Vulcan Rider wrote:
Dragonfly wrote:
My alternator will top them off when driving but it takes too long.
In my opinion, you are making a LOT of assumptions here and you need to do some actual testing to see what your situation really IS.
If you are going to get an outboard charger and will be in a position to USE it between between drain-downs......I don't see what your concern is with the charging times from the "truck" or the controller.
I don't know your exact situation but try to be practical and not emotional. I don't remember hearing of ANYBODY in any application being sorry that they upgraded to AGM batteries.
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I think that we are actually thinking alike. I AM looking at the practicalities not the emotional "wishes." I have a friend with the exact same camper (Provan Tiger) and the same batteries (2 6V AGMs but a different brand). He has the exact same problem of the OEM charger being unable to shove enough power into the AGMs to top them off. He has a better monitoring system and can very accurately read that they were about 75-80% which, from my idiot lights, seems to match mine.
He is in Alaska right now so all I know is he solved the problem by adding a supplementary "smart" charger, probably similar to the one mentioned by another poster earlier, to get the AGMs up to full charge when plugged in or using the generator. It is simply plugged into a 110V outlet and to the batteries and when you are plugged in or on generator it shoves that extra power into the AGMs topping them off quickly.
He also had a modification done to his alternator which increases its output to the house batteries. Previously, like mine, they would charge quickly when driving, up to about 75%. Then it took forever for them to top off. Now they top off much quicker, important when he is doing short hops in the boon docks. I don't have the details on the alternator modification yet.
I probably should have waited until I had all of the facts but I was just speaking in general that to get full use of AGMs you may need to address the above two issues - a smart charger and your alternator output. Every amp and amp hour counts when you are boon docking in Alaska or being off road for days at a time like I am. If you are not using the batteries at that level the original charger and unmodified alternator will be fine and you will reap the other benefits of AGM. Sorry that I only have the generalities right now. I will post the details once I have time to sort out the information I have.
I am a fan of AGM and not sorry for investing in them. One must just know that they require some extra attention to maximize their potential (at least the high quality ones). Thanks for the reminder to stay focused on the realities of any situation.
