Chassis battery

[nothermark]

Originally Posted by CountryFit

fyi - i talked to a powertech tech line yesterday about the charge rate of cd8000 genny. he told me it charges battery at 6a rate. that was a surprise to me as I was expecting somewhere 60-160a. 'nope' he was very positive on that. with that rate, if one has 4 golf cart batts, half hour may not be enough

Are you confusing a built in 12 VDC charging winding meant for charging a starter battery with the converter charger system that probably really charges your house batteries?

FWIW I would still do more than a half hour charge run time but the best thing is to monitor voltage over time and see where it settles after you stop.

[CountryFit]

Originally Posted by nothermark

Are you confusing a built in 12 VDC charging winding meant for charging a starter battery with the converter charger system that probably really charges your house batteries?

FWIW I would still do more than a half hour charge run time but the best thing is to monitor voltage over time and see where it settles after you stop.

no, the inverter/charger to batts is no issue, I was surprised to know that the current from the genset to house battery (direct feed) being so low by design. 6a is not much. think about it, in a good solar system, it charges batts at 60-90a, why genset only charges in a fraction of it? genset can drive a/c's I am sure it could output much more - that was what's designed for. why would the manufacturer throttle it?

[ProjectPro]

I think you are mistaking the solar specs. A 60 WATT array would charge at 5 AMPS maximum. A decent 110 volt car battery charger can flow about 8 - 10 amps at 12 VDC, while the big roll-around types max out at about 20 or 30 amps. Many have higher ratings for starting, but this is very short-term (a few seconds) and not for charging.

[wa8yxm]

Put all the batteries in the shop.. Get a "Jump start" battery pack, something with a fairly big number on it 750 to 1000+ followed by the words Peak Amps.

These jump start kits (I will link to one) have battery clips (Jumper cable) types on short cables attached to them

Black clip to the generator chassis
Red clip to the generator PLUS post (May be color coded red)

Fire it up, keep battery connected till you shut it down, lug luggable pack back home to re-charge on mains power.

Schumacher - 850 Amp - Jump Starter w/Compressor - Sam's Club

Note, I like the basic Battery, work light optional, these units with Compressors and/or Inverters are just added weight in my book.

I used to have one that was 1,000 amps, all it was was battery and charger board, nothing more.

They contain around 20-30 amp hours of AGM battery.

[nothermark]

Originally Posted by CountryFit

no, the inverter/charger to batts is no issue, I was surprised to know that the current from the genset to house battery (direct feed) being so low by design. 6a is not much. think about it, in a good solar system, it charges batts at 60-90a, why genset only charges in a fraction of it? genset can drive a/c's I am sure it could output much more - that was what's designed for. why would the manufacturer throttle it?

My point is that there probably is a 6A charging winding for the generator starter battery if it was wired as a stand alone generator to supply AC on demand. Because you are supplying part of the AC to the converter/charger section of whatever you have in there you are starting off the house batteries that you are charging at a much higher rate. The 6 A supply is probably terminated and not used. 6 A is all that would be needed for a dedicated starter battery. That would be a separate circuit from the high current AC supplied as the main output. The same generator possibly in a different cabinet would be sold to use as remote power in a camp or emergency standby power where there was no big battery bank and high current charging system. There they would have a small battery that needed the 6A charging system to start the unit.