Finally added two more batteries

[terry735001]

Originally Posted by ShapeShifter

Looks like a very nice job! You've given me some good ideas...

How is that BMK working out for you? It's something I've been considering for a while.



You might want to reconsider this. While the chassis batteries are considered "maintenance free" they can still vent. If you look closely at the label on top, and press down on it and feel around, you can feel where the label spans a small gap in the plastic battery case. Feel around and you'll find the gap follows a rectangular outline. Cut the label at that outline, and you'll find there are two plastic caps, each covering three cells. The battery is not a sealed battery, it's just a regular flooded lead-acid battery where the caps are not convenient to reach.

So, even though the batteries are "maintenance free" and won't gas off as much as the coach batteries, they can still vent gasses. Yes, there may be some ventilation in that compartment (designed to help dissipate some heat from the inverter/charger) but I would still be concerned. The issue is not so much the hydrogen gasses from the battery accumulating to dangerous levels, it's that the gasses vented by the battery can be corrosive. The concern is the expensive inverter/charger in that compartment. I'd be concerned about the circuitry in there eventually getting corroded and failing.

I think you have a good solution there. But instead of the battery tray you're using, you might want to look into one of the sealed battery boxes that have a vent tube. Run that vent tube out the back wall of the compartment so that the corrosive gasses can't get to the inverter, AGS, and other circuity in that compartment. Perhaps you could find a dual battery version of something like this:



There really is a reason why your coach was designed with the batteries in one compartment, and the sensitive electronics in an adjacent separate compartment.

is right all so the gas after time well kill the inverter ecm broads

i would install some kind of wall to stop this

making the run this weekend should not hurt its the longer time to the gas that well start to hurt things installed around them

[nodine]

Since the old Interstate Workaholic chassis batteries that came with the coach are about 8 years old, I did not feel bad about ditching them for two new Group 31 AGM's. We actually picked up an additional 100 cold cranking amps in the process. The old Workaholics were rated at 750 CCA and the new AGM's are 800 CCA. These batteries are widely used in the trunk of cars to power high power audio amplifiers and in confined spaces on boats so I feel better about sharing the space with the inverter.

So far I am loving the BMK and gave it a dry run in the driveway Friday. The only downside is we had to upgrade to the ME-ARC50 remote to gain the full benefit of the BMK with the AGS. The original ME-RC50 did lot provide the "start AGS based on SOC (state of charge) feature which we dearly wanted for dry camping. It turns out the ME-ARC50 is chocked full of additional features not available with the RC50. One of the big things is the ability to set a timer on how long the battery voltage must be below the set point before the AGS will start the generator. If you have been annoyed by the AGC starting the generator because of inrush current for a load such as the water pump, it might be worth your while to upgrade to the ME-ARC50 even without the BMK. This will allow you set a time as short as 120 seconds that the voltage must be at or below before the AGS will start the generator.

Some other neat things are the ability to read the temperature of the transistors and the transformer in the inverter. One thing that caught me off guard was that the ARC50 goes into a low power mode and turns off all the LED's and dims the display. As soon as you press any switch it wakes back up.



Bob

[ShapeShifter]

Originally Posted by nodine

Since the old Interstate Workaholic chassis batteries that came with the coach are about 8 years old, I did not feel bad about ditching them for two new Group 31 AGM's.

That's an interesting compromise on the issue, I hadn't considered that. My batteries are only a year younger than yours, but they just won't quit. I may do exactly the same when they start giving me issues (or when I have some extra cash burning a hole in my pocket -- scratch that, it never happens.)

Some other neat things are the ability to read the temperature of the transistors and the transformer in the inverter. One thing that caught me off guard was that the ARC50 goes into a low power mode and turns off all the LED's and dims the display. As soon as you press any switch it wakes back up.

Thanks for the BMK update. I was aware of the need for a new remote, but not aware of the new battery voltage delay for the AGS. Interesting. But I thought these features you list above were already in the old version? Mine turns off the LEDS and display after a while, and I can read at least the transistor temperatures, but not sure about the transformer temperature. Maybe we had different firmware versions in our old style remotes?

It's too bad they just couldn't make an update to the remote firmware. Back when the BMK was new, I was talking to the project manager, and he explained that they were maxed out on the processor capability on the old remote. The new remote has a more powerful processor and more memory. I was "this close" (holding up pinched fingers) to being signed up as a beta tester for the BMK, but that was just when my DW needed hip replacement surgery. So suddenly we didn't do much camping that year, let alone dry camping, so I couldn't commit to doing enough testing. :(