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tailwind22 · 11-05-2017, 08:23 AM

Have a 2017 Venetian 37M purchased mid October with two short trips under her belt. Put her into winter storage (fully enclosed, no heat or 50amp power) this week. I want to hook battery maintainers to both house and chassis batteries. Chassis is parallel two 12 volt and a standard 12v maintainer will work. Question is the house battery configuration 4 12v in parallel or something else? I can't find any info in our owners manual.

BFlinn181 · 11-05-2017, 09:28 AM

It really doesn't matter whether it's 12v or paired 6v batteries, although you should take a look. A 12v charger will handle both the same way. If the batteries are at full state of charge, they won't require much power to maintain them while stored.

Charlie 5320 · 11-05-2017, 09:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BFlinn181

It really doesn't matter whether it's 12v or paired 6v batteries, although you should take a look. A 12v charger will handle both the same way. If the batteries are at full state of charge, they won't require much power to maintain them while stored.

Some small battery maintainers won't work right if the bank is too large. The one I use shouldn't be used on a large bank as when it goes into the different modes it gets overloaded. I use a CTEK 3300 and it is not designed to charge or maintain large banks of batteries. The problem arises when it goes into desulfication mode, it will be overloaded and damage it.

tailwind22 Why not get a adapter and plug the coach in and let the converter work? I only have my 50 amp coach plugged into a 20 amp circuit in my garage and it works fine.

dennis45 · 11-05-2017, 10:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlie 5320

Some small battery maintainers won't work right if the bank is too large. The one I use shouldn't be used on a large bank as when it goes into the different modes it gets overloaded. I use a CTEK 3300 and it is not designed to charge or maintain large banks of batteries. The problem arises when it goes into desulfication mode, it will be overloaded and damage it.

tailwind22 Why not get a adapter and plug the coach in and let the converter work? I only have my 50 amp coach plugged into a 20 amp circuit in my garage and it works fine.

Exactly, why reinvent the wheel? Plug in and be done.

z3406 · 11-05-2017, 03:14 PM

X3
If you have an outlet available for a charger then use that outlet to plug the coach in. The onboard converter/inverter will handle that easily. Look at the master Firefly panel when you plug the coach in. It will automatically know if it's plugged into a 50 or non-50 amp circuit, you should tell the system the amperage it is plugged into whenever it is plugged into anything other than a 50 amp source. Then the energy management system will keep the coach load under that limit so you don't trip the circuit breaker you have the coach plugged into. The setting for the amperage is on the AC page of the Firefly.
If you contact the folks at Firefly they will send you the operators manual for the Firefly in your coach they have been very helpful to me with understanding the system in my coach.
Camping World has a 50 to 15 amp adapter for less than 20.00. Also if you don't already have a 50 to 30 amp adapter it would be a good idea to get one of those too. trust me you'll need it.

tailwind22 · 11-06-2017, 07:28 AM

Helpful information, thanks. After pulling in the storage I turned the house battery switch to off. When purchased in early October I had a couple of solar panels added and the dealer told me they would not charge when the house battery switch was off. Not sure if that is correct but I was assuming that would also mean that shore power would not charge the house batteries if the switch was off. I am a newbie so not sure if I am thinking correctly.

BFlinn181 · 11-06-2017, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tailwind22

Helpful information, thanks. After pulling in the storage I turned the house battery switch to off. When purchased in early October I had a couple of solar panels added and the dealer told me they would not charge when the house battery switch was off. Not sure if that is correct but I was assuming that would also mean that shore power would not charge the house batteries if the switch was off. I am a newbie so not sure if I am thinking correctly.

On a sunny day take a reading of battery voltage. A full battery should read 12.7v. If you read higher than that, you know the solar is contributing a charging voltage. Then turn off House battery disconnect and read again. You'll discover for yourself how the solar is hooked up. Also take a reading of the Chassis battery, see if it is connected to the solar panels when a charging current is available.

Charlie 5320 · 11-06-2017, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tailwind22

Helpful information, thanks. After pulling in the storage I turned the house battery switch to off. When purchased in early October I had a couple of solar panels added and the dealer told me they would not charge when the house battery switch was off. Not sure if that is correct but I was assuming that would also mean that shore power would not charge the house batteries if the switch was off. I am a newbie so not sure if I am thinking correctly.

If you have the coach plugged in, you need to leave the switch in the on position. If the dealer that installed the solar panels told you they wouldn't work if the battery position was off, why did you turn it off? Why did you have them installed? The only time I turn mine off is when I leave the coach more than a couple weeks, not plugged in, but I don't have much power draw either.

tailwind22 · 11-06-2017, 02:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlie 5320

If you have the coach plugged in, you need to leave the switch in the on position. If the dealer that installed the solar panels told you they wouldn't work if the battery position was off, why did you turn it off? Why did you have them installed? The only time I turn mine off is when I leave the coach more than a couple weeks, not plugged in, but I don't have much power draw either.

Coach has been put away for the winter in an enclosed non-heated storage so no opportunity for solar to contribute. Thus the decision to turn off the house battery switch.

I checked with Thor and I will be turning on the house battery switch and plugging into 110v as suggested to keep house batteries charged all winter.

The Thor rep said one thing to me that didn't make sense. He said to turn off the invertor/convertor. Seems like the convertor would be needed to convert the 110 to DC charge.

z3406 · 11-06-2017, 02:53 PM

It is possible to turn the inverter off and leave the charging system "converter" on. Even with the inverter off it will operate in pass thru mode meaning anything it operated off the batteries will operate with the coach connected to external power. Depending on how long you've had the coach checking the water in the batteries may be in order. Make sure you tell the energy management system how many amps you have available from the external power source. If in doubt set it to 15 amps which I believe is the lowest setting possible.