# Mystical Battery Gauge



## MattS (Oct 15, 2006)

On to issue #3. What does the battery gauge lights mean? I know it says E - 1/3 - 2/3 - F but what does that mean with respect to battery life. I ran the camper charger on the camper over night. I drove up to Yosemite from LA (9 hours) and that full battery gauge reads E. I run the generator (I do show people that it does indeed have a muffler on it but that's another issue for a different post) for 1 hour so the 4 of us don't freeze. It gets to 1/3 and we huddle into two beds expecting the furnace not to make it through the night. The next morning we get up and the mystical gauge reads 2/3. That was 12 hours later. It goes on like this for the next 3 days of 1.5 hour generator sessions. The gauge does it's random E - 2/3 - 1/3 - 2/3 thing. We actually start using a light or two.

So the questions are:
#1 Why doesn't this thing charge off of the truck while we drive or does it?

#2 What do other's use to know how the batteries really are doing?

#3 How does this thing charge off of the generator running? Is it 13.5 volts or is there a quick 14.4 volt charge cycle? How long should it take? I've had these batteries last 4 nights of dry camping without needing a charge in warm weather.


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

1 - It should charge from the truck. You could have a blown fuse on the truck.

2 - A real volt meter.

3 - If the generator is plugged into the trailer shore power connection then the batteries are charged form the converter. If really dead the converter will put out 14.2 to 14.4 VDC, then will step down to 13.6 after a period of time that can be a few minutes to a few hours and when it sees the battery as fully charged it will step down to 13.2 vdc.


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## MattS (Oct 15, 2006)

CamperAndy said:


> 1 - It should charge from the truck. You could have a blown fuse on the truck.
> 
> 2 - A real volt meter.
> 
> 3 - If the generator is plugged into the trailer shore power connection then the batteries are charged form the converter. If really dead the converter will put out 14.2 to 14.4 VDC, then will step down to 13.6 after a period of time that can be a few minutes to a few hours and when it sees the battery as fully charged it will step down to 13.2 vdc.


I'll check the fuse tomorrow but the truck was definitely charging harder when the camper was plugged in.

I forgot to bring my volt meter. I have an extra I'll throw on there for next time.


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## BigBadBrain (Aug 26, 2004)

Is it possible the gauge is wired backwards?


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## MattS (Oct 15, 2006)

BigBadBrain said:


> Is it possible the gauge is wired backwards?


It read full when it's plugged in but it seems to act like that sometimes.


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## Ghosty (Jan 17, 2005)

CamperAndy said:


> 1 - It should charge from the truck. You could have a blown fuse on the truck.
> 
> 2 - A real volt meter.
> 
> 3 - If the generator is plugged into the trailer shore power connection then the batteries are charged form the converter. If really dead the converter will put out 14.2 to 14.4 VDC, then will step down to 13.6 after a period of time that can be a few minutes to a few hours and when it sees the battery as fully charged it will step down to 13.2 vdc.


Just like CamperAndy says ... with regards to #2 I have a VoltMeter that plugs directly into the Cigarette Plug in the trailer that runs all the time that shows EXACTLY how wrong the built in Outbacker gauge is 24/7 -- You can get one of these plug in voltmeters for about 15.00 ... but i dry camp 1/3 of the time and battery life to me is important...

While we are on that subject -- if you do any dry camping -- even with generator -- you probably want to think about ditching your single 12v car battery thats not designed for RVs and get two good TROJAN T-125 6volts that will last you 5 days of dry campoing .. just my .02c


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## Nathan (Jan 2, 2007)

Just a couple more comments. The gauge is a basic voltage gauge. If things are running when you check it, the reading will be lower than if everything is turned off. However, I never saw the one on my OB go lower than 1/3.


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## MattS (Oct 15, 2006)

Ghosty said:


> 1 - It should charge from the truck. You could have a blown fuse on the truck.
> 
> 2 - A real volt meter.
> 
> 3 - If the generator is plugged into the trailer shore power connection then the batteries are charged form the converter. If really dead the converter will put out 14.2 to 14.4 VDC, then will step down to 13.6 after a period of time that can be a few minutes to a few hours and when it sees the battery as fully charged it will step down to 13.2 vdc.


Just like CamperAndy says ... with regards to #2 I have a VoltMeter that plugs directly into the Cigarette Plug in the trailer that runs all the time that shows EXACTLY how wrong the built in Outbacker gauge is 24/7 -- You can get one of these plug in voltmeters for about 15.00 ... but i dry camp 1/3 of the time and battery life to me is important...

While we are on that subject -- if you do any dry camping -- even with generator -- you probably want to think about ditching your single 12v car battery thats not designed for RVs and get two good TROJAN T-125 6volts that will last you 5 days of dry campoing .. just my .02c
[/quote]

Do you have a link to that volt meter that plugs in? Does it suck off any of the batteries or does it just read voltage? I have Interstate's version of the Trojan T-125's. I got those right after my first camping trip.


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## MattS (Oct 15, 2006)

Was this the gauge? http://www.amazon.com/Vector-VEC008-Digita...t/dp/B0002ISEQW

You don't leave this one on all the time, right?


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## rdvholtwood (Sep 18, 2008)

Our monitor panel actually has a "C, (Charge), G, (Good), F (Fair), & L, (Low) below the E, 1/3, etc - which is used for our holding tanks. Also, I am no battery expert, but would tend to think that the cold weather would have had some effect on battery performance.

As far as the output from the truck, I would check the connector to see if you have output voltage there - if not, then you could check your fuse, or look for a disconnected wire?

I believe in addition to a voltmeter, you could use a hydrometer to check your battery.


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## MattS (Oct 15, 2006)

rdvholtwood said:


> Our monitor panel actually has a "C, (Charge), G, (Good), F (Fair), & L, (Low) below the E, 1/3, etc - which is used for our holding tanks. Also, I am no battery expert, but would tend to think that the cold weather would have had some effect on battery performance.
> 
> As far as the output from the truck, I would check the connector to see if you have output voltage there - if not, then you could check your fuse, or look for a disconnected wire?
> 
> I believe in addition to a voltmeter, you could use a hydrometer to check your battery.


They must have changed the new ones.

I'm about to check the trailer plug on the truck to see if it's got voltage.

For the 20* times with snow I was hoping to be able to check it from the inside but great suggestion.


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## raynardo (Jun 8, 2007)

I experienced the same problem on my first trailer and then on my second, this OB. It turned out it was the Interstate batteries, even though I had two brand new ones, they didn't work very well for very long at all. I kept taking them back to Interstate and they'd replace them under the warranty, but the warranty only runs from the original purchase of the original batteries, so after my third set, the dealer said, nope. I said keep the batteries, and I'll tell the world about my experience with your product.

I've since switched to two 6v Trojan-125 batteries, and now I'm a very happy camper (to coin a phrase. . .). These things work! They hold their charge, last forever, and recharge qucikly and fully. I also have a gauge that I plug into the 12v outlet of my OB (next to the TV connector) and it gives me a continually LCD readout of my batteries -- this is my battery bible. I bought it at Camping World, and I think it was less than $20.

You may want to try charging your existing batteries (making sure that they have adequate distilled water to cover the lead plates). If they charge fully (most chargers will let you know this in their automatic mode), you can use a battery meter to check them or take them to an auto parts store where most of them will do that for you for free. See if you're batteries hold their charge not connected to anything after a day or more. By default they lose about 1% of their charge every day. Anything more than that, and you've got a bad battery. And if you do, switch to the two 6v Trojan-125's, you won't be sorry.


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## rdvholtwood (Sep 18, 2008)

raynardo said:


> I experienced the same problem on my first trailer and then on my second, this OB. It turned out it was the Interstate batteries, even though I had two brand new ones, they didn't work very well for very long at all. I kept taking them back to Interstate and they'd replace them under the warranty, but the warranty only runs from the original purchase of the original batteries, so after my third set, the dealer said, nope. I said keep the batteries, and I'll tell the world about my experience with your product.
> 
> I've since switched to two 6v Trojan-125 batteries, and now I'm a very happy camper (to coin a phrase. . .). These things work! They hold their charge, last forever, and recharge qucikly and fully. I also have a gauge that I plug into the 12v outlet of my OB (next to the TV connector) and it gives me a continually LCD readout of my batteries -- this is my battery bible. I bought it at Camping World, and I think it was less than $20.
> 
> You may want to try charging your existing batteries (making sure that they have adequate distilled water to cover the lead plates). If they charge fully (most chargers will let you know this in their automatic mode), you can use a battery meter to check them or take them to an auto parts store where most of them will do that for you for free. See if you're batteries hold their charge not connected to anything after a day or more. By default they lose about 1% of their charge every day. Anything more than that, and you've got a bad battery. And if you do, switch to the two 6v Trojan-125's, you won't be sorry.


Thanks for the info - we have the original battery with our trailer, but, most likely will switch it out - will check into these!


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## MattS (Oct 15, 2006)

raynardo said:


> I experienced the same problem on my first trailer and then on my second, this OB. It turned out it was the Interstate batteries, even though I had two brand new ones, they didn't work very well for very long at all. I kept taking them back to Interstate and they'd replace them under the warranty, but the warranty only runs from the original purchase of the original batteries, so after my third set, the dealer said, nope. I said keep the batteries, and I'll tell the world about my experience with your product.
> 
> I've since switched to two 6v Trojan-125 batteries, and now I'm a very happy camper (to coin a phrase. . .). These things work! They hold their charge, last forever, and recharge qucikly and fully. I also have a gauge that I plug into the 12v outlet of my OB (next to the TV connector) and it gives me a continually LCD readout of my batteries -- this is my battery bible. I bought it at Camping World, and I think it was less than $20.
> 
> You may want to try charging your existing batteries (making sure that they have adequate distilled water to cover the lead plates). If they charge fully (most chargers will let you know this in their automatic mode), you can use a battery meter to check them or take them to an auto parts store where most of them will do that for you for free. See if you're batteries hold their charge not connected to anything after a day or more. By default they lose about 1% of their charge every day. Anything more than that, and you've got a bad battery. And if you do, switch to the two 6v Trojan-125's, you won't be sorry.


I can't seem to find the tester on the camping world website. It's possible that it could be the batteries however I've never had anything but great luck with Interstate batteries.


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## raynardo (Jun 8, 2007)

MattS said:


> I can't seem to find the tester on the camping world website.


I couldn't find it on the Camping World site either, but I did on *Amazon*.

I also have one of *these* and one of *these*.


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## MattS (Oct 15, 2006)

raynardo said:


> I can't seem to find the tester on the camping world website.


I couldn't find it on the Camping World site either, but I did on *Amazon*.

[/quote]

Is this what you leave plugged in all the time?


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## MattS (Oct 15, 2006)

CamperAndy said:


> 1 - It should charge from the truck. You could have a blown fuse on the truck.


Fuse was blown! I've got a new fuse in there that will glow when it's toasted. That might help me notice it quicker.


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## raynardo (Jun 8, 2007)

MattS said:


> I can't seem to find the tester on the camping world website.


I couldn't find it on the Camping World site either, but I did on *Amazon*.

[/quote]

Is this what you leave plugged in all the time?
[/quote]

Yes it is. But you should know that I disconnect my batteries when my OB is in storage.


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## MattS (Oct 15, 2006)

raynardo said:


> I can't seem to find the tester on the camping world website.


I couldn't find it on the Camping World site either, but I did on *Amazon*.

[/quote]

Is this what you leave plugged in all the time?
[/quote]

Yes it is. But you should know that I disconnect my batteries when my OB is in storage.
[/quote]

I always take mine out when I park.


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## raynardo (Jun 8, 2007)

MattS said:


> I always take mine out when I park.


I'm too lazy, and that's too much work!


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