charging chassis battery from coach

[recycled55]

Am I correct in thinking I can put a jumper wire from the pos post of my coach batteries to the pos post of my chassis battery and have it charged.
I keep the MH plugged in to shore power here at home so my house batts are always charged up.
This is an 84 chieftain which charges the house batt pack from the convertor.
Please correct me if this won't work.
thanks
recycled55

[autofish]

Yes it will work--I do it all the time.

[teera travel]

yeeep did it all the time on my old moho '

[Gary - K7GLD]

Originally Posted by recycled55

Am I correct in thinking I can put a jumper wire from the pos post of my coach batteries to the pos post of my chassis battery and have it charged.
I keep the MH plugged in to shore power here at home so my house batts are always charged up.
This is an 84 chieftain which charges the house batt pack from the convertor.
Please correct me if this won't work.
thanks
recycled55

But run that power thru a large wattage isolating diode, so that the coach batteries draw won't run down your engine starting battery when staying out for longer periods of time...

[KIX]

Just secure it (like bolts) so it couldn't become disconnected at one end and short out.

[Pusherman]

Technically it would work. But there are concerns. Make sure the size of the wire can take the amperage your converter/charger puts out. The diode is required as the engine will put out more amperage than the converter charger. The jumper wire could melt under certain conditions, and potentially be a fire hazard.

Be safe.

[Dave78Chief]

You can but a few things to consider:
The original Magnetek 6332 converter is a linear converter that has a voltage setting of 13.8VDC. That voltage level is known to boil batteries dry. You need to check battery water monthly with these older Linear style converters. Additionally, the seperate battery charging circuit in them is limited to around 10-12 amps.

If you try to start the vehicle with the batteries connected, it will see the chassis/coach battery bank as one large battery bank. The high amperage requirement (350-450 amps) required to start the engine may easily burnout a small jumper cable. This is why large cables and 100 amp or greater aux start solinoids are used.

Dave

[wa8yxm]

Another thing to consider is what happens if the chassis battery goes dead and can no longer pass power.. And you hit START and try to draw over 100 amps through that little jumper wire you installed.

Use of a Trick-L-Start insures this does not happen. I recommend you try one.