Battery Charging

[LaMonte Monnell]

On my Contessa is there any way to plug into a 120 volt receptacle to just keep the batteries charged?

They put my coach in a stall that doesn't have a 50 amp plug so now the batteries are low. I always keep it plugged in to 50 amp at home so never an issue.

Thanks in advance!

[Fred Brooks]

           LaMonte,
       Hopefully you have the power cord adapters with your coach. Step your 50amp cord down with a 50 to 30amp adapter and then the 30 to 15amp adapter. Go to your inverter control panel and turn your "power share" down to 20 amps. Use the shortest extension cord that is 12gauge and do not exceed a 15 amp load while in storage. Regards, Fred

[Mike Groves]

Fred,

What is "power share" and how do you turn it down on your inverter?

Mike

[David T. Richelderfer]

In my coach:   1) At the coach's 110v breaker panel turn off the Aquahot's electric water heater switch, 2) unplug the instahot, 3) switch off the Aquahot, 4) turn off the fridge, etc.  Turn off all coach appliances that may demand 12v or 110v power.  At the inverter panel in item "#10 - Battery Charging," go to "Set Max Battery Charge - Amps" and set it down to 5 or so.  Now plug into the shore 110v receptacle using the appropriate adaptors.  If the shore 110v receptacle immediately stops providing power, then that shore 110v circuit may have a GFI on its circuit.  I have found that shore 110v power supplies with a GFI on its circuit usually will not work.

If you get the shore power going and it holds on, then go to the Aladdin and look at the "Coach Electrical Status" screen.  There you can see how many amps are entering your coach from the shore power receptacle.  If the sum of legs #1 and #2 is near 15 or 20, then your coach is "living on the edge" of retaining shore power without blowing a breaker or GFI.  If the sum is under 10, then you could probably restart the fridge, for example, if you need it on, or step up the "Set Max Battery Charge - Amps" to a higher number.

[Fred Brooks]

            Mike, What type of inverter/converter do you have, If you can, post a pic of the remote panel. Fred

[john brunson]

wouldn't it be infinitely easier to just parallel a small trickle charger with the alternator output? this would keep both the chassis and coach battery plants charged.  Also, some of the newer ones have a pulse mode for de-sulfation of the plates in the battery.

[David T. Richelderfer]

John - You're not getting obvious on us now, are you?  That being said, that's not what he asked.   

[john brunson]

As a maintenance guy who maintains over 100 of these Trojan 6 volt flooded lead acid batteries in Communications sites and generators, I have seen quite a few murdered over the past 30 years by simply not keeping them charged.  My engineers always accuse me of trying to make simple issues complex but a $50 charger from amazon wired on the alternator output would keep all lead acid batteries topped off and prevent sulphation of the plates.  This small charger could plug in to a standard 120 volt 15 amp plug. Wiring it to the output of the alternator would employ the battery isolator to charge both batteries and protect any issues with inverter-chargers et. al.. 

Mabye I am trying to make this hard... but I am sure the batteries will last much much longer kept at 100% while the coach is in storage.  It really makes a huge difference in how often you have to replace them.

[Keith Moffett]

We used to plug into 110V 20amp and just plug in a smart battery charger.  It would float charge at 1 or 2 amp all winter.  We could run the power cord into the battery box from underneath and still close the bay door.

[Joel Ashley]

I used a Battery Minder on our old Pace Arrow, and nowdays on our F150 that spends 95% of its life in the garage.  Sure it works great, John. 

But our coaches have built-in capabilities that preclude having to hook up an outside charger, LaMonte.  And if you have other needs for 110v onboard, you're plugged in already.  What Fred is saying to do is the easiest.  Our Magnum inverter allows a simple AC source maximum amp selection on its LCD remote panel, all the way from 15 amps to 50.  I've learned to dial in the appropriate number whenever I hook to new park power or use a long cord from a relative's garage.  A 12 gauge (commonly yellow) cord will minimize voltage drop.

But your coach is different than ours, and it would be helpful if you supplied more inverter info as Fred mentions to Mike above.

As noted above, just get reducer adapters from 50 to 30 and then 30 to 20/15, and set the inverter charger to 20 or 15, turn the electric HydroHot off, and minimize other appliance use;  the highest draw will be the initial charge rate as bulk charging kicks in, then the amp draw and voltage settles down after awhile depending on the battery bank's state of charge.  Just don't lay the adapter connection points of your cord arrangement in low spots on the ground susceptible to rain water puddling.

Most of the year our coach sits by the house here on only solar power.  Its Interstate Workhorse house batteries, though just now starting to show signs of weakness, are the factory originals - nearly 10 years old.  The chassis pair still crank just fine, even when the engine balks for awhile in cold weather.

-Joel