Quote:
Originally Posted by Bottomland4x4
I think my engine batteries are totally isolated from the house batteries. Driving down the road the engine does not charge the house batteries and the generator does not charge the engine batteries.
When stored in my garage I keep the unit plugged in and I put a battery tender on the engine batteries to keep them 100 percent. I would like a way to charge the house batteries while driving, I'm thinking of adding a battery disconnect and connect them together, then I can shut it off if needed and I can turn it on to start the generator if I drain the house batteries too far down.
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It would be unusual for the generator to charge the chassis/engine batteries.
The house (converter/charger) doesnt (usually) charge the chassis/engine batteries either.
when stored I, too, keep a battery tender / maintainer (that can support multiple batteries) on the engine batteries.
You need to be careful and confirm that the house converter/charger is also a "maintainer" (charge wizzard). our coach was built w/ a cheap parallax (iirc) that only "trickle" charged the house batteries - it could/would boil the batteries dry if not periodically monitored....luckily for us that converter/charger gave up the ghost and we replaced it w/ a
Progressive Dynamics converter/charger and added the
Charge Wizzard.
we have battery disconnects on all the batteries (between the house & house batteries...and also between the engine and the engine batteries).
it would be cheaper (and more automatic) to add a battery isolation relay between the engine batteries and the house batteries - that way you wouldn't have to mess w/ a switch (or forget when he switch was in the combined position).
BlueSea Systems makes some (more sophisticated) relays & switches if you wanna get fancy....otherwise a trip to NAPA etc will do.
I like the BlueSea stuff, because they won't combine batteries if the voltage ISN'T at a CHARGE level -
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Don R.
'04 Haulmark (M42386) 42', 2 slide, 10kw -
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'04 F350 CrewCab Longbed 4x4, 50g aux tank & gear vendors dbl over