DrewE wrote:
The Trik-L-Start will never work if you don't have some source of power charging the house battery, be it shore power (and the converter) or solar or whatever. That's not at all surprising, since the power to charge the chassis battery needs to come from somewhere, and the house battery can't supply that forever without discharging.
A charger, even when in float/maintenance mode, holds the voltage above 13V on the battery being charged. The house battery when so connected isn't being discharged at all; the parasitic loads are powered by the charger, not the battery. This is pretty easy to verify if one has a battery ammeter installed.
Yes, I understand all that.
The situation is complicated and I can't find any information that explains exactly how the Trik-L-Start works. This is all I can find:
"Steals" DC power from your RV's house battery charger.
OK, I am guessing that it monitors the voltage of the engine battery and when it gets too low it connects the engine battery to the house battery which then causes the house battery's voltage to drop causing the house battery's charger to come on.
What happens next, we don't know. I am guessing from the device's size and price that it is just a relay that connects the two batteries when the engine battery's voltage is too low. Then the house battery's charger kicks off and does a multi-stage charge on the now connected "battery bank."
As you may know, battery banks ideally consist of all the same type, size, age and state of charge batteries. The Trik-L-Start is making a battery bank of the starting and house batteries (I am guessing). This is not good. One battery will get charged too much and one not enough.
Certainly, any charging is better than no charging, so the Trik-L-Start is much better than nothing, but I don't know that it is better than using two different chargers, one for each battery.
I want to like the Trik-L-Start because it is inexpensive, small, and hardwired so it is install and forget. I like that. If it also somehow does a multi-stage charge independent of the house battery, then I would get one.
