Cougar 22 mls lithium battery disconnect

[Troutmadness]

Hi. Just purchased a new Cougar 22 mls travel trailer with the solar panel and lithium battery. Should you disconnect the lithium battery when your plugged into your 30 amp service? Should you remove the lithium battery and put it in the house for winter. I live in northern Wisconsin and have extremely cold temps in the winter. Thanks you.

[LHaven]

You shouldn't disconnect the battery just because you're plugged into shore power -- for one thing, that's the only way your battery gets topped off.

As for winter temps, if your battery is one that comes with its own heater, and you're going to be on shore power, you might be able to get away with leaving it in, provided you understand the published limitations of your battery and heater. If it isn't a heated battery, you're going to have to take it in below a certain temperature, check the battery instruction sheet.

[Troutmadness]

Thank you so much LHaven for the information. I really appreciate it!!!!

[Max23]

Originally Posted by Troutmadness

Hi. Just purchased a new Cougar 22 mls travel trailer with the solar panel and lithium battery. Should you disconnect the lithium battery when your plugged into your 30 amp service? Should you remove the lithium battery and put it in the house for winter. I live in northern Wisconsin and have extremely cold temps in the winter. Thanks you.

I have the same batteries. First off, several things on your rig require batteries to be connected to work, check labels on front by disconnect. Also yes this keeps them charged. I never shut any power off to the batteries at all, solar, nothing. That's what your charge controller is for. I do take mine in over the winter as my garage is heated so they stay nice n toasty warm. Lol. Well, maybe not toasty, it's only about 50 in there in the winter but hey, better than 10 below! Lol. Take care!

[JRTJH]

Originally Posted by Troutmadness

Hi. Just purchased a new Cougar 22 mls travel trailer with the solar panel and lithium battery. Should you disconnect the lithium battery when your plugged into your 30 amp service? Should you remove the lithium battery and put it in the house for winter. I live in northern Wisconsin and have extremely cold temps in the winter. Thanks you.

Living in northern Wisconsin, you can pretty much guarantee that the solar panels will be covered with snow/ice for much of the winter storage season. Once that happens, there is no "solar power to keep the batteries charged"... So, from a "recharge capability" you might as well just stick the batteries out in a snowbank for the winter.

Even with shore power available, should anything happen to the battery heating system or a loss of shore power for a while, what condition "might" the batteries be in when you discover the problem and plug the trailer back in (or resupply shore power) ???

I'd recommend removing the batteries and taking them inside for several reasons ranging from "they won't be checked for months, so they may walk and you wouldn't know they were gone to they may freeze, then in a thaw, start getting some limited solar recharging while in their frozen state to who knows....

Take them in, keep them in a controlled environment and you'll still have that $2000 of batteries next spring. At the price of Lithium batteries, not much reason to put them at risk for months on end.... YMMV