Keeping RV battries charged

[kaddiddle]

I am new to the RV world, as I struck a deal with my recently widowed aunt to store her 28 ft fleet wood elite RV at my house. In return i get to use it anytime I want. Went out to do some service work yesterday and the batteries are dead. My question is this - Can I hook the RV up to a 110V house plug. I found 110v- 30 amp adapter in the RV. I know this combo will not run the AC unit and such but will it be safe for the camper to plug it in to keep the batteries charged and to use a light or two when we are in and out of the camper?

 

[T-N-T]

Yep.

There is an onboard inverter that will keep the battery charged when the camper is plugged in.

Set the frig on the correct setting for 120 and when you use the camper it will be cold and ready to load with food too.

 

[walters]

Batteries

Watch Ur batteries close if they don't take a charge over a couple days unhook them, cause u can burn your converter up from keep trying to charge bad batteries,
Camper will work fine without batteries hooked up, as long as it's plugged up

 

[kaddiddle]

Outstanding, Thanks Everyone

 

[1eyefishing]

I always disconnect my battery when I'm going to leave the camper unattended.
I think most campers have a 'shore power' plug that you can plug into 110 volt AC. If you give it a dedicated 15 amp circuit, you can run the AC and keep your batteries charged...

 

[kaddiddle]

Is this a separate plug from the shore power 30 amp plug?

 

[1eyefishing]

I don't think so. Just the normal place you plug it into a generator or whatever.

 

[Oldstick]

I would recommend using a separate battery charger, a newer model with the built in smarts to maintain the battery during storage, without overcharging it if you have one. Depends on the power supply in the camper, but I ruined a fairly new battery by keeping the camper plugged up for months during storage. This was a 2003 model camper and I found reports of others with the same model power supply having this overcharge problem as well.

I suppose you could research the power supply and find out if that is a problem with yours.

 

[Dialer]

I run my rooftop A/C unit through an extension cord from the garage....

 

[Bob Shaw]

Check the batteries, if they are wet cell, you may need to add water. If they have been dead for a while, they may need to be desulfated. A good Schumacher charger would take care of that, and also tell you if your batteries are still ok or not.