Save Your RV's Batteries CHEAP & EASY!!

[Music] hey everybody josh the rv nerd here at rv of cold water michigan and whether you're a first-time rv owner or a 10-time rv owner chances are you've probably had the experience where the battery on your trailer just doesn't really seem to last that long like you know you might have to change a battery in your car every now and then but not like every two or three years or sometimes after one winter like it seems you sometimes do with an rv so what i want to do in this video is explain why that's happening and what you can do to avoid it so that you can get a better return on investment on your batteries and this is the kind of detail we're willing to go for it here at hayward rv helping you even understand how to make your batteries last longer and cost you less so if you appreciate these tips and tricks hit the like button on the video subscribe to our channel here and tune on in all the time because we've always got good news coming for you and so you understand why this is happening there are more computerized gadgets and circuit panels and fancy pants thingamajiggers in rvs now than ever before those are technical terms by the way and all this technology brings a lot of really cool conveniences like bluetooth and this and that but it comes with a downside it requires power and sometimes the power sources aren't always managed intelligently for instance like right now this rv is just totally dead but this stereo system right here it doesn't turn off it goes into standby even when this refrigerator is turned off there's still a circuit panel in passive mode waiting for a user input uh water heaters all sorts of appliances like the circuit panels uh for air conditioners that talk to the thermostats there are a ton of things in this rv now that are constantly trickle drawing power even when the rv is not being used and that's what's causing this problem because all that fancy stuff it's very cool but it's constantly trickle drawing off your battery it's called parasitic load and on a common like agm lead acid battery that battery is not really supposed to get below 50 percent charge every time it goes below 50 or if you just leave it constantly plugged in and cooking and over charging you are lowering the lifespan of that battery so in theory that normal boring common agm cheap battery should be able to last eight to ten years depending on how well you take care of it and how hard you use it and stress it uh maybe a little less for really really heavy duty users but most of us are getting maybe a third of that at best it's because we're constantly stressing the battery and lowering its overall lifespan um sort of like what i do to my wife constantly stressing her out and she's probably probably lowering her overall life span yeah so you might think hey no sweat i got the magic ticket either i have added or will add or the camper already has a battery disconnect switch so i can unplug that thing i can turn it off and i can stop the power from you know cheesing off the battery right well not usually not usually exactly like you're thinking right there in theory that should definitely work but more often than not there's still something wired into that rv that is still able to get to the battery there's still something drawing off that battery so what should you do one of the first simplest and zero dollar things that you can do that will significantly help here is whenever you're not going to use the rv for an extended period physically disconnect the battery terminals from the wires of the rv that will absolutely hard cut off and prevent any and all unintended parasitic load from trickle drawing off of that battery now what do i mean by extended period frankly for me i think anything two weeks or more really qualifies but the fact is the sooner you disconnect it the quicker you're saving your battery so i don't care if it's just a week or a couple days it helps you just don't usually need to do it if it's less than two weeks because in that short a period maybe some phantom load has trickle drawn off the battery but just towing it to your destination the power coming through the seven way plug your vehicle assuming you have it wired properly should replenish anything that's kind of phased out in the meantime and here's one of a couple little halo rv pro tips you're gonna pick up along the way in this video before you go disconnecting stuff especially if you're not really familiar with wiring and things there's nothing to really be afraid of here grab that phone out of your pocket snap a little photo of what that battery setup looks like before you dislodge the wires and then you have a visual reference point you can go back to when it's time to put everything back together easy what do you do in the rv's in storage after you've winterized it for the season or if you're just not gonna get back to it for six months the best piece of advice i can give you is get the battery off of there store it in like a cool dry place not in the living area of your house and put a simple inexpensive laughably inexpensive trickle kind of battery charging battery maintainer on it and you will be annoyed at yourself with how much money you will save by spending a very small amount on a battery maintainer and following this advice so you want to get that battery off the camper and you want to bring it into a cool dry place i think a garage or something like that is one of the best options because it's not freezing like it is outside but it's also not in the house because most batteries have a level of off-gassing that's why they're not mounted inside the camper they're mounted outside somewhere where they can ventilate now obviously there are now things like lithium-ion batteries that a lot of this video doesn't directly apply to uh say like lithium-ion lithium phosphate battleborns dragonflies things like that but most of us still have a common agm lead acid battery that's who this video is really for but frankly this advisory is still good for anybody regardless of the type of battery that you have bring it inside some kind of place that is cool and dry i like to always set it on a couple boards to give it a little buffer from direct like cold concrete contact you hook up your terminals positive to positive negative to negative you plug in the trickle charger and that is it you just go back about living your life while you let that thing do its job for the next two three nine months however long it's gonna be now here's one of those real handy pro tips for you from your uncle josh the rv nerd get a couple colors of tape like green yellow something it doesn't matter and before you disconnect everything remember that picture that we took so that you can see how everything wires up before you disconnect it take a little square that tape put it next to the positive terminal on the battery let's say that's the green tape then take a little strip of that green tape and wrap it around the positive charge line coming off the camper now repeat the same thing with the yellow tape on the negative terminal or whatever colors you have blue purple it doesn't matter i don't care that way when you go to put this stuff all back together you have a very easy to follow visual color code that frankly a child in elementary who knows their eight primary colors could handle and avoid potentially back backwards wiring your rv which if you're lucky it only pops a polarity fuse if you're not lucky you just cost yourself a couple hundred maybe close to a thousand dollars worth of electrical damage that really could have been avoided and it is not hard to do it properly but it only takes a moment lapse of judgment to do it wrong and again that's why we're here give you an ounce of prevention to prevent a pound of cure and that's the kind of really simple stuff you can do to save yourself hundreds of dollars over your camping lifetime you know it's it's funny how sometimes it's just the littlest things that make the biggest difference and it's shocking to me how this information is just not more commonplace and that's who we want to be for you ladies and gentlemen we are family owned family operated we're always here to help you find your second rv the first time and we want you to keep it in your driveway we don't want it to have to come back for service we want you to just be able to do nothing but build positive memories and sometimes little things like this can make all the difference so if you appreciate the information this video please hit that like button subscribe to our videos here at halodrv and we've always got tons of information coming out for you and as always whether you need hitching pieces parts trades for dance a truck and a trailer package dealer rv delivered or anything in between the only thing we don't do is hidden dealer fees but we sure provide you a lot of information so take care stay safe have fun and happy haylet camping everyone [Music] you

Channel: Haylett RV Reviews, News, & More

Views: 338,507

Rating: 4.9425721 out of 5

Keywords: Michigan, RV Dealer, camper, wholesale, josh the rv nerd, camping, travel, rving, rvs, rv, rv sales, rv for sale, rv nerd

Id: 58ZooUNEJ94

Length: 8min 47sec (527 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 08 2021