Our first home on wheels

Babs 35A · 09-23-2020, 03:45 PM

Hello everyone!
My wife and I have both retired and have bought a 2006 Journey 35A.
We have a trailer in Ontario's Lake of the Woods that we spend lots of time at .
We've camped for many years but now with the age thing creeping up on us we've decided to try our hand in the motorhome world. We came across our unit by accident. A friend of a friend . Very babied, low mileage, always kept indoors when not used.
Came across a problem though that I'm hoping the winnebago experts can help with. After the unit sitting for approx 3 weeks, we started prepping for our next trip out. Our storage compound has no power and I wanted to try the furnace out so I was going to use the generator for power. Found out I have no house power. Unit starts perfect so the chassis power is great. It has 2 batteries running power for the house. Everything ran great previous to that. I did not kill the power supply when parking as the fridge was still running. Big mistake as I'm sure that killed the batteries. When I plug in to shore power later this week will that charge everything back up? Hoping you can help and Thank you to all in advance!!!

Morich · 09-23-2020, 04:52 PM

Batteries are funny things! Very simple but very easy to confuse us, so the answer for what to expect is full of question marks! Due to age, condition, environment and all kinds of weird stuff like that, how batteries will react to any situation can be different.
SOO! When plugged in, the converter may do a good job of getting the batteries back to fully charged OR it may show they have good voltage but not hold that voltage for long as running down and staying down can do some various amount of damage.
But that only goes for the coach batteries and not for the start battery unless there is some form of charging added to do both. There is an item called a "Trik-l-charge" or triklstart which may be worth looking into for long term as it is kind of a one way path that taps a big bit of power off the coach batteries to keep the start battery charged while stored.
But I would definitely want to do some checking on what the batteries are like before heading out on a trip where I might want/need good battery power. Some depends on how you plan to camp, fully off grid will need better than if going to parks where you will be plugged into power overnight. Driving campsite to campsite, the engine alternator will put some charge back into both sets, so no big problem if plugging in each night.

**creativepart** · 09-23-2020, 05:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Babs 35A

. I did not kill the power supply when parking as the fridge was still running. Big mistake as I'm sure that killed the batteries. When I plug in to shore power later this week will that charge everything back up? Hoping you can help and Thank you to all in advance!!!

Oh my, yes. That is a definite no no. It likely depleted the batteries by day three, if not sooner. And then they sat there depleted for nearly 3-weeks. Discharging is bad, letting discharged batteries sit is worse, it kills batteries.

Will they charge back up? Maybe.

Will they hold a charge? Maybe.

Are they ruined? Likely, but you might be able to scrape by with them.

Even without the fridge being on, storing for 3-weeks without using the battery disconnect would almost certainly kill the batteries, as well. Just not as quickly.

Babs 35A · 09-23-2020, 05:16 PM

Thank you very much for that. We will be winterizing at the end of October and will have them all checked out and repaired as needed. Thank you for the reply��

Babs 35A · 09-24-2020, 02:49 PM

Update!!!
After topping up both batteries with distilled water,, I boosted the 1st battery and the generator started right away. I left it run for approx 2 hours while i was polishing the outside and the shut it down and left it sit for approx 15 mins. Tried starting and it turned over with a full charge!! I really got lucky and learned a very good lesson. THANKS TO EVERYONE WHOSE HELPFUL ADVISE WAS GREATLY APPRECIATED,,,,,SAFE TRAVELS!!!!!

**creativepart** · 09-24-2020, 06:11 PM

Grant, if true that’s great. BUT!

Fully drained batteries being charged by your generator probably need more than 2-hrs to fully recharge. So, I’m wondering if the news is as good as you’ve said.

Charging your batteries, then turning off the charger and letting your batteries rest for about an hour would give you an accurate voltage for the battery bank. But if you started the RV and then took a voltage reading the “full charge” you’d see on the meter is not your battery’s voltage but the charge now being applied from the alternator.

One more thing, you have two separate battery systems. The chassis battery that starts the engine of your RV and a house system that powers all 12v systems inside the RV.

So, if after charging, the RV motor started. So, that means that Chassis system is working, but what is the condition of your house batteries now?

Babs 35A · 09-25-2020, 06:30 AM

Thats very true,, after this happening,, I have already told them to please check the system out when winterizing as we plan on putting on the miles come spring. Thank you very much for the valuable info. it's very hard on the nerves being a 1st time owner of a large unit such as ours but when you can talk to well experienced people such as yourself who understand it makes the whole process that much easier. THANK-YOU