Today I was checking my 5er's batteries. I have two for the lights etc. in the camper and four for my invertor to run a freezer and extra refrigerator. I clean all the connections and isolate each battery to check its condition. All six batteries checked out good. The four that I use for the invertor are connected in parallel. The first battery's ground is connected to the frame and negative on the charger. The first battery's positive is connected to positive on the charger. The last battery in line has the pos and neg connected to the invertor. The third battery's negative post was completely corroded??? All the other cable connections are clean. Anybody guess why this would happen? Also, I'm thinking about putting dielectric grease on all connections, is that a good idea or bad. Hope this made sense, this setup has worked for years and never done this!

 

Leaking battery perhaps?

I use dielectric grease, and the fiber terminal rings. Don't have the corroding trouble.

 

They are gel batteries, I should have mentioned that. Can they leak also?

 

Glenn not sure on why it corroded, but i an interested in your set up. I want to make an battery inverter to run a roof ac on our horse trailer camper at night. Some places we go doesnt have power and cant run a generator at night.

 

Ok. From my understanding they do not have the same tendency to cause corrosion.

However, a concern would be if a terminal is cracked/area around terminal letting acid out. Although with GEL's that isn't very likely. Just something I have dealt with before.

My only other thought is that perhaps the particular battery cable you are referencing is a different material than the others/the battery itself and has some galvanic corrosion going on, or has lost some alloy coating and thus corrosion forms.

Is there any chance you have something silly like a water drip on that exact terminal going on?

 

it is possible that negative terminal was loose and got wet causing the current to "jump" across the loose connection, and the moisture caused it to corrode and fall apart.

 

Thanks for the ideas guys. I have built this on a luggage rack that goes on the back of vehicles that you see all the time. It mounts into the receiver hitch but I ran two square tubing on each end under and bolted it to the hitch and to the 'basket'. On each end I have a 2000 watt Honda generator 'married' together to give me 4000 watts. In the middle of the generators I have four optima blue tops connected in parallel. On top of the batteries I placed a board and mounted a 3000 watt inverter good for 6000 surge. I ran a separate wire into the camper to run a 6 cu in freezer and a small 'dorm' size refrig. On that same circuit I can run my TV and satellite so if we are someplace without power and fair weather so we don't need generators, we can watch TV. This system mostly gets used when we are going down the road to keep the freezer and refrig going. Another plus is we can use the crock pot going down the road so dinner is ready when we stop at night, LOL. Another plus to this 'separate circuit' is if we can only get a 30 amp plug in at a campsite, I'll run a separate cord to a 20 amp plug so I still will get 50 amp. I don't think anything is getting wet, if it is its only in that one spot, I'll vote for a crack around that one ground.

Gabe, to run a ac off of an invertor, you might, probably will have to go bigger then I did. Mine will run that freezer and refrig for a couple days. I guess it depends on the size of ac. In the past mine was to small so I kept going bigger and bigger until I finally got enough capacity to run things.

 

Wow Glenn.that sounds like the setup! Wish I had any input but I'm a newbie at best

 

haha Aaron, that was ten years in the making, LOL My first invertor was barely big enough to run a 13" TV.

By the way, the convertor that came with the camper was way to small to handle six batteries. I replaced it with a 80 amp to keep the two in the camper charged and ran lines back to the four that are in the back with the invertor.

 

So if my camper has a place up front for batteries...I have 4 6v industrial batteries..was thinking put the second two in the rear compartment..but I will need a bigger inverter..

 

A lot of RVer's swear by the 6v batteries.

 

Slightly used fork truck parts :-)

 

Glenn, Permatex Hi-Tack in the spray can is perfect for terminals.

 

OK Corey, thanks.

 

Thanks for the info Glenn. I will have to look at the paper work that came with it and see how much it pulls and do some figuring. It already has two batterys but they just run the lights, water pump, and part of the water heater.