Lithium battery alternator charging.
I was thinking about going ahead and upgrading my house batteries with drop in lithium batteries, not sure now. One advantage of the batteries is they have low resistance and can charge quickly due...
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We just installed a Renogy 40a dc to dc charger in our truck camper. Ran ~25 feet of 2 gauge cable (along with several 175a Anderson-type connectors) from the our Ram 3500's battery (used a 60a Zcase fuse) to the charger mounted inside the truck camper. Used the truck's frame for most of the neg run. With 2 GC2's discharged to 12.2v, get 40a of charge current with a 43a load on the alternator (.3v drop from alternator to charger). Pretty pleased with how this Renogy performs. For the heck of it we also turned on the 45a converter in our truck camper at the same time and managed almost 75a of total charge current.
There's always lots of discussion about the potential dangers of overloading an alternator by direct-charging house batteries. Interesting to note that Larry at Lifeblue Batteries (and Starlight Solar??) said he's installed hundreds of alternator/house battery charging systems through the years using only a battery isolator. In all these installs he said he's never witnessed or had anyone report an alternator failure. Who knows, maybe this whole overloading an alternator thing is akin to many discussions about payload. Yes, with any given scenario the sky can fall, but how often does it?
There's always lots of discussion about the potential dangers of overloading an alternator by direct-charging house batteries. Interesting to note that Larry at Lifeblue Batteries (and Starlight Solar??) said he's installed hundreds of alternator/house battery charging systems through the years using only a battery isolator. In all these installs he said he's never witnessed or had anyone report an alternator failure. Who knows, maybe this whole overloading an alternator thing is akin to many discussions about payload. Yes, with any given scenario the sky can fall, but how often does it?
