110 volt shore power storage

trower · 12-14-2010, 08:29 AM

I just put our new to us MADP in storage and I am wondering if the Coach and Start batteries are maintained using 115 volt shore power?

wa8yxm · 12-14-2010, 10:28 AM

Depends.... Some coaches (Mine for example) the answer is yes.. Some the answer is no and some you don't want to do it that way.

First: What converter do you have.. I will list just two and explain

I have a Progressive Dynamics 9180 WITH charge wizard.. This is an outstanding converter (Best plus at least one outstanding feature) and I highly recommend any converter in the best or outstanding class (It is a very big class by the way)
Reason: The Best converters are all 3-stage (or 3-stage plus) those stages being bulk, to quickly re-charge a battery in need, Absorption to finish the job, more slowly so as to not damage the battery and FLOAT to keep it full till needed.

Some folks got something like a Magnetek 6300 series.. This is a single stage converter that either never fully charges the batteries.. Or, given time will over charge them and boil them dry..

So what converter do you have? Google it, and that tells you if it's a 3-stage or a single stage.. If it's 3, good.

now, does the shore power maintain the starting battery?

Two ways to find that out.. here is the easy one.

(The hard one is to find your battery control system and look it up)

With rig plugged in for at least 24 hours unplug
Turn on headlight for 5 minutes (Exact time not critical)
Digital volt meter to the CHASSIS battery (you may be able to access that under the dash or on the dash or at some other point easier to find than the battery)

Note reading (12.x)

Plug in

Note reading (Going up to 13.x)

Answer YES

Reading remains static: Answer no.