Community Forums

Renipladlo · 04-19-2011, 08:36 PM

Disconnect the batteries from the chassis circuit. What you have it two 12V batteries. If my memory serves they are connected in parallel so the amperage is increased but the voltage stays the same. Mine are sealed so I cannot check the level of the water/acid in them, but if yours have caps, make sure the level is over the top of the plates a bit. After disconnecting them from the chassis, you can then charge each one individually since again they are 12V each. If you have access to the cells, check the specific gravity of each cell after the charging is completed + 15 minutes. It should be at or above 1260 to 1270 assuming 70 degrees outside temp.

bcbowers · 04-19-2011, 08:48 PM

Monty - I believe that Oregon Coyote is trying to charge the house batteries which are probably 2 or 3 pairs of 6V batteries not individual 12V batteries. Once the chassis batteries are disconnected from the house batteries as you directed, he should be able to use a 12V charge across the house batteries by selecting a single PAIR of 6V batteries connected in series. Am I missing something?

Renipladlo · 04-19-2011, 09:52 PM

No, I don't think so, but I would break the connection to the coach just to be safe. EM would know more about this. His problem is baffeling, and it really could be the inverter causing the issues.

takepride · 04-19-2011, 11:21 PM

To best balance out the charging over the bank, hook up to the same posts as the bank uses for ground and power out.

EngineerMike · 04-20-2011, 07:26 PM

Norm- if you hook up a 12V charging system as Takepride suggests, you should be able to charge the house bank. The only variable will be charging time. I suspect you may have in the neighborhood of a 10A charger, which will take a heckuva long time to make a dent in discharged house bank (e.g if its a 440 amp-hour set of 4 220ah 6V batt's, and 25% discharged, that's 110 amps for one hour of charge, or 11 hours at 10 amps; at 50% discharge that'd take 22 hours at 10 amps).

Your engine alternator is in the neighborhood of 130 or 160 amps, so the difference in a short time will be substantial.

Oregon Coyote · 04-22-2011, 02:15 PM

My inverter (458 combi) looks just like the one posted by Theberrys except that mine does not have any breakers????? [the manual does not show any breakers either).

I believe I have tried Takepride's suggestion and perhaps I did not wait long enough per EM's comments. All I am trying to do is keep the coach batts charged enough to run the furnace without having to run the engine a bit each day (FYI, the generator does not do any charging now so apparently it charges through my now disconnected inverter).

Thanks all,
Norm

EngineerMike · 04-22-2011, 06:44 PM

norm- the gen will do some charging but off its alternator it only produces ~10-12A IIRC. If the inverter/charger is doing its charging cycle properly you should be in the neighborhood of 100A which is the same time/amp-hour relation as the standard 10A charger.

Renipladlo · 04-22-2011, 07:52 PM

FWIW - Today, I was plugged into 120AC @ 30A. The display showed 9A being used inside the coach, (everything was off-just charging batteries) but when I went to the chager screen, it was showing 30-45A float into the batteries. So this makes perfect sense to me. The genset show a similiar thing, when I'm running it.