Community Forums

D.Weber · 02-09-2016, 12:40 AM

The alternator is in working condition but does charge house or chassis batteries? It has to serve a purpose. I'm wondering if it originally charged the chassis batteries and was bypassed sometime before I bought it. There is a Xantrex Echo charger in place.

Don W.
95 Monaco Sig. C/Royale

NHRA225 · 02-09-2016, 05:48 AM

Don
What Model generator do you have ?
I know Mine is totally independent from the coach- has it's own battery. and charging system.

Old Bounder · 02-09-2016, 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by D.Weber

The alternator is in working condition but does charge house or chassis batteries? It has to serve a purpose. I'm wondering if it originally charged the chassis batteries and was bypassed sometime before I bought it. There is a Xantrex Echo charger in place.

Don W.
95 Monaco Sig. C/Royale

The alternator is there to provide DC voltage to keep the generator running after startup and to charge any battery that is dedicated to the generator.

The generator is designed for NON RV purposes as well as to be put into a vehicle, like yours, containing other batteries.

wa8yxm · 02-09-2016, 05:52 PM

Onan makes Generators for many uses. The first one I ever worked on was a "Stand alone" Generator in an Ice Cream Truck (Soft serve no less) and it had either an alternator or DC generator on it to recharge the battery which was completly independent of the TRUCK.. Some of the Generators are "HOME" power fail types. (One I worked on was a STORE Fail. that puppy was BIG, also in need of more than I felt comfortable doing (They wound up doing a major overhaul, eneine sized) Again it had an alternator (Small one).

Soetimes the body builder may not be able to get an "RV" Model so he gets what hey have and non RV models have alternators.

D.Weber · 02-09-2016, 08:12 PM

My bad! "Does not charge". It has been tested and has good output on a test stand. It's wired into the system but does not charge the generator starting battery.

Old Bounder · 02-10-2016, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by D.Webe

My bad! "Does not charge". It has been tested and has good output on a test stand. It's wired into the system but does not charge the generator starting battery.

We told you what it was put there for when the generator was built, but it may have been intentionally defeated when installed in your RV.

Do you have a dedicated generator battery, or does it start from your house or chassis battery?

NHRA225 · 02-10-2016, 12:30 PM

Model info would help !

Sent from my iPhone using iRV2 - RV Forum

D.Weber · 02-10-2016, 10:41 PM

It's an ONAN HDKAG 10k. It is a RV generator.
It utilizes the chassis batteries not the house batteries to start the generator. I was talking about this on another site as well. The older coaches vs the newer ones are different. Through my research, I have found that the alternator is there to charge the chassis batteries while the Gen. Is running. Unfortunately it doesn't. I will figure out why. My guess is that the previous owner installed the XANTREX Echo charger because there was a charging problem.

I do know what the alternator is for, I know how to diagnose and rebuild it if necessary. I manage a fleet and am a mechanic of more than 30 years. I'm not hard headed.

I appreciate all the input and have realized that the older coach guys and the newer coach guys will have differing opinions on why or what for the alternator was used for on any given year say 90's vs 2000's

I know have the wiring schematic for my genset so that makes me armed and dangerous.

I will come back when I figure this thing out and post what I find. I love learning and asking questions is part of that process.

Don W.
95 SIG. Crown Royale