smkettner
Southern California
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Joined: 03/21/2005
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Good Sam RV Club
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You can just stop and call it good. If you have #6 wire, good connections and 14.5+ volts at the converter at some point you are good to go.
2001 F150 SuperCrew
2006 Keystone Springdale 249FWBHLS
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Salvo
California
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Joined: 06/01/2008
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DuckT- You got it now. Both voltmeters will be reading a small voltage. First set meter scale to 20V and measure to verify you got less than 1V. Now you can reduce the meter scale to the smallest setting to get highest resolution.
You don't want to mess with the meter current function. It's probably max 10 or 20A. We'll be dealing with (up to) 45A. That will blow the meter fuse.
Sal
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DuckTang
NC
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Joined: 09/03/2009
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I know the converter current is more than 30 amps. Got the voltage down to 12.1 last night and plugged the rig in. After about 2 minutes, I heard the 30 amp circuit breaker kicking in and out at the batteries. I'll have to get a higher rated breaker before I can charge.
2002 215 Aero Cub
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bigfootford
Fair Oaks, California
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Joined: 12/03/2002
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Duck Tang, your doing great with your measurements. Salvo's formulas will lead you to understand the importance of resistance of connections, fuses/breakers and wire. He also has the formulas for determining the internal resistance of your battery, thus you can benchmark the health of your battery (s).
I use an ANL type fuse right off my battery.
ANL fuse
I use a 100 amp and my wire is 4 ga. I have a Progressive Dynamics 9260 (60 amp) converter that is a total wire length of 10 ft, which is 20 total (Plus and minus) from the batteries. I have over 14 connections between the converter and battery (s). I have mangaged to keep my resistance levels down by paying close attention to my connectors and connections.
Think we may have some Iota/charge test results coming in the next day or so.
Jim
94 F-250 ex cab,460, E40D tranny,airbags w/pump,bilstein shocks, 2000 Bigfoot 9.6 2500 camper, Progressive Dynamics 9260, Trimetric monitor and an eu2000i honda genny.
Wife and Molly- Ausie,Queensland healer
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DuckTang
NC
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Joined: 09/03/2009
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What do you think of these:
Stinger maxi
I can get these at Wally World.
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Salvo
California
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Joined: 06/01/2008
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Hey Bigfoot Jim- The preliminary results look quite promising. That's great news the 30A breaker is flipping out.
As we both know, taking measurements of the charging system has huge pay-backs. The electrical system is the heart of the RV! Everyone should know what's going on with their system. A minor fix could eliminate hours of extra generator charging time.
Good to hear from you.
Sal
bigfootford wrote:Think we may have some Iota/charge test results coming in the next day or so.
Jim
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pnichols
Santa Cruz Mountains
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Joined: 04/26/2005
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Sal, a few posts above you stated this: "I used that method to determine that my battery disconnect solenoid had very high resistance. I didn't activate the solenoid for over a year and the contacts corroded a little bit. After flipping the solenoid on/off a few times the contacts got a lot better. But still, I didn't like the voltage drop and removed the solenoid."
A bit off topic, but you might want to replace your battery disconnect solenoid with this rugged silver alloy contact solenoid:
http://shopping.murcal.com/Catalog/Bear-........3921dcee21e.e3eSch4MaN4Re34Pa38Ta38Naxf0
I've put many hours of use on the solenoid above in the coach/chassis battery-combining "boost" application in my rig and it has performed very well ... reliable and ~no voltage drop because of the silver. I see no reason that this silver alloy contact solenoid couldn't also be used as the coach battery disconnect solenoid.
Phil, 2005 E450 Itasca 324V Spirit
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