House battery being overcharged????

You will have to get down on your knees and look up and to the back of compartment. The fake wall won't go all the way up to allow air flow and protection for converter.

I haven't found it yet. Capt. Cal you say look on the outside right rear storage area. Didn't think the charger would be all the way across the coach from the 120 volt input system, CB etc., so will look there. Thanks

I just replaced the "dumb" converter/charger in our 2004 Tioga 26Q, it overcharged and boiled out house batteries. It is very simple to do. Disconnect from shore power first. Unplug unit from socket on back of power panel, disconnect two heavy guage cables to the battery with Allen wrench, disconnect solid ground wire, unscrew and remove old unit. Install new unit in reverse order. Comes with an optional "charge wizard" pendant. Pendant wire must be routed to where you want to mount it for monitoring charging. LED on pendant tells you whether unit is boost re-charging, maintenance charging, etc. Nice!!


http://www.bestconverter.com/PD-9245C-45-Amp-RV-ConverterCharger_p_170.html#.UoVSvnmA203

Maybe you would be interested in reading this article that has been around for some time. When you get to the bottom of the page go to Part 2 for more info. The 12 Volt Side of Life (Part 1)

How does a charger or converter detect the charge state of a battery?
I don't think I can tell with my Voltmeter without waiting hours for the battery voltage to stabilize. Oh, does it apply a voltage to the battery and then measure the charging current that results? A charged battery would draw very little current while an empty one would draw much more. Perhaps I could make a charge meter using an Ammeter and eight or ten AA cells! Would be handy. Can I buy one? The one built into my MH appears to be just a Voltage indicator and it requires hours of waiting after charging to be at all accurate.

PD converters don't cost much, they charge faster, and are better for batteries. There is no reason not to have one.

CaptainCal--thanks, I'll start there and see what I can find.

You converter is behind a fake panel in the outside right rear compartment of m/h. Place the Magnatek in trash and buy a progressive dynamics to replace it. Problem sloved.

fighterpilota wrote:
I haven't been able to find the charger--looked in all the external bays, and the interior bays. Will have to get underneath and trace the wires from the battery. Been thru this with an old boat. After much searching on the web determined a fully charged battery will read about 12.75. With a smart charger, voltage will taper off as full charged reached which is about 13.2 to 13.8. Since the house battery sits at 14.2 I think it is a dumb charger. Also believe the 1994 vintage charger that came with the MH is not "smart" charger in the sense they are today. Therefore sitting at 14.2 prompted my question.

I'll pull a terminal wire to get a check 3 hours later as suggested. I'll also try again to find the charger? Thanks for the information

Not sure how your rig is laid out BUT the battery charger typically resides in the electrical distribution box under the circuit breakers and fuses. On my Parallax 7355 I have to remove the front cover to see the 55 amp converter/charger. It also has a fan that will come on if the converter is under a load (lights, furnace, refrigerator, and roof fans running) that might making finding it easier.

Based on the age of your rig my money says it's not a smart charger. Progressive Dynamics makes conversion kits if you want to spend the money.

I haven't been able to find the charger--looked in all the external bays, and the interior bays. Will have to get underneath and trace the wires from the battery. Been thru this with an old boat. After much searching on the web determined a fully charged battery will read about 12.75. With a smart charger, voltage will taper off as full charged reached which is about 13.2 to 13.8. Since the house battery sits at 14.2 I think it is a dumb charger. Also believe the 1994 vintage charger that came with the MH is not "smart" charger in the sense they are today. Therefore sitting at 14.2 prompted my question.

I'll pull a terminal wire to get a check 3 hours later as suggested. I'll also try again to find the charger? Thanks for the information