Charged Up

[kevin_standlee]

Several days ago, Lisa pulled the dead auxiliary battery out of the Big Orange Van and we went over to the local NAPA Auto Parts and traded it in on a new deep-cycle RV battery. Lisa then put it on the battery charger for a couple of days, and on Sunday she swapped it for the "coach" battery in the Rolling Stone. The coach battery is two years old and still holds a charge, just not as well as it did originally. She put it into the Big Orange Van, which doesn't need quite as robust a battery as I do in the RV. I'm now less likely to wake up gasping overnight with a CPAP machine sounding a low-power alarm. Just to be sure all is well, we'll plug the Stone into ground power the day before I next leave. That, along with driving 300 miles to the Bay Area, should assure that everything is topped up.

Comments

[rono-60103.livejournal.com]

Have you looked to see if there are any (non Chinese made) solar cell systems - or other similar sources - that could be used to help supplement the coach battery's charge when you aren't driving around? Something that makes sure your battery is topped off might not be a bad investment.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Not yet, but it's one of the things Lisa has on her list of things to look for the next time we go to the RV store. For that matter, we'll possibly stop at the Camping World store in Wilsonville OR on our Westercon trip, and if we find things we like, we'll take the opportunity of picking them up there and avoiding paying sales tax.