Community Forums

Rjell · 04-20-2012, 09:32 AM

We have just bought our first rv class A, a Damon escaper 2005. Brought it home and parked it for three weeks. My question is what does it take to plug it in to home and keep batteries charged. Generator would not start yesterday seems like the battery needs charging. Help

Thanks

Steve N Sal · 04-20-2012, 09:41 AM

You can plug it into any 120V receptacle. You will need an adapter from your power cord to fit the receptacle . I would see how much load is on the circuit that you choose first and have an adequate extension cord to run to the coach. Make sure your a/c is off in the coach or it will probably trip the breaker on the circuit in the house you are going to use. To just charge the batteries it will take minimun current to re-charge them. I leave ours plugged into a 15amp circuit when home and run the fridge in the coach and our small vacuum and have had no problems. Good luck.

lllkrob · 04-20-2012, 09:41 AM

You will need an adapter to change your 30amp or 50 amp plug to convential 15 amp house plug configuration. Then, depending how far your connection is from the MH, you will need a extra heavy duty extension cord. Your 15amp house service will only power the converter/ charger, the fridge, and some lights. Nothing that draws heavy current like the A/C's or microwave.

Patrol 65 · 04-20-2012, 09:42 AM

You need a 15 amp adapter for your 30 or 50 amp rv power cord to plug into an electrical outlet at your home. The power converter inside of the motorhome will keep the batteries charged.

jzick · 04-20-2012, 09:44 AM

Hope you enjoy your new to you motorhome. You can purchase an adapter (commonly called a dogbone) to connect a 30 Amp plug to a 15 Amp at Wal-Mart, rv dealers parts departments or Camping World. Our motorhome is actually a 50 Amp and I use a 50 to 30 dogbone connected to a 30 to 15 Amp. If your battery needs charged you can also use a regular battery charger to recharge. Disconnect the battery from the motorhome and just use the charger. If you have 2 batteries you will have to leave them connected and use a positive terminal on one and a negative on another.

Our motorhome charges the house battery when you run the engine. Ours uses the house batteries to start the generator. Sometimes if our house batteries are too low to conveniently start the genny I take the rv for a drive to get enough charge in the house batteries for the generator to start. There should also be a "battery boost" or "auxiliary start" switch that will temporarily connect the house and coach batteries. If you hold this switch you can boost the battery to help start. This is normally used to help with the chassis batteries. On ours holding the switch works both ways and I have used it to boost the house batteries.