We have a TropiCal motorhome that is one year old. We are having batteries issues and need to know how long before you had to replace your house and engine batteries. Please reply ASAP as we are leaving Wednesday on a trip. Thank you.
DFF: That woud depend entirely on what type of battery was put in the unit to start with. Batteries come in 12-month life, 24-month life, 36-month life, 48-month life, and occasionally you can find one with a 60-month life. Usually, there is a tag on the battery with the installation month and year punched out but, of course, you have to know the lifetime of the battery that was put in to compute when the battery is "supposed" to wear out. You indicated that your motorhome is one year old, and I am assuming that this means it was brand new one year ago. If this is the case, there is a better than even chance that the batteries are 36-month batteries. If so, you've got about 2 years to go if you take care of them. Hope this is helpful.
QUOTE(Beastdriver @ Oct 29 2006, 10:17 AM) [snapback]5364[/snapback] DFF: That woud depend entirely on what type of battery was put in the unit to start with. Batteries come in 12-month life, 24-month life, 36-month life, 48-month life, and occasionally you can find one with a 60-month life. Usually, there is a tag on the battery with the installation month and year punched out but, of course, you have to know the lifetime of the battery that was put in to compute when the battery is "supposed" to wear out. You indicated that your motorhome is one year old, and I am assuming that this means it was brand new one year ago. If this is the case, there is a better than even chance that the batteries are 36-month batteries. If so, you've got about 2 years to go if you take care of them. Hope this is helpful. Beastdriver, Thanks for your prompt reply, we will do some checking on when they were installed and try to find out which batteries were installed.
DFF While you are looking at the batteries... look at the manufacture date!!! I have personally seen brand new coaches with batteries that are already 2 or more years old installed in them. Most manufactures actually brand the manufacture date into the case. Sometimes it easy to read and understand and other times the manufacture will use a julian date system. Check the manufacture date, compare the warranty period of the battery, then you will have an idea. Now don't automatically assume that a battery will not last a lot longer than the warranty time. If batteries are properly maintained ( water level maintained, charged and discharged properly) they will last a lot longer than what the warranty calls for.
QUOTE(Browzin @ Oct 29 2006, 05:26 PM) [snapback]5366[/snapback] DFF While you are looking at the batteries... look at the manufacture date!!! I have personally seen brand new coaches with batteries that are already 2 or more years old installed in them. Most manufactures actually brand the manufacture date into the case. Sometimes it easy to read and understand and other times the manufacture will use a julian date system. Check the manufacture date, compare the warranty period of the battery, then you will have an idea. Now don't automatically assume that a battery will not last a lot longer than the warranty time. If batteries are properly maintained ( water level maintained, charged and discharged properly) they will last a lot longer than what the warranty calls for. Browzin. Today we found out the batteries were damaged when a power spike entered our motorhome in July at Pirateland (BEWARE). We had thought that all repairs had been done but this has just appeared. We have already had $8000 in damages repaired. If you don't have a surge protector on your motorhome, I would strongly suggest that you install one.
According to the official statistics data, most users will change their batteries every 3 years in the condition that they purchased the new one; if the used RVs, it's better to change the motohomes' batteries ASAP according to the RVs' batteries situation for the convenience of travelling all day or all-year. As we all known, the life of LiFePO4 batteries will be 7 to 8 years, which is the most longest batteries in the market.
Could you provide a reference for this? I'm not sure where "official statistics" of this sort would come from. IMO this would represent far more frequent battery replacement than is necessary, particularly for chassis starting batteries. My MH has two huge starting batteries and I replaced them when they were a lot more than 3 years old and they were still working quite well.
I just purchased as set of batteries for my coach last spring. I think I did a fair amount of research before buying and I have learned that good quality lead acid battery will easily last more than five years if properly cared for. I also bought a "Battery Saver". It is a device that keeps the battery charged but not over charged. I bought mine at Costco and I believe I paid just under $100.00 each. By the way, my coach was just over 7 years old and the batteries were still in fair shape. I changed them as we were going to spend the winter dry camping and wanted to avoid any issues while out in the desert. Darrell
We just see the report from some professional researchers about the RV batteries. And it's not convenient to provide the reference. When to change the batteries, which totally depends on the users. Some use it more or frequently, then the batteries will be aged rapidly. If not use it often, the batteries will be used longer. All depends on the people how to use them, you know. But no one can make the decision for anybody.
Just like you said, the lead acid battery will last for at most 5 years old, which is the second only to the LiFePO4 batteries in the market right now. And it's a good choice to change the batteries before going to the desert (Because it will be lack of some resources and less convenient in that place).
That's exactly the opposite of what he said: "I have learned that good quality lead acid battery will easily last more than five years if properly cared for." In 2014 I replaced the original lead-acid battery in our 2002 Toyota RAV4 when it was just starting to show end of life signs in cold weather. The engine and "house" batteries in our motorhome are 6 years old and working fine.
Thanks for clarifying my quote Dutch. My batteries were over seven years old. I expect the batteries I have now to last longer since I bought a battery minder. I am still using the original Chassis battery and it's now over eight years old and working fine. Darrell
Here we are in a thread that was started and ended 12 years ago and then revived a few days ago. And here I am joining in and making some noise on the subject also. Good topic but I believe it's been discussed in another thread also if I'm not mistaken? Anyway, what the heck, it's a good subject and one that should be at the top of all our lists when it comes to maintaining our RVs IMHO. I am by no means a battery expert but I know this much. Batteries can last for a short time or seemingly forever depending on how you take care and maintain them. Keeping them topped off with "battery juice", aka distilled water regularly (if not a sealed battery) as well as keeping the terminals clean and tightly on the caps can add greatly to any battery's lifetime. In addition, using a trickle charger on them when the RV will be sitting for an extended period of time will also add to it's life. Sub freezing temps will take a battery down if left exposed as will excessive heat in desert areas. And lastly as most of us know, you don't stick a 375 CCA battery in an RV that requires, and needs, one that puts out 800+ CCA. And yes I have witnessed a friend of mine who years ago did just that. Okay, said my piece, I be quiet now and am signing off to go grab another 40 winks. Hate it when you wake up in the middle of the night, can't go back to sleep so jump on RVPR and use it to get sleepy again typing about batteries.......... BankShot.................(aka Terry)
