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03_Cobra_sb's avatar
03_Cobra_sb
Explorer
May 15, 2013

Class C coach battery and Generator

I have a 1990 Itasca class 'c' . My question is if your are dry camping and are using your genset to run the coach ie AC, microwave etc. . At night so you dont have to hear the genset and just need the coach battery for water pump lights, does the converter switch it automatically or is their a manual way of doing this. I know the new RV's have a switch to do this, but how about the older ones. BTW the batteries is getting charged from the genset and is working properly. I did search but didnt find any solid answers to this issue. Thank you for the help.

14 Replies

  • You may or may not have an inverter. Plug a night light into an outlet, kill the generator, yank shore power, and see if it continues to stay on or not. If it does, you probably have a 1000 or so watt one, but it may be of a smaller or larger wattage.
  • 03 Cobra sb wrote:
    At night... does the inverter switch it automatically or is their a manual way of doing this
    Why not just go out to the coach (with it uplugged) and see if the lights work?
  • When you are parked with no 110volt AC electric power hookup, your interior lights, fresh water pump, furnace blower and certain appliance controls get their power only from your house battery(s). When you have the generator running and providing 110volt power to your converter device, the converter provides 12 volt DC power to charge the house battery(s)as well as powering the lights, etc. Your generator seperately powers your air conditioner, microwave and fridge if set to AC power. If you have you RV connected to 110volt AC power, the converter works the same as with the generator running and it powers the lights, etc and charges the house battery(s). An "inverter" is not the same as a "converter". It converts 12 volt DC battery power to 110volt AC power for small low-wattage items like DVD players.RV'ers really need to understand the terminology and functions of the 12volt DC and 110volt AC systems as well as how to monitor and maintain house batteries properly.
  • Are you sure you have an inverter? I think you may only have a converter.

    Ron