Does The B.I.R.D. Charge Chassis Batteries?

[GaryKD]

For a coach that has a B.I.R.D. device, should the chassis batteries be charged by the charger/converter, when connected to shore power? This is in reference to my 05 KSDP.

[Monacoach]

Yes they will.

["007"]

Once the house batteries are up to full charge the BIRD system will also charge the chassis batteries, but house batteries take precedent.

THE BIRD

[siggyd]

Hi Gary,
On my 05KSDP3720, the chassis batteries will start charging after about
2 minutes of shore power , you will hear a click in the electrical basement.
But all of this will happen ONLY if your "House switch" is set to IN USE !
I checked all this out with a meter connected to the chassis batteries.
The " house batteries" will charge as soon as you plug in the shore power,
it does not matter if the "in use" switch is is ON or not.
Siggy

[GaryKD]

Thanks for the replies. This confirms what I have thought was true. My confusion stems from the coach batteries not holding a charge. While a meter will show them a 80% or above, as soon as I put a load on the coach batteries they come right down to 12.1 or 12.0 VDC. This is after being connected to shore power for two days. I also tried charging them with a portable charger with the same result. It looks like I'm about to give my self an early Christmas gift.

[Route 66]

Gary, are those batteries the AGMs you bought a few years ago?

[GaryKD]

Hi Dirk,
You have a good memory. Yes, these are the same AGM batteries (Discovery Brand) that I purchased a little over 3 years ago. The batteries have a one year full replacement and 3 year pro rated warranty. Even if I was under the 3 year pro rate warranty, I would not purchase this brand again. I purchased the Discovery Brand because it is what Newmar was putting in the Aire coaches that are all electric.

[enjoyrv]

Quote:

Originally Posted by siggyd Hi Gary, On my 05KSDP3720, the chassis batteries will start charging after about 2 minutes of shore power , you will hear a click in the electrical basement. But all of this will happen ONLY if your "House switch" is set to IN USE ! I checked all this out with a meter connected to the chassis batteries. The " house batteries" will charge as soon as you plug in the shore power, it does not matter if the "in use" switch is is ON or not. Siggy

This is similar to the answer I had from the factory service dept when I asked if I hook up a small battery charger to the chassis batteries - - will it also charge the house batteries? The answer was only YES if the "house switch" in turn on to the IN USE position.

I also asked when hooked up to 15 amp shore power (storage area only had this type of electrical power) would it be enough to power the on board coach battery charger. Yes, was the answer but they recommended turning down the SHORE POWER setting in the coach electrical monitor from 30 amps to 5 or 10 to avoid tripping the circuit breaker on pole or building. This would limit the electrical draw. Hope this makes sense.

[Lug_Nut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaryKD Hi Dirk, You have a good memory. Yes, these are the same AGM batteries (Discovery Brand) that I purchased a little over 3 years ago. The batteries have a one year full replacement and 3 year pro rated warranty. Even if I was under the 3 year pro rate warranty, I would not purchase this brand again. I purchased the Discovery Brand because it is what Newmar was putting in the Aire coaches that are all electric.

Gary, Did you have your charger set for "wet cell"? I understand that setting the charger to AGM was found to be not ideal for the batteries as they did not receive a high enough voltage. This setting change was an after thought to the AGM makers and resulted in Newmar setting all new AGM's to wet cell.

The result of setting in AGM may not provide a high enough voltage during charge which may lead to a shorter battery life.

Peter

[Dav5942]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaryKD Hi Dirk, You have a good memory. Yes, these are the same AGM batteries (Discovery Brand) that I purchased a little over 3 years ago. The batteries have a one year full replacement and 3 year pro rated warranty. Even if I was under the 3 year pro rate warranty, I would not purchase this brand again. I purchased the Discovery Brand because it is what Newmar was putting in the Aire coaches that are all electric.

Yikes! How many days did you dry camp? I just installed the Lifeline AGMs after fighting the corrision, etc. with the lead acids. We were able dry camp over 400 days the last 4 years(although they were only holding a charge for 6-8 hours the last year) with the Lead Acid, hope we can come close with the AGMs.

[GaryKD]

Hi Peter,
My coach has an Iota 55 charger with the external smart charger module installed. There are no settings. I checked with Iota before purchasing the AGMs and with the smart charger "brain" I was told the Iota 55 will do the job. Checking the wall panel, the charger does fluctuate between 14.3 and 13.5 VDC, depending on the state of the coach batteries.

[GaryKD]

Hi Dave,
We rarely dry camp. I do mean rarely. Something happened this summer. I noticed a sudden difference in how the wall panel was reporting the charge state of the house batteries. That coincided with the shortened coach battery life. See my next post for a general update.

[GaryKD]

Hi all,

I may be premature on thinking the coach AGMs are bad. This is a general status of this saga.
1. It is not yet over.
2. I spent all day chasing my tail and finally made some progress.
3. The symptoms are:
3a. The coach batteries are not being charged while motoring down the road. The chassis batteries are charged when motoring down the road.
3b. The chassis batteries are not being charged when the coach is connected to shore power. House batteries are charged when connected to shore power.
4. Removed all 4 coach batteries and took them to three (yes 3) different battery/auto parts stores to get them tested.
4a. The first place said all were okay.
4b. The second place said 2 of the batteries were dead.
4c. The 3rd place said they were all fully charged but could not be load tested.
5, I removed the two chassis batteries and took them to my local AC Delco battery place. One of the chassis batteries was no good. Even though it was fully charged the machine said it was bad during the load test.

I purchased two 12 VDC AC Delco batteries for the engine.

I will install them tomorrow. I will also reinstall the coach batteries. This configuration will be in the coach for the next month or so. We will see if things return to normal. With one chassis battery not coming up to full charge I can understand why the coach batteries were not being charge while motoring down the highway. The one chassis battery being bad may also explain why I felt the chassis batteries were not being charged when connected to shore power. Maybe the Iota charger just couldn't handle the bad battery + the other five batteries. Time will tell.

Some side thoughts:
1. The engine never delayed starting on the one battery. Every start was quick and never gave me an indication one battery had given up the ghost.

2. These batteries are very heavy! It would be interesting to know how much weight they add to the left rear axle, being that they are about 8' behind the tires.

Stay tuned.

[read & learn]

Gary,
I followed your lead and switched to Discovery AGM a couple of months after you, so I will talk to you at the Tampa RV Super Show.
Joe