Battery Questions
We bought a camper last year, mainly for winter, boondock camping at Mt Bachelor in Oregon. After a scary experience, where the batteries died at 3 am when it was 10 deg F outside, I wanted to get a ...
Forum Discussion
The 46 35 is a good charger, but I probably would have suggested the 46 45 with 10 more amps output.
300 AH is going to be pretty good for boondocking. It will take a while to fully charge all those batteries with the generator, but if you happen to have a portable charger, it will help add more amps quicker.
At least with your motorhome, you can start the engine at night, and that alternator will put out 100+ amps to run everything and charge the battery in 10 minutes enough to get you through the rest of the night. You might consider upgrading your alternator to battery wire.
What I did was buy a 100 amp rated forklift relay from Grainger.com part # 6C017 - it has a coil rated to run full time, silver allow contacts rated for 100,000 on-off cycles at 100 amps! I ran a #4 wire from my alternator to the relay to the battery + 12 terminal. Then I can energize it two ways (with a three way on-off-on switch. One is from power from my radio that is only on when the engine is running. THe other is power from the battery, so I can energize it anytime.
This way the wire from the alternator to the battery is rated at 100+ amps, with very little voltage drop. Then you can make sure that the engine is fully charging the battery, even if the factory relay is now in bad shape, and has oxidation on the contacts, and is not giving the full factory rating anymore. I know that my factory relay went bad because I was using my inverter and then drove home about 90 miles, and the battery did not fully charge. My E-meter told me so. The solar filled it the next day. I did not want to look for or replace the factory relay, so I upgraded as described.
If you really want to be able to dry camp for a week at a time, without worry about the battery, consider a pair of 140 watt solar panels and a Olympic Catalytic heater. I dry camped for 2 weeks with a 400W solar and 6,000 Btu Olympic heater in 19F weather, no problems. I also have 4 golf cart batteries, and like to watch a lot of Direct TV, so I can use 100 AH daily on TV and laptop via a inverter.
SunElec.com Look for 12 volt nominal panels, with aluminum frames, and also buy a PWM controller. I saw 140W for $229 a few weeks ago.
My E-meter tells me that my RV draws 0.8 amps 24/7, and will increase to 1.2 amps for the hours that the refrigerator is running, so about 35 AH daily to run the RV. This is about what 1 of my 120 watt solar panels will collect in one day.
If you are charging from a generator, you might consider a 30 - 40 amp battery charger that is portable. Make sure that you are looking at the 'charge rating' not the 'engine start rating' - that is only good for 15 seconds, then must be shut off for a total of about 20 minutes. Harbor Freight sells some, wait for a sale, or get the 20% off coupons they offer via e-mail.
Good luck,
Fred.
Good luck,
Fred.
300 AH is going to be pretty good for boondocking. It will take a while to fully charge all those batteries with the generator, but if you happen to have a portable charger, it will help add more amps quicker.
At least with your motorhome, you can start the engine at night, and that alternator will put out 100+ amps to run everything and charge the battery in 10 minutes enough to get you through the rest of the night. You might consider upgrading your alternator to battery wire.
What I did was buy a 100 amp rated forklift relay from Grainger.com part # 6C017 - it has a coil rated to run full time, silver allow contacts rated for 100,000 on-off cycles at 100 amps! I ran a #4 wire from my alternator to the relay to the battery + 12 terminal. Then I can energize it two ways (with a three way on-off-on switch. One is from power from my radio that is only on when the engine is running. THe other is power from the battery, so I can energize it anytime.
This way the wire from the alternator to the battery is rated at 100+ amps, with very little voltage drop. Then you can make sure that the engine is fully charging the battery, even if the factory relay is now in bad shape, and has oxidation on the contacts, and is not giving the full factory rating anymore. I know that my factory relay went bad because I was using my inverter and then drove home about 90 miles, and the battery did not fully charge. My E-meter told me so. The solar filled it the next day. I did not want to look for or replace the factory relay, so I upgraded as described.
If you really want to be able to dry camp for a week at a time, without worry about the battery, consider a pair of 140 watt solar panels and a Olympic Catalytic heater. I dry camped for 2 weeks with a 400W solar and 6,000 Btu Olympic heater in 19F weather, no problems. I also have 4 golf cart batteries, and like to watch a lot of Direct TV, so I can use 100 AH daily on TV and laptop via a inverter.
SunElec.com Look for 12 volt nominal panels, with aluminum frames, and also buy a PWM controller. I saw 140W for $229 a few weeks ago.
My E-meter tells me that my RV draws 0.8 amps 24/7, and will increase to 1.2 amps for the hours that the refrigerator is running, so about 35 AH daily to run the RV. This is about what 1 of my 120 watt solar panels will collect in one day.
If you are charging from a generator, you might consider a 30 - 40 amp battery charger that is portable. Make sure that you are looking at the 'charge rating' not the 'engine start rating' - that is only good for 15 seconds, then must be shut off for a total of about 20 minutes. Harbor Freight sells some, wait for a sale, or get the 20% off coupons they offer via e-mail.
Good luck,
Fred.
Good luck,
Fred.
