Battery Charging

[RonR2440]

We bought a Itasca Cambria 30J back in June and when we have gone camping we have always hooked up to electric. At home the camper stays in the pole barn and I keep a battery tender directly attached to the batteries. We are currently dry camping for a few days and before we left home I noticed that even though I had plugged the RV into the garage electrical outlet, the batteries weren't charging. I ran the generator and noticed the same thing. When I ran the Ford V10, the batteries charged up. I have a 1000 watt inverter but keep it off; however, when I opened the inverter storage compartment , the inverter fan was on (turns on and off). I thought if I had the inverter off at the control panel, it would be off and a cooling fan would not be running. Last night I turned as many things off as possible (only the fridge operating)to check voltage levels and noticed late this AM that battery voltage had fallen from about 13.3 to 12.5 overnight, these are 2 size 31 batteries. Seems like I have a good drain on the batteries (cooling fan?) and a charging issue. Anybody have any ideas? Thanks ahead of time for your input.

[craz_z]

Go solar and forget about worrying I built mine for less than a grand. You have the spendy stuff already all u need is a controller and a couple panels and your all set. You could be all in for about 500 bucks best investment a rv could have and less maintenance on batteries I ended up with agm and they stay charged to maximum at all times I just leave inverter and all the vampires running

Using a big genset to charge the battery is a complete waste of money when boondocking and takes hours to charge back up I ended up turning my convertor off the solar controller is far more advanced technology then the converters

Read bobs the solar guy best thing I ever read followed his recommendations to a t and it's not a trickle charger it's a reliable power plant I'm only using 300w and it's more power then I can consume

By the way 13.3 to 12.5 is a huge draw for one day something good size is pulling it down a memory wire or radio display won't take it down that far look at a fan and is your heater thermostat totally off at night the heater could pop on and really drop the batteries

I can watch TV run all the lights and have the heater ggoing over night and i wake up to 12.5 to 12.3 end the day with about 13.8 and resting at 13.3 if i don't use any power the vampires won't even drop the battery below 13

I'd like to add in on mine I have a charge back wire from converter to an isolator block (Check that) then the wire needs to get to your batteries check for a bad corroded or missing dangling wire my converter is under the bed and batteries are a ways from this area check converter output first

[tenbear]

klutchdust wrote:

tenbear wrote:
I'm curious, how do you tell if your batteries are being charged or not?

Check the voltage at the battery with a meter then plug the coach in. You will see an increase in voltage if they are being charged.

I was wondering how the OP checked whether or not the batteries were being charged.

[time2roll]

RonR2440 wrote:
The battery disconnect switch is on and the batteries should be charging by the generator or 30 amp plug but they are not.

I would love to turn as many of the parasitic drains off as possible to prolong dry camping time.

Focus on the charging first.
Check the converter is getting 120vac in and putting out 13.6vdc.

[RonR2440]

Thanks for the info. RV has led lights, a must as far as I am concerned. You are right about the parasitic drains, the unit came with an outside radio (located in the rear storage area), even with the radio off the digital display still is on. As I mentioned, I keep the inverter off and yet for some reason the cooling fan still goes on and off as if it is on. I really keep on top of the batteries, checking water levels and keeping them charged. The battery disconnect switch is on and the batteries should be charging by the generator or 30 amp plug but they are not. I would love to turn as many of the parasitic drains off as possible to prolong dry camping time.

[klutchdust]

tenbear wrote:
I'm curious, how do you tell if your batteries are being charged or not?

Check the voltage at the battery with a meter then plug the coach in. You will see an increase in voltage if they are being charged.

[tenbear]

I'm curious, how do you tell if your batteries are being charged or not?

[RvBill3]

Do you have a battery disconnect switch on the house battery? If you do, it has to be "ON" for the converter to charge the battery when on shore or generator power. When engine is running it likely will charge house battery even if disconnect is off.

[time2roll]

Incandescent lighting is a fairly heavy draw.
13.3 is a surface charge. 12.5 is ~85%
12.0 to 12.2 is ~50% and in need of recharge.

What converter do you have?

The 12 Volt Side of Life

[klutchdust]

How old are the batteries? Is there enough water in them? Always use distilled. Get a hydrometer. Take a sample of each cell and they all should read the same even if discharged, if one is off it is a dead cell.

One dead cell has a huge effect on things. I plug my coach, the same as yours to ground power by unplugging the cord from the generator. Let the in house system do it's job.

[Oldme]

Many MH have a problems with Parasitic drain.
My Class C chassis battery would go dead after a week or
two at home.

I found all kinds of monitors had been
added durning the build process. From O2, Gas, steps
you name it. All tied not to the house battery but
to the chassis battery.

I keep mine pluged in at home, with a batter mindeder pluged in
an inside 120V and then into the 12v power outlet on the dash.
For the past year + no dead batteries.

The link below may help.

http://www.flashoffroad.com/electrical/Batteries/BatteryDrain.html