1998 Patriot battery maintenance

[Marilyn Ruta]

We have our Patriot parked indoors in a heated space. The location does not have a 30 or 50 amp power outlet so we have all power switched off in the coach. We own a battery tender. My questions are..would it be better/safer to attach a battery minder or reduce the 50 amp plug down to 15 amp with adaptor. If we go with the battery tender hooked to the engine batteries, will it also maintain the coach batteries? One other note: we do have solar panels on the roof but not much help when parked inside.

[Stan Simpson]

When not traveling, we park our coach next to the house. We use adapters to reduce the 50A down to 110, just to keep the batteries charged, and prevent freezing.

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

Using 15A shore power and having the battery charger in coach switched on will be the simplest way to keep both chassis and house batteries charged. As to use of the battery tender on the chassis batteries, I think your coach has an Echo Charger. It charges the chassis batteries once the house batteries are at 13V or above. So for this approach to work you'd need to put the battery tender on the house batteries. Recommend using the shore power approach.
Steve

[Larry Fritz]

Marilyn: I have a 98 Patriot 37' and for the past 15 years have a simple battery charger (12V/12A or so) mounted under the floor and above the chassis batteries in the battery compartment. No permanent wiring. When I want to use it, I clip on the two large battery alligator clips and plug the charger into a 120V normal AC extension cord. Works great.  It is also good when you visit friends and if you carry a couple of 100' extension cords you can always get to an outlet on/in a house. Since the current draw is not large it works great. As already mentioned, put the alligator clips on the COACH and not the CHASSIS batteries. For me, easy, fast simple, and low cost.

Larry