Charging house battery's thru inverter?

[Mike Bartelt]

Originally Posted by Superbee Jim

My original question on another post was if I had a jumper wire from the + of the start battery to a disconnect and then to the + of the house battery, if that would work fine to charge the house battery's while going down the road and at the end of the day, flip the switch and only use the house battery's. It sounds like the Magnum is doing the same? With the jumper wire, a person could leave it attached while sitting for as month or so and while plunged into 110, the inverter would keep both banks of battery's charged instead of hooking up a separate charger to keep the start battery charged?

I posted links to two products designed to do that in the other thread.

[Crasher]

Another twist. The engine alternator probably puts out 14 volts if the bank is down somewhat and then tappers back to 13.6 volts. That's fine for the chassis batteries, but deep cycle batteries need 15+ volts to become fully charged and into float stage. That can not happen with the engine alternator, however, the inverter/converter/charger in your motorhome can supply that three stage charging cycle to bring the house bank up to full charge.

[twinboat]

Originally Posted by Crasher

Another twist. The engine alternator probably puts out 14 volts if the bank is down somewhat and then tappers back to 13.6 volts. That's fine for the chassis batteries, but deep cycle batteries need 15+ volts to become fully charged and into float stage. That can not happen with the engine alternator, however, the inverter/converter/charger in your motorhome can supply that three stage charging cycle to bring the house bank up to full charge.

I've yet to see a battery that calls for 15 + volts to charge fully. That can be a battery damaging voltage.

Most smart chargers will bulk charge up to 14.6 to 14.8 max, before going to constant volt, absorbision mode.

You can fully charge a battery, at voltages over 13.6, it just takes longer.

[l1v3fr33ord1]

Originally Posted by Superbee Jim

My original question on another post was if I had a jumper wire from the + of the start battery to a disconnect and then to the + of the house battery, if that would work fine to charge the house battery's while going down the road and at the end of the day, flip the switch and only use the house battery's. It sounds like the Magnum is doing the same? With the jumper wire, a person could leave it attached while sitting for as month or so and while plunged into 110, the inverter would keep both banks of battery's charged instead of hooking up a separate charger to keep the start battery charged?

Your 2009 coach should have a system that charges the house batteries from the alternator while the engine is running. If that is not occurring, then you should find out why and fix what's broken.

Your 2009 coach may have a system that charges the chassis battery when the coach is plugged into shore power or running on generator. I'd expect it to have such a system.

Have you contacted Entegra to see if you can get a wiring diagram for the battery and charging systems? If you can't get one, you'll want to investigate what you have and make one of your own.

Here's a link to a Google search of iRV2 posts for the entry "Entegra Aspire charging system."