Battery powered tender?

[cdeeter]

I store my Class A in an uncovered lot that doesn’t have shore power or anything like that. I turn the house disconnect switch off when I leave the coach for an extended time and I also turn the batteries at the switch in the basement (both the house and coach batteries). If I am not going to be using the RV for an extended period of time I would like to make sure they keep a charge so I was thinking of a tender. I don’t want to go through the hassle of hooking up solar or spending any significant amount of time doing install work. The less work on this the better. Are there any tenders that are battery powered which could be used to charge a tender or is there something similar?

[Kimber45]

a battery to charge a battery? never heard of that. A very inexpensive solar panel would at least trickle charge the battery while not in use.

[bikendan]

Yep, no such thing as a battery powered battery tender, that I know of.
Can't see how it could work.

[Flybob]

I am not sure I understand your question. Are you looking for a battery powered battery tender to charge your batteries? I don't think you will find what you are looking for. If you disconnect ( either by removing negative wire or via a switch) fully charged batteries, they should be fine for a month or two. If you need a longer period, your best choice is a simple solar solution 50/100W panel and controller. For very long storage, you can remove them and bring them home. Easiest choice is using shore power, but you indicated that is not an option.

[5picker]

Originally Posted by cdeeter

I store my Class A in an uncovered lot that doesn’t have shore power or anything like that. I turn the house disconnect switch off when I leave the coach for an extended time and I also turn the batteries at the switch in the basement (both the house and coach batteries). If I am not going to be using the RV for an extended period of time I would like to make sure they keep a charge so I was thinking of a tender. I don’t want to go through the hassle of hooking up solar or spending any significant amount of time doing install work. The less work on this the better. Are there any tenders that are battery powered which could be used to charge a tender or is there something similar?

What are you calling leaving for an extended time?

As mentioned, a fully charged battery will store for several months with no ill effects.

Many of us who live in the north do this every winter.

[cdeeter]

Originally Posted by 5picker

What are you calling leaving for an extended time?

As mentioned, a fully charged battery will store for several months with no ill effects.

Many of us who live in the north do this every winter.

To me an extended time is a couple of weeks but I’m completely new to the RV game. It sounds like I shouldn’t be concerned with a few weeks leaving them as is.

I think what I’m going to do is take a spare battery powered UPS that I have and put that in the battery bay along with a trickle charger. I have no idea if this will do me any real good but I’ve got the parts laying around so all it’s costing me is time. I’m going to guess that a trickle charger doesn’t draw too much power and given the size of my UPS I may find that it lasts a good period of time. I’ll update the group after I get it working.

[Flybob]

If your extended period of time a weeks just add a battery disconnect one each negative terminal to ground connection ( one for each battery bank). This will isolate the batteries and you will be fine. If you leave the batteries connected and you use the UPS with a tender, you will kill the battery in the UPS which will eventually make it useless.

[babock]

Using a UPS to power a battery tender to keep your RV's batteries topped off is a losing proposition.

[rockfordroo]

Originally Posted by cdeeter

To me an extended time is a couple of weeks but I’m completely new to the RV game. It sounds like I shouldn’t be concerned with a few weeks leaving them as is.

I think what I’m going to do is take a spare battery powered UPS that I have and put that in the battery bay along with a trickle charger. I have no idea if this will do me any real good but I’ve got the parts laying around so all it’s costing me is time. I’m going to guess that a trickle charger doesn’t draw too much power and given the size of my UPS I may find that it lasts a good period of time. I’ll update the group after I get it working.

My pickup truck sits for 2-3 weeks sometimes in the winter (0-10 deg F and lower). Starts right up.

[5picker]

Originally Posted by cdeeter

To me an extended time is a couple of weeks but I’m completely new to the RV game. It sounds like I shouldn’t be concerned with a few weeks leaving them as is.

I think what I’m going to do is take a spare battery powered UPS that I have and put that in the battery bay along with a trickle charger. I have no idea if this will do me any real good but I’ve got the parts laying around so all it’s costing me is time. I’m going to guess that a trickle charger doesn’t draw too much power and given the size of my UPS I may find that it lasts a good period of time. I’ll update the group after I get it working.

It won't work. Save your time.

[5picker]

Originally Posted by cdeeter

I store my Class A in an uncovered lot that doesn’t have shore power or anything like that. I turn the house disconnect switch off when I leave the coach for an extended time and I also turn the batteries at the switch in the basement (both the house and coach batteries). If I am not going to be using the RV for an extended period of time I would like to make sure they keep a charge so I was thinking of a tender. I don’t want to go through the hassle of hooking up solar or spending any significant amount of time doing install work. The less work on this the better. Are there any tenders that are battery powered which could be used to charge a tender or is there something similar?

If you are truly disconnecting with these switches, the batteries will last months with no trickle charging.
Much ado over nothing.