power cord in the coach power bay, and run a cheap grounded extension cord from the wall to the adapted shore power cord. The reason is that should I forget to disconnect the shore power before backing the coach, the worst thing I'll do is trash a $10 extension cord, not the 50A connection.

Hope this helps!
Carl