Charging batteries with the engine

Redram99 wrote:
Thanks Pnichols. This is what I wanted to know. I’m not very good with electrical. In an hour, you can get a solid charge back into your batteries by idling the v10. I usually idle it up to 1000 rpm.

Wow. Engine abuse!!! Haha. From idling.

I’m in northern British Columbia where it is consistently -30 for extended periods. Our vehicles idle a lot! Doesn’t really seem to bother them much. Just the new diesels are a pain in the ass. No catastrophic failures that I know of on gassers.

I imagine the lifespan reduction of my v10 spinning at 4000 rpm wide open for 3-4min straight climbing a long hill is a bit higher than idling for 1 hour charging batteries. If not, it’s something I’m ok to do to the engine.

Burning more fuel than running the Onan... worth it in my opinion not to have to listen to that thing hammer away down there. Plus I can use the heat or a/c.

I found out what I wanted to know.

Thanks for the input!!

If it is something that you want or need to do look at adding a larger charge cable or if you want to get crazy running an inverter off the engine to a 3 way charger for the house battery. I know in the real cold that running the vehicle can also help to warm up the fluids and to make sure that the vehicle battery is topped up, not that in Canada we ever have to do this :B