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Fishflies View Drop Down
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Joined: 28 May 2014
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Posts: 5 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Battery life
    Posted: 21 Oct 2014 at 2:00pm
Thanks I'm going to try it today and see how long my battery will stay charged. Switching to gas just to see. Had problem with loose connection before. Thanks. 
 Also was wondering if you have a link for winterization ,I'm in utah so it will be freezing soon,if so I would appreciate it. Thanks 
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CharlieM View Drop Down
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Posts: 1797 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Oct 2014 at 2:18pm
Originally posted by hogone

curious charlie; if the top light means battery is being charged; then why for the first 3+ days of my dry camping trip did the light stay at the top and i was not charging the battery or hooked up to anything?  i guess i thought it was kind of what you debunked...% of charge.  hogone


Well, it depends. The lights are set to certain voltage levels, but these vary with time, temperature, mfg. tolerances, etc. And, if you look closely at the display, you'll see the battery scale is different than the water tank scale, at least mine was. Nominally I've found the top light to be around 13.2 or higher. The converter will maintain at 13.2, absorption charge at 13.6, and bulk charge at 14.4. If you disconnect a fully charged battery from the charger it will start at 13+ volts and gradually drift down to 12.6-12.7. Again, depending on temperature and battery condition. It's really an imprecise art unless you measure the SG of the battery. My main point was the absence of the top light does not always mean you've lost 25% of the charge. It's a bit unnerving to think the battery went from 100% to 75% just by disconnecting the charger.

Again, it's really imprecise. You'll get a much better, but not yet perfect, indication by using a digital voltmeter under minimal load conditions. Camp on!
Charlie
Northern Colorado
OLD: 2013 RP-172, 2010 Honda Pilot 3.5L 4WD
PRESENT: 2014 Camplite 21RBS, 2013 Supercharged Tacoma 4L V6 4WD
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hogone View Drop Down
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Posts: 1042 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Oct 2014 at 2:38pm
thanks for the clarification charlie.  yes my scale is different for tank levels and battery.  i'm a freak when it comes to checking my battery level, doing it all the time.  one thing i noticed (and this might be what your referencing), is when i would fire up the furnace it would drop to 3 lights, but when the furnace (I guess i should say heater!) turned off, it went back to 4 lights.  hope that made sense!  hogone
Jon & Pam
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Outbound View Drop Down
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Joined: 19 Nov 2009
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Posts: 767 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Oct 2014 at 2:48pm
According to the KIB Micro Monitor manual:
  • Charge - 12.7v
  • Good - 11.9v
  • Fair - 11.2v
  • Low - 6v
If you take a look at that manual, you can see that KIB has reduced those voltage milestones over time.  For the 1998 model, Charge was 14.5v, which would definitely only light when charging.

Of course, measuring a battery by resting voltage only provides a rough estimate of remaining capacity anyway.  But, its good enough for most of us.
Craig :: 2009 RP171 towed by a 2017 F150
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CharlieM View Drop Down
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Posts: 1797 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Oct 2014 at 3:01pm
Hogone: Yes, that makes sense. The heaer load on the battery will drop the voltage temporarily.

Outbound: Thanks for the research. Looks like they changed their settings because folks were complaining. The Charge=12.7 is probably OK, but the rest of them???? 11.9 is better than 50% down under low load; at 11.2 you've probably damaged the battery, and at 6V you forgot to bring the battery along Wink
Charlie
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OLD: 2013 RP-172, 2010 Honda Pilot 3.5L 4WD
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techntrek View Drop Down
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Posts: 9059 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Oct 2014 at 8:20pm
I wouldn't trust the monitor to show my anything.  Only an at-rest voltage reading with a voltmeter, which is just about impossible since you'll always have some load going.

Fishflies, see the link in my signature.
Doug ~ '10 171 (2009-2015) ~ 2008 Salem ~ Pod instruction manual
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CharlieM View Drop Down
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Posts: 1797 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Oct 2014 at 9:36pm
Originally posted by techntrek

I wouldn't trust the monitor to show my anything.  Only an at-rest voltage reading with a voltmeter, which is just about impossible since you'll always have some load going.


So, Doug, are you going to put a SeeLevel monitor in the new (old) Salem? if you connect it electrically close to the battery it even provides a decent voltmeter function.
Charlie
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OLD: 2013 RP-172, 2010 Honda Pilot 3.5L 4WD
PRESENT: 2014 Camplite 21RBS, 2013 Supercharged Tacoma 4L V6 4WD
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hogone View Drop Down
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Posts: 1042 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Oct 2014 at 6:48am
i have let my batterys get down to one light (L) a couple of times;  i guess thats not good!!  hogone
Jon & Pam
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2017 HD Streetglide
2009 HD Lowrider
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techntrek View Drop Down
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Posts: 9059 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Oct 2014 at 11:22am
Charlie, I'm definitely considering my options.   I never got around to adding a good monitoring option on my pod but should have.
Doug ~ '10 171 (2009-2015) ~ 2008 Salem ~ Pod instruction manual
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fwunder View Drop Down
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Posts: 1676 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Oct 2014 at 3:46pm
Speaking of energy usage, here's a question to ponder when cold weather dry camping...

Is it more efficient to run furnace w/12 volt and propane, or run generator (yammy 2400iSHC) w/electric heater? Consider lot's of 12 volt capacity (dual Duracell 230 egc2).

Yammy and electric heater is definitely quieter.

fred
2014 RPod 178 => MyMods and Buying Habits
2008 4Runner Limited 4.0-liter V6
Yes, those are wild ponies dining on grass while dumping tanks!
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