Question What do you shut off when storing RV

[Joe Hogan]

Still working out the systems on the 24 DSDP. When putting DSDP in temp storage, essentially extended parking between trips, I manually turn off Oasis, Refrig,Dometic basement cooler, all lights, floor heat, fans, etc.
Turn off Salesman switch and turn Inverter to charger only.

It gets tricky with power locking basement doors. Have not messed with breakers in chassis battery compartment.

Thoughts?

 

[Kevin D Pem]

Kinda depends! Been sometime for me, but I only stored in lot without amenities, and no solar!

I have listened while visiting my rig to many alarms taking their last breath, as there batteries died.
Alarms are designed for the living and there are none that will pay any attention when not their rig! Because of that, I battery disconnected for storage in "the day"! Today if I stored because of my solar, I would leave it all on!!!

 

[Joe Hogan]

The benefits of solar!!

as I wrote this post I realized that there is a BMS switch in the control panel cabinet. Turning that off would protect the LiFePo cells. Salesman switch would probably do most of the rest of the nonessential 12v stuff.

 

[RandyB]

The "salesman switch" does not completely isolate the batteries from the devices. I can't tell you exactly what is or is not disconnected using that switch. Every coach model is different. I can say that after I installed a manual double post battery disconnect in the battery bay, along with the freightliner switch, EVERYTHING is off. That's how I want it. Yes, there's a few things that need to be reset, but that's the price for having a total disconnect.

 

[Kevin D Pem]

The benefits of solar!!

as I wrote this post I realized that there is a BMS switch in the control panel cabinet. Turning that off would protect the LiFePo cells. Salesman switch would probably do most of the rest of the nonessential 12v stuff.

Oh! Joe, forgot one very crucial point! I answered from the lead tech point of view. Also from the it seldom freezes here in the DSW I would either have a temperature controlled battery box/ compartment with lithium, or disconnect all charging capability due to the fire issue with the introduced winter freeze issue with charging these lithium based systems. This is also why I would not get said batteries with built-in heating due to the possibility they might drain trying to keep warm,though I don't know if they are smart enough to know they are being stored.

 

[sheridany]

Are you plugged in at storage? There is always parasitic draw that can be tough to locate, so being plugged in is the best bet. If it is less than 50 amp, be sure to adjust your inverters to match the outlet and turn off everything like Oasis because it can cause the circuit breaker to break. This happened when I had a Ventana and a 110 outlet in storage.

 

[Joe Hogan]

This is a delicate dance on what has power and not. The CanyonStar had breakers at the batteries. Turn those off and everything powered by house batteries was off.
The DSDP has many more electrical dependencies and I’d rather keep some of this alive for convenience.
The small drain items are not the worry, it is some automatic system turning on that has me concerned.
The unit is stored inside in central Florida so freezing is not a concern.
One final wrinkle is that the RV is currently stored at a facility with Porters. So the RV has to be able to run and drive without much confusion.
We are in the process of building a storage unit. Then it will live the life of luxury, plugged in to 50amp.

 

[sheridany]

I stored mine with a facility with porters, and I created a simple illustration of how to start up and shut down the coach, left it on the driver's seat every time, and asked them to use porters that had read the booklet. I took the pages to a FedEx Kinkos store and had them laminate the pages and bound them. I constantly reminded them to read the pages and follow the procedures as specified. I made it as simple as possible, with arrows pointing to specific buttons, etc. I attached an example. Probably overkill but house batteries on Prevost are 700 each and there are 6 of them.

 

[Diesel Pusher]

When the coach is at our storage, I turn the chassis and house batteries off so everything inside is dead. The alarm and web cams are wired to a separate third battery system recharged by solar.

 

[Neal]

Still working out the systems on the 24 DSDP. When putting DSDP in temp storage, essentially extended parking between trips, I manually turn off Oasis, Refrig,Dometic basement cooler, all lights, floor heat, fans, etc.
Turn off Salesman switch and turn Inverter to charger only.

It gets tricky with power locking basement doors. Have not messed with breakers in chassis battery compartment.

Thoughts?

It all depends such as if you have a shore power feed, even if only 15A. If it's stored outside, I'd set AGS to run when needed to prevent battery depletion, notify them if necessary in case they hear it running. I believe you have Victron inverters, not sure about your shunt setup but I'd highly recommend a GX series product such as Venus, Cerbo, etc. so you can remotely monitor but you'd need to leave 12V power on (if Pepwaves on 12V source for example) to have an Internet connection. Solar obviously will help if/when that time comes but you still need a fallback.

I believe your scenario is more along the lines of long term storage without a shore power connection. So yes, everything needs to be off, refrigerator doors open to prevent mold (same with basement cooler if you have one), and hope for the best. Winterized if necessary.

My solar install was based on my storage situation with no power, that was the main reason.