Battery

[BillyBass]

Got a new camper the Battery said 2/19 and it was dead .Charge it all night and isnt fulling charge.Any suggestion

[Colorado Wildcat]

Call your dealer, if something was left on and it drained the battery...the battery will never be the same. At the very least, charge it SLOWLY then get it loaded tested. That’ll tell you the condition of the battery.

[Chuck_S]

Dead batteries can often NOT be recharged if their voltage is too low. What's your battery voltage -- with no charger connected.

"Smart" battery chargers will not put out power is they don't detect a battery connected. Too low voltage won't trigger that logic in the charger.

I've been to temporarily trick a charger into charging a dead battery by jumpering a good battery to the dead battery, starting the charger for a few minutes, and then disconnecting the good battery. But this trick doesn't work too many times for long with a damaged battery.

It's vital to disconnect the battery from the camper when it's not in use as parasitic battery draws from permanently wired devices like the LP detector and radio memory will drain the battery down to the damage point. This can happen in as little as two weeks.

-- Chuck

[Colorado Wildcat]

If your camper has only 1 battery this is an exceptional charger:
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F312667636555

If you have 2 batteries:
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F352689268536

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F192642681068


This is a great option for CLEANLY wiring the plug into the side of the camper for either charger. I use these on my diesel truck, 1) for the block heater the 2) for the Genius 8amp charger I permanently installed on my truck. I’ve left the charger plugged in for 6 months during my last deployment.

[Flybob]

If the battery was very dead when you tried to charge it with the onboard converter, you may have blown the reverse polarity fuses in the distribution panel. These are usually 30 or 40A fuses.

[TitanMike]

Sometimes it pays to have a "Dumb Charger" around. I have an old Schumacher battery charger that's at least 30 years old. I can connect it to a dead, flat, battery, and it will start to charge. May not bring the battery back to the land of the living but I've got many an old vehicle started with one.

I keep it around because I never know when it might come in handy. New ones can be purchased for around $25 and unlike smart chargers they will actually start charging when you connect without having a bunch of "computer analysis" going on first.

Word of caution, these chargers can also ruin a battery if you leave them connected forever. No brains to shut them off when the battery has reached full charge and they'll just keep on charging and boiling off water.