Alternator not charging the House after battery upgrade HELP
The 4-year old batteries in our 2016 Coachman Freelander 21QB motorhome were getting tired and I decided on a replacement before we begin our winter travels.
The old bank consisted of two 12 VDC 80 AH "deep cycle" AGM batteries wired in parallel with a Victron 712 battery monitor to keep an eye on them. They still worked ok but the usable output was headed down hill and we'd gotten almost five years out of them so... replacement time.
After research and some very helpful advice on this forum I decided to upgrade to two Trojan T-105 GC-2 golf cart batteries wired in series for a useful capacity of about 225 AH @ 12VDC. The install was tight due to their height nudging the insulation foam on the doorstep battery box. Otherwise all went well and after an initial charge using the WFCO charger on shore power I ran a draw down test and found everything spot on.
The problem is that after the upgrade I noticed something strange: when I unplugged from shore power and fired up the engine on our Chevy 4500 it didn't seem to provide charging power to the house batteries from the alternator. Didn't matter whether the battery disconnect switch was on or off.
I've racked my brain as to what's going on, and soon realized that I have no real idea of how my Battery Control Center does its job or how it might even detect the difference between two 12VDC batteries in parallel, or two 6VDC batteries in series? Or maybe something in the Battery Control unit needs to be reset? Or something with the WFCO WF-8900 converter/distribution center?
I have a little voltmeter plugged into the dashboard that shows the engine battery voltage and I can see it jump to 14+ volts when I start the engine, but there's no current flowing to charge the house batteries!
I've always counted on the house batteries charging while we are driving, so I think this is a new problem but I've never ran any tests, just took it for granted. The engine battery isn't fully charged at the moment (12.4 VDC) and the new house batteries are fully charged (13.6VDC). Is it possible that no alternator current flows to the house UNTIL the engine battery is topped off?
Can you experts enlighten me, or at least provide some hints on where I should look for an answer?
Thanks in advance,
-Grouchy :?
The old bank consisted of two 12 VDC 80 AH "deep cycle" AGM batteries wired in parallel with a Victron 712 battery monitor to keep an eye on them. They still worked ok but the usable output was headed down hill and we'd gotten almost five years out of them so... replacement time.
After research and some very helpful advice on this forum I decided to upgrade to two Trojan T-105 GC-2 golf cart batteries wired in series for a useful capacity of about 225 AH @ 12VDC. The install was tight due to their height nudging the insulation foam on the doorstep battery box. Otherwise all went well and after an initial charge using the WFCO charger on shore power I ran a draw down test and found everything spot on.
The problem is that after the upgrade I noticed something strange: when I unplugged from shore power and fired up the engine on our Chevy 4500 it didn't seem to provide charging power to the house batteries from the alternator. Didn't matter whether the battery disconnect switch was on or off.
I've racked my brain as to what's going on, and soon realized that I have no real idea of how my Battery Control Center does its job or how it might even detect the difference between two 12VDC batteries in parallel, or two 6VDC batteries in series? Or maybe something in the Battery Control unit needs to be reset? Or something with the WFCO WF-8900 converter/distribution center?
I have a little voltmeter plugged into the dashboard that shows the engine battery voltage and I can see it jump to 14+ volts when I start the engine, but there's no current flowing to charge the house batteries!
I've always counted on the house batteries charging while we are driving, so I think this is a new problem but I've never ran any tests, just took it for granted. The engine battery isn't fully charged at the moment (12.4 VDC) and the new house batteries are fully charged (13.6VDC). Is it possible that no alternator current flows to the house UNTIL the engine battery is topped off?
Can you experts enlighten me, or at least provide some hints on where I should look for an answer?
Thanks in advance,
-Grouchy :?
