Charging batteries with the engine
Hi all. I have a 2011 triple e senator 25d. Great motor home. E450 v10. Just curious, what is the output of the alternator vs the standard converter? It seems to charge the house batteries...
Forum Discussion
theoldwizard1 wrote:
I will repeat, YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO FULLY RECHARGE HOUSE BATTERIES FROM A VEHICLE CHARGING SYSTEM ! To properly recharge them, you need a 3 stage charger.
Nope ... not true.
Our RV's 230 amp hour AGM battery bank - when discharged down to around 12.1 volts - can be completely recharged by our Ford E450's 130 amp alternator in 4-5 hours of driving.
I have watched this happen time and time again on RV trips because right on the cab dash I have installed a coach battery system 4-place digital voltmeter and coach battery system 3-place digital ammeter (the ammeter shunt is mounted right close to the batteries). After 4-5 hours of driving, the ammeter reads zero current flow - meaning the coach battery bank is neither receiving current from, nor delivering current to, the RV's 12 volt system. I've installed the ammeter and it's shunt such that negative readings mean that current is flowing out of the RV batteries and positive readings mean that current is flowing into the RV batteries.
In my earlier post above I explain in more detail how effectively our V10 engine's 130 amp alternator can be used to help charge our RV batteries when camped.
