Bus Battery Maintenance

[Beeb]

I just replaced my batteries in my bus, because they had been totally drained numerous times during the conversion process, and basically were trash. We now have 3 Interstate Batteries (31-VHD, if I remember correctly).

How often should I take my bus for a drive in order to maintain the life of the batteries? And what other steps should I take for maintaining their life? Also, should I be taking the bus for a drive in order to maintain the engine itself?

[o1marc]

Starting and just sitting is not good for the engine, so when firing it up, it should be driver to heat up and evaporate all the condensation in the system. Should start and drive it at least once a week. I let mine sit longer and the fuel drained back and won't start now. I don't think driving it helps the battery life as long as you keep it on a trickle charge or keep them charged fully.

[john61ct]

Starter use only or trying for Deep Cycling usage?

With the latter, those batts won't last too long, and

5-7 hours is required to get to 100% Full for longevity with any lead chemistry, at least every other cycle.

Shore power is best, solar next best, top up every month or less.

[Beeb]

Originally Posted by john61ct

Starter use only or trying for Deep Cycling usage?

With the latter, those batts won't last too long, and

5-7 hours is required to get to 100% Full for longevity with any lead chemistry, at least every other cycle.

Shore power is best, solar next best, top up every month or less.

Starter only.

[john61ct]

Then just start up and drive around as you usually would to counteract general entropy.

If you could toss a decent trickle charger on overnight once a month as well, even better. But don't stress if that's hard.

A little 20-50W panel hooked up once in a while would do the same, some very cheap regulators aren't too bad, but even without one is OK for just one sunny day or two per month.

Personally I do not like leaving even thousand dollar charge sources hooked up permanently without human supervision while a bank's in storage.

Obviously all the above assumes the bank is isolated, no parasitic loads.