Charging Strategy, 1994 RoadTrek
Hi all, I've been diving back into how to upgrade my battery system in my class B and was hoping someone here could sanity check me. I have a small 100AH 12V coach battery and I'm upgrading to a pai...
Forum Discussion
Thanks for the responses, really useful. Time to go do more research to figure this out, especially on the battery monitoring system - I really want the power systems to play nice with each other and to be idiot-proof. I hadn't considered the draw off the alternator as being a lot more substantial with the larger bank and was hoping to avoid rewiring (not something I'm comfortable doing myself).
My usage profile is more on the low daily AH usage, boondocking end. Just run a laptop, fantastic fan and some lights, so the idea is to get something like a week at a time, then go hook up somewhere overnight for a full charge. Since you're saying to get a full charge every 7-10 cycles, and I'm hoping to get a week per cycle (and I'm going to do this full time) I think that means I'll need a full charge every two months. That's totally manageable. Kind of perfect, actually.
I do think I'll leave the existing MagnaTek in there - I hate to get into it and need to rewire everything. If I just pull the fuse on the charging circuit I can't see how leaving it in would create any problems, right?
Going to research shunt based battery monitor systems now. Thanks for the tip(s), both of you.
My usage profile is more on the low daily AH usage, boondocking end. Just run a laptop, fantastic fan and some lights, so the idea is to get something like a week at a time, then go hook up somewhere overnight for a full charge. Since you're saying to get a full charge every 7-10 cycles, and I'm hoping to get a week per cycle (and I'm going to do this full time) I think that means I'll need a full charge every two months. That's totally manageable. Kind of perfect, actually.
I do think I'll leave the existing MagnaTek in there - I hate to get into it and need to rewire everything. If I just pull the fuse on the charging circuit I can't see how leaving it in would create any problems, right?
Going to research shunt based battery monitor systems now. Thanks for the tip(s), both of you.
