Bought an old Class C - Electrical question?
Hi all- A friend of mine and I just bought an old 1978 Dodge Midas Class C motorhome to use on a property she just bought until the home is built. To be honest, the thing is a bit of a mess, but we'r...
Forum Discussion
Our 1984 Class C had a Converter/Charger called a Magnetek. When 120VAC was applied to it, two things happened:
1. Loads like lights, fans, etc. were disconnected from battery and powered exclusively by Converter side of Converter/Charger
2. A separate section of the Converter/Charger, a separate little Charger, charged the Battery. In ours, charging went through a little auto-reset circuit breaker. That little Breaker failed a couple times.
When 120VAC went away, the relay that switched Load from Battery to Converter de-energized to let Load revert back to Battery. No charging took place.
Note that the Refrigerator control system was hooked directly to the Battery.
We had no additional switches. Generator power fed the coach by plugging the 120VAC cable into a socket powered by the generator.
There WAS a device that allowed the chassis alternator to re-charge the battery on the road.
What worries me is people have had 35 years to cob the original wiring.
1. Loads like lights, fans, etc. were disconnected from battery and powered exclusively by Converter side of Converter/Charger
2. A separate section of the Converter/Charger, a separate little Charger, charged the Battery. In ours, charging went through a little auto-reset circuit breaker. That little Breaker failed a couple times.
When 120VAC went away, the relay that switched Load from Battery to Converter de-energized to let Load revert back to Battery. No charging took place.
Note that the Refrigerator control system was hooked directly to the Battery.
We had no additional switches. Generator power fed the coach by plugging the 120VAC cable into a socket powered by the generator.
There WAS a device that allowed the chassis alternator to re-charge the battery on the road.
What worries me is people have had 35 years to cob the original wiring.
