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01-20-2012, 10:42 PM
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#1
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Member
Vintage RV Owners Club Fleetwood Owners Club
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Milpitas Calif.
Posts: 32
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Battery question?
Hello, I have a Question i would like to ask. On my 1994 Fleetwood Bounder 454 TBI i have the motorhome now hooked up at my house to power to keep the battery in the RV charged up.
And yes i do go out and check the water level about every 3 weeks are so.
But it just keeps the Main house battery for the RV charged up..Not the starting battery..So today i made some small jumper cords to go from the house battery to the starting battery now i can read at the starting battery its getting juice from the house battery now..I did it this way because i did not want to run a trickel charger out to the RV for the starting battery.
And yes i will keep a eye on my water levels in both battery's now..But is and well this way work good ..or is it bad to do it like this..And when i'm ready to hit the road i will take the jumpers off going to the starter battery..So what do you all think?
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1995 31’ FLEETWOOD BOUNDER. Duane & Janice
HARLEY ROAD GLIDE. :
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01-20-2012, 10:51 PM
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#2
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Senior Member
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Bluff Dale, TX
Posts: 624
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Works for me. That is how I keep the chassis battery up when the MH is stored at home. I check the chassis battery voltage to make sure all is well.
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Most RV batteries live a long and useful life, some are murdered.
2000 National Sea Breeze F53
1998 CRV Toad
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01-20-2012, 10:56 PM
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#3
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Senior Member
Winnebago Owners Club Ford Super Duty Owner
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Oregon
Posts: 2,730
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Ik they do make a unit just for that and it also isolates the Chassis from the house batteries and allows them to be charged. This is much safer than what you are doing now and won't allow an accident if you forget to unhook the wires. You can put a knife switch on the chassis battery to open circuit it when not in use for about $25 and it will help the battery from discharging.
I mention all of this because if your coach has an Aux or Emerg start switch on it the way you have it hooked up could be disasterous.
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Retired Navy Submariner
2014 Itasca Sunstar 35F; 5 Star tuned; 2014 Jeep Cherokee TrailHawk
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01-20-2012, 11:20 PM
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#4
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Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 250
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What is the voltage reading across the 12 volt connections of the coach batteries ? do you have 2 - 6 volt deep cycle batteries or more ?
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01-20-2012, 11:46 PM
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#5
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Member
Vintage RV Owners Club Fleetwood Owners Club
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Milpitas Calif.
Posts: 32
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Airtool
What is the voltage reading across the 12 volt connections of the coach batteries ? do you have 2 - 6 volt deep cycle batteries or more ?
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NO, I have 1- 12 volt deep cycle for now..1 for the coach and 1 to start the RV.. And the volts read across to the starting battery now 13.5 and it just stays right at 13.5..Befor it was getting NO! charge and the battery was slowing going down and i did not like that..so thats why this is just a temp fix for now..But i will take it off befor i hit the road again..I left a sticky note on my dash just to remind me.. But this spring i'm going to put 1 more coach battery in so i will then have 2..And a better way if thier is one to keep the starting battery charged all the time when left out in the cold.. Buurrrrr.
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1995 31’ FLEETWOOD BOUNDER. Duane & Janice
HARLEY ROAD GLIDE. :
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01-21-2012, 08:39 AM
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#6
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: West Palm Beach, FL. USA
Posts: 27,671
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I'm pretty sure your 94 would charge the chassis battery as needed. My 96 did. If I put a voltmeter on the chassis battery and watched, it would see a pulse every minute or so. That seemed to be sampling the chassis battery voltage and it would engage a relay for charging if it was too low.
If you don't think this is happening on yours, may i suggest adding a device such as the Trik-L-Charge or Xantrex Echo Charge. Both of those connect between house and chassis batteries and monitor the charge level, keeping the chassis battery up while preventing any backfeed. The jumper cables you are using effectively put the chassis battery in parallel with the house battery, which means the house can suck your chassis battery dry and leave you stranded.
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Gary Brinck
Former owner of 2004 American Tradition and several other RVs
Home is West Palm Beach, FL
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01-21-2012, 02:20 PM
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#7
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Member
Vintage RV Owners Club Fleetwood Owners Club
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Milpitas Calif.
Posts: 32
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gary RVRoamer
I'm pretty sure your 94 would charge the chassis battery as needed. My 96 did. If I put a voltmeter on the chassis battery and watched, it would see a pulse every minute or so. That seemed to be sampling the chassis battery voltage and it would engage a relay for charging if it was too low.
If you don't think this is happening on yours, may i suggest adding a device such as the Trik-L-Charge or Xantrex Echo Charge. Both of those connect between house and chassis batteries and monitor the charge level, keeping the chassis battery up while preventing any backfeed. The jumper cables you are using effectively put the chassis battery in parallel with the house battery, which means the house can suck your chassis battery dry and leave you stranded.
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I just went out and checked the chassis battery and the House battery. yesterday the chassis battery was at 11.3 Volts..And the House battery was at about 13.9 and holding..Now checking them today they are both at 13.9 and i'm going to be keeping and eye on them so they don't over charge my chassis battery..Because if it starts doing that..well its time to take my jumper cords off..But so far so good..And mine does not charge the chassis battery when the house battery is fully charged..I have lost a chassis battery befor trying that and it got so low it would not come back to life..So it was this way or putting just the chassis battery on a trickel charger witch i did not want to run a cord that far out to the RV to a trickle charger. And thanks because i am taking in all this good info i'm getting..
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1995 31’ FLEETWOOD BOUNDER. Duane & Janice
HARLEY ROAD GLIDE. :
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01-21-2012, 04:28 PM
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#8
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Member
Vintage RV Owners Club Fleetwood Owners Club
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Milpitas Calif.
Posts: 32
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rhomebounder
I just went out and checked the chassis battery and the House battery. yesterday the chassis battery was at 11.3 Volts..And the House battery was at about 13.9 and holding..Now checking them today they are both at 13.9 and i'm going to be keeping and eye on them so they don't over charge my chassis battery..Because if it starts doing that..well its time to take my jumper cords off..But so far so good..And mine does not charge the chassis battery when the house battery is fully charged..I have lost a chassis battery befor trying that and it got so low it would not come back to life..So it was this way or putting just the chassis battery on a trickel charger witch i did not want to run a cord that far out to the RV to a trickle charger. And thanks because i am taking in all this good info i'm getting..
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And i am not going to leave them on their befor i hit the road again, it's just while parked in the cold for a month or so just to keep both battery's up on a good charge..Then i will take them off befor i hit the road..So it don't drain both my battery's because yes i would then be useing both of them as house battery's.. But i had the same thought as you did if i left them hooked together while parked..I won't even start the motor like this..its just for charging the chassis battery while parked.
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1995 31’ FLEETWOOD BOUNDER. Duane & Janice
HARLEY ROAD GLIDE. :
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01-22-2012, 04:24 PM
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#9
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Senior Member
Damon Owners Club Workhorse Chassis Owner
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 24,024
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The only real problems I see are as follows.
1: What happens if you forget and run down one, or the other, battery bank with the jumpers in place you will run them both down and then, you are stuck with a service call.
2: IF, and I stress IF, one of the battery banks (Engine or main) shoudl, for example, develop a bad ground (Very common) or for that matter hot, and either 2A you forget the jumpers (Which you described as small) and try to start with a bad connection on the chassis battery or "B" a big ticket DC item such as an inverter when you are trying to microwave your morning cup of coffee draws too much current (With a bad house battery connection) that small jumper may turn into a big fire.
Better to google: Trick-l-Start or Echo Charger and install one of those.
Or plug a battery minder into an outlet on the motor home and leave it hooked up full time.. I used to do with with my cars.
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Home is where I park it!
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01-22-2012, 09:59 PM
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#10
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Member
Vintage RV Owners Club Fleetwood Owners Club
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Milpitas Calif.
Posts: 32
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wa8yxm
The only real problems I see are as follows.
1: What happens if you forget and run down one, or the other, battery bank with the jumpers in place you will run them both down and then, you are stuck with a service call.
2: IF, and I stress IF, one of the battery banks (Engine or main) shoudl, for example, develop a bad ground (Very common) or for that matter hot, and either 2A you forget the jumpers (Which you described as small) and try to start with a bad connection on the chassis battery or "B" a big ticket DC item such as an inverter when you are trying to microwave your morning cup of coffee draws too much current (With a bad house battery connection) that small jumper may turn into a big fire.
Better to google: Trick-l-Start or Echo Charger and install one of those.
Or plug a battery minder into an outlet on the motor home and leave it hooked up full time.. I used to do with with my cars.
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The battery minder hooked up to an outlet in or on the motorhome sounds like what i might just end up doing..Because i'm getting some good feed back on this matter and what i should do..And i think i'm going to take them off now!!
Thanks for every one's help with this, I did get lots of good advise..
this is why i joined this forum..to get great advice like this a lots of great feed back, Thank you all..
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1995 31’ FLEETWOOD BOUNDER. Duane & Janice
HARLEY ROAD GLIDE. :
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