Thor Forums

[Oneilkeys]

You might invest in a cheap battery tester and see exactly how “new” the original battery actually is. I don’t know if Thor is still using the junk Harris batteries, but I bet whatever they are putting into the Axis/Vegas are not top of the line. And sitting on the lot, being allowed to fully discharge and probably not keeping the water topped off might not have helped it. When you add a second battery to an older one, the battery system you create has the characteristics of the weakest battery.

In addition, you would do well to check out how well the converter/charger is actually charging your batteries. If you search for converter/charger in this forum, there have been some good discussions on this issue. I have owned both a 2014 Vegas and 2016 Axis and neither of the converter/chargers worked as they should. Neither fully charged the coach batteries and neither went into the final “float charge” state which did not help the condition of the batteries. Like the TVs, this is one area where Thor cuts corners with quality. I ended up buying a better quality converter/charger and it now actually works.

Your 12v electrical system is a system and it is as weak as the weakest part. A malfunctioning converter/charger can destroy new batteries in a short period of time - especially if you leave them plugged in all the time. It also may only charge your batteries to 80% of fully charged. Since you generally do not want to discharge your batteries below 50%, if your charger only charges your batteries to 80%, you are actually only able to effectively use 30% of your batteries — from 80% to 50% rather than 100% to 50%.