Battery FYI

[sourdough]

Everyone may already know this but I didn't.

Last year I kept having trouble with my slides coming in and out. They would move slowly sounding like they were in a bind. I would stop them, straighten them up and continue bringing them in or out. I took it in and the dealership said everything was OK.

At the beginning of this year I found one of my batteries had ruined two cells and was bulging. The current coming from them wasn't what it should be and fluctuated a great deal causing many of my 12v LEDs to fail about which I posted here. 2 weeks ago I installed 2 new Interstate deep cycle batteries. Guess what? My slides operate like they're on steroids! They just buzz right in and out. LEDs are very bright and no flicker!

Main reason for posting was the slide problems caused by a bad battery which then became a parasitic draw on the good one. Anyway, if you have a slide issue similar to what I described you might want to check the condition of your battery(s).

[canesfan]

Very good advice and a lot of people aren't aware of this. I was in a CG last year and ran across someone who was having trouble with their slide. It was a used camper he had recently bought and didn't know a lot of stuff some of us take for granted. We got to talking and he was telling me about the slide not wanting to go in and he thought it was crooked. We looked at everything and all seemed ok. Somehow we ended up at his battery and one of the terminals wasn't even hand tight. It was also low. We tightened the connection and he had a charger that we put on it. Later that evening he came by and told me after the battery charged the slide went in no problem and thanked me up and down. He didn't know the slide depended on the battery to operate and had been pulling his hair out with what was wrong. I offered him a beer and we talked some more and became friends, sharing meals for the next several days we were there. Something I took for granted he was forever grateful to learn. So no, what we sometimes assume "everyone may know" everyone doesn't know. There are always new people coming into the RV world that don't know what we do. I learn new things almost every time I read some posts here and I've been doing this many years.

[Tbos]

Great info. I appreciate it. Thanks.

[sourdough]

I might add that all of my issues were while I was plugged into shore power and not dry camping. I figured the AC to the converter would negate any minor battery issue but that isn't the case.

[{tpc}]

Originally Posted by sourdough

I might add that all of my issues were while I was plugged into shore power and not dry camping. I figured the AC to the converter would negate any minor battery issue but that isn't the case.

I've never tried it but I want to say that the slides won't operate on AC only, right? Given the manufacturer of most converter units in these things, it doesn't surprise me that they wouldn't negate a minor battery issue. Just more like trickle chargers than anything else I think.