B+ motorhomes

burlmart wrote:

burlmart wrote:

With BIRD, the only time a person actually needs the ES dash toggle is in a situation where they know the genset is inoperable, the house batt is charged well, and the chassis batt is not, and, there is no nearby shore power available.

Is this correct?

No, I don't think so anyway.
The ES is to jump start the engine from the house battery. And also to jump start the genset from the chassis battery.

If you have a dead chassis battery, starting the genset to charge it is going to take the next few hours to get a decent charge. Same with hooking up to shore power. The ES will get you started right away.

One mistaken belief that I've notice a lot of people have is that an RV converter charger will charge a low battery pretty quickly. Typically it does not because despite the high amps rating, it doesn't put out many amps for charging, for various reasons. Cheaping out on the charger, which requires an overly conservative charge programming, and cabling that is too small and/or too long (dumb/cheap RV builders) being the two biggest reasons. Our TLs have all of those.

However, if you carried a six-pack-cooler-sized automotive charger with boost start function, you could use genset or shore power to get the engine started pretty quickly, without the ES. Or even simpler, jumper cables long enough to reach from the house to chassis batteries, which is not that far on mine. Maybe ten feet.

That's what the ES is: built in jumper cables.