House Battery Charge While Underway
Once again I come to the best wisdom source to be found. 07 Holiday Rambler, 4 6v house batts, Magnum controller, Magnum inverter 2012. Situation is, when we dry camp we run the gen for 2 hours...
Forum Discussion
"prstlk"......Simple answer. The Magnum inverter on your motor home has an on/off switch. It's right there on your control panel, on the left side, black buttons. The reason it's on while you're driving is that you have it turned on. You can easily turn it off, unless there is something you want to run on 110 volts while driving from point A to point B. Leaving it on is not detrimental to your coach operation. But it has nothing to do with your battery charging.
When you start your generator in the morning, it will go through the charging phases that "FIRE UP" described. Starting with BULK, usually after about 20 minutes or so (depending how much you drained your batteries) it will go to ABSORPTION, and once they're fully charged, they will go to FLOAT. While doing this, there will be a number in the window, like 91. My understanding is this is the number of amps required to bring you back to zero (Float Charging). The number will drop as you near fully charged. My previous coach (05 Diplomat) typically took about 2 hours, after evening battery use, to come back to full charge.
Caution....Typically, you wake up each morning and start the generator. You run it until you're fully charged. On the morning that you're breaking camp and leaving, many don't run the generator and just drive off, allowing the engine to charge the batteries while on their way home or to the next campground. This practice is hard on the alternator. You'll be working it hard to recharge those batteries that might be pretty low. You're better off to run the generator, at least while your breaking camp, to give the batteries a jump on charging.
When you start your generator in the morning, it will go through the charging phases that "FIRE UP" described. Starting with BULK, usually after about 20 minutes or so (depending how much you drained your batteries) it will go to ABSORPTION, and once they're fully charged, they will go to FLOAT. While doing this, there will be a number in the window, like 91. My understanding is this is the number of amps required to bring you back to zero (Float Charging). The number will drop as you near fully charged. My previous coach (05 Diplomat) typically took about 2 hours, after evening battery use, to come back to full charge.
Caution....Typically, you wake up each morning and start the generator. You run it until you're fully charged. On the morning that you're breaking camp and leaving, many don't run the generator and just drive off, allowing the engine to charge the batteries while on their way home or to the next campground. This practice is hard on the alternator. You'll be working it hard to recharge those batteries that might be pretty low. You're better off to run the generator, at least while your breaking camp, to give the batteries a jump on charging.
