The battery on my Pilgrim 190 TT blew up yesterday morning. And I mean BLEW UP - sounded line an artillery shell - set all the car alarms off in camp, blew the battery box I had it in and the battery itself into a million pieces down to the lead cells. Also got battery acid all over my truck and car. I had some baking soda and water and used it pretty soon afterwards, but I think the paint is ruined on both. My questions are this:

1 - has anyone had this happen and try to get it covered under their insurance?

2 - What causes it?

I'm thinking my inverter in theory is suppose to switch from trickle charge (assuming around 2 amps) to wide open charge (assuming 6 to 8 amps) depending on the voltage of the battery, and that did not happen. It stayed on full charge, boiled the battery dry, the battery started emitting gas, and a cell shorted due to being dry, causes a spark which ignited the gas.

Any thoughts?

 

Well it sounds like you need a new battery and inverter parts at least. Plus whatever paint was messed up. I'll say get a RV shop to give an estimate on the repairs in writing and see if after your deductiable if its worth a claim.

 

Can also just be a battery failure. I just had one on my truck short, boil, and start to melt.

 

I am on my second battery charger/inverter in my camper and even though it clearly claims to shut down and NOT overcharge the battery...it cooks them dry.

I think your theory is spot on as to what caused the explosion, built up hydrogen and a spark and that is all it takes. As far as the Insurance, I guess it all depends on the type of Insurance you have. Seems to me that your vehicles would be covered by their own policy's even if you did not have RV insurance.

Only way to find out is to give them a call Good luck!

 

A wet flooded type of battery can also suffer a steam explosion. A direct short with sufficient conductor will cause instantanious boiling (explosion) of the electrolyte. That is one reason jumper cables are made of thinner gage wire to limit current in a direct short situation.

Hydrogen or steam, one of the two...

 

I've had semi truck batteries go bad and explode. Most times I've caught them before explosion because I've smelled the sulfur/rotten egg smell when they start cooking.

A quick call to the insurance company will answer the other question better than anyone here can.

 

Take alot of pictures and save all of the parts you can for the insurance company. This will help your claim. Your T/V insurance may cover it. Good luck.

 

My uncle had the exact thing happen. He had to tell them (State Farm at the time) that he was driving and hit a bump when it happened or they wouldnt cover it. Dont know why.

 

Well, I made contact with the insurance company, and wanted to post back my findings incase anyone is interested or ever searches and comes across it.

I have Farm Bureau Ins on both my vehicles and TT, and all of the damage to the camper is covered under its policy, but the TT policy won't cover the damage to my car or truck. Since I have Comp & Collision coverage on the car, we had to file the damage to the car on its policy. That leaves the old first gen out in the cold because I only had liability on it, which stinks because I was unable to find any full coverage for it being a 1992 when I moved to FB a few years back.

No word yet if they will just cover the damage to the trailer or will also replace the inverter which is obviously part of the problem. Does anyone have any recommended inverters to check out?

 

Sometimes you can have one cell get a dead short in it. This causes a smart charger to kick into high gear, and also causes the remaining cells to be charged at too high voltage and off gas very badly.

Occasionally you can also have a crack in a conductor inside the battery. When temperature or vibration is just right it can cause an arc and ignite the explosive gases.

I was with a buddy one time when he went to crank his car, and the battery went off like a grenade.

Hopefully insurance will cover it, but the main thing is no one lost an eye or was otherwise seriously hurt. Something to give thanks for, I suppose.

 

Batteries are strange like that sometimes. I put a big honkin 1000cca battery in my Jetta TDI (no heater, have to cycle glow plugs a few times when its real cold) and a few months later my wife calls me and says the car won't start, trying to leave work. Got a jump, drove home, when she shut it down the fans were still on. I popped the hood and there was a huge hole in the side of the battery, which bubbled down acid over a relay pack that controls a/c, fans, etc, along with destroying much of the harness under the battery....which happens to be a lot of work to fix! No idea what made the battery do that, looks like something hit it and ripped out a chunk of the case completely, but no possible way for something to hit it in that spot without going through the radiator or skid plate first. Weird.

 

on the next inverter make sure it has the wizzard charger with it. check the positive lead for break in insulation. with the battery out check the voltage across the battery terminals. if you have a short in wiring or inverter you will not get any volts. inverters without the charge wizzard boil the batteries dry if left connected to power for long periods. usually all cells dry at the same level when the cells are dry the battery does not have enough power to cause what you have and with the acid you got i think a diode shorted in the inverter.

 

one more thing when you install the new battery install a fuse on the positive side of the battery and make all connections on the fuse. i use fuse links from the junk box for this. alternator links is a easy one to get.