Battery

[Turbo Thom]

I had a 2nd battery installed about a year and a half back and have had a problem keeping it charged. It is an Interstate Marine deep cycle one. I had it go so dead at a race I had to jump the generator off from my truck. Well I tool the battery out to check it , changed the acid inside and put it on a charger. 2 days later I finally got a full charge but now see a slight bluge on one end. That don't look right. Is that battery bad? In my camper that thing would never charge from the invertor/convertor, or whatever.



. . Preston. .

 

[dan_gilson]

In general, adding a 2nd battery to an older battery is not good. The interal resistance of both batteries are different. It has been suggested in several posts to purchase batteries at the same time and check the mfg date code to make sure that they are close.



In you case the older battery may just be discharging the new one.



Beyond that, you did not explain how you wired up the 2nd battery. Are they just in parallel or did you install a diode(isolator)?

 

[Turbo Thom]

Dan:

They are wired in parallel. Hot to hot and ground to same. The charger from the trailer is going to the original battery, then to the 2 nd battery, hot post to hot post. From there the 2 leads from the Onan gen. are mounted to the newer battery. The original battery seems to have a good life. The new one seems like its feeling are hurt with the other one in. :-{} I'm taking the battery back to th RV dealer who installed it this morning to have it checked. I took the trailer down there last year, thinking I had a charging problem. They said every thing was OK, as far as charging was concerned. I think the battery is bad. Too much money to walk away from. The trailer is a 99, with the additional battery 8 months later. Both Interstate.



. . Preston. .

 

[M Barnett]

I have bought lots of Interstate batteries and never have got a bad one but there can always be an exception. I would take it back.

M Barnett

 

[dan_gilson]

Lets hope it is the simplier: Battery really bad. If the battery is OK after a load test and the charging system checks OK, then it is probably the internal resistance problem. Depending on the exact wiring you might be able to diode it fix. I probably better defer to someone with more experience here. Good luck!

 

[Turbo Thom]

OK, I took the battery back to the RV dealer and the manager had moved to Mass. Sick family. The shop forman said he would call the manufactorer Monday to see if he could get anything done even though the 18 month warranty is out. I told him the history and was told for me to call him Mon. afternoon. I didn't buy my RV there but have spent about $5000 with them. I went ahead and bought a new battery but I will be buying 2 optima yellow tops. I'm tired of the acid thing.



. . Preston. . Oh yeah, the new one was $62. 42.