Flat battery question

May 10, 2012, 10:41:18 am

OK I'll admit I'm not the sharpest knife in the draw when it comes to these things but this has got me baffled.
We almost always stay in campgrounds but do stay in the odd truck stop or WalMart from time to time. Once or twice a year maybe. So the other night we stayed in a WalMart. About 1am our carbon monoxide alarm went off. Long story short. We had flat batteries. I had to start the motorhome to start the generator. I ran the generator for an hour and went back to bed. 3 hours later we were back to an alarm again. Same again and we got another 3 hours.
But my question is, after being camped for 3 weeks, we should have had full batteries. They showed 100% on the gauges. (Trace RC7GS Remote). We are now back in a campground and batteries are showing 100% and have gone through float etc. Ive checked water levels etc and all seems well. So what am I missing? By the way we didn't even have lights or TV on when in WalMart. Fridge on propane. Water pump for two showers. So we didn't 'use' the power. To my knowledge there was/is no load. (Three days before leaving the campground there was a local power failure and I ran the generator for 4 hours to run the a/c. Is that an issue?).
The batteries are about 6-7 years old. Have they just gone to battery heaven?
Have I missed something or should I get a mortgage for some new batteries.
(It was one of those days! I had an inside dual go flat on the Interstate as well but that's a longer story).

Thanks

Bruce 2001 Intrigue #11278

Re: Flat battery question

Reply #1 – May 10, 2012, 01:33:46 pm

Yahoo Message Number: 79112

I would have a battery shop do a load test on each individual battery. Also if they are wet cells you can check the specific gravity of each cell.
You will know if you need the mortgage.

Bob Wexler
SOB

Re: Flat battery question

Reply #2 – May 10, 2012, 05:13:13 pm

Yahoo Message Number: 79120

Sounds like you may have a bad cell in one of your batteries. As Bob mention, if you have wet cell batteries use a hydrometer and check the specific gravity in all the cells. Also, the load test will give you a good indication. Battery life is dependent on number of discharge/charging cycles.

2000 Allure #30511

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