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mooky_stinks's avatar
mooky_stinks
Explorer
Jun 13, 2022

Do I need a better converter?

Just replaced original 80ah battery with 2 100ah batteries. When dry camping for 3 nights the batteries were steadily lower after each charging during the allowed generator times. 1st night when fully charged they dropped to 60%. 2nd night they started out at 85% and dropped to 50% then 3rd was about 70% to 30%. I never saw higher than 13.7 when plugged in to my 2000watt generator. Haven’t looked at what my converter is rated for yet but am I right in thinking it’s just not putting the charge back in fast enough? Would a stand alone commercial battery charger that I have work better in the few times a year I dry camp? Any suggestions would be appreciated!

16 Replies

  • Probably your converter is a POS.
    After having 2 campers with PD converters and not knowing or caring really "why" people said WFCOs are junk, we got a camper with a WFCO. Can confirm, it's a pile of doo doo.
  • What is the charger and how long were you running the generator?

    First morning 60% to 85%, is 25% of 200ah or 50ah. A 50amp charger should do that in around an hour.
    Second morning 50% to 70%, is 20% of 200ah or 40ah. Should take 20% less charge time to get there.

    Did you per chance run the generator for 1:15 the first time and 1:00 the second time?

    You generally won't get to 100% charging with an hour or two on the generator (even if the charger puts out enough amps). Lead-Acid batteries start reducing the charge acceptance around 70%. At first it's a minor reduction. By the time you get to 80-90%, they accept far lower amperages, no matter how big the charger is.

    If you will be boondocking another option is to get something like a 100w portable solar panel.
    - Run the generator first thing in the morning to get up around 80-90% (an hour or two).
    - The solar panel will peak around 8amps mid day but it will do so over several hours and top up the remaining storage.

    Of course, if you do a lot of boondocking, a large permanently installed solar array is a nice option but it brings it's own set of costs/complications.
  • The short answer is TES !

    Now would be a good time to upgrade to an inverter/charger/automatic transfer switch.
  • mooky stinks wrote:
    Just replaced original 80ah battery with 2 100ah batteries. When dry camping for 3 nights the batteries were steadily lower after each charging during the allowed generator times. 1st night when fully charged they dropped to 60%. 2nd night they started out at 85% and dropped to 50% then 3rd was about 70% to 30%. I never saw higher than 13.7 when plugged in to my 2000watt generator. Haven’t looked at what my converter is rated for yet but am I right in thinking it’s just not putting the charge back in fast enough? Would a stand alone commercial battery charger that I have work better in the few times a year I dry camp? Any suggestions would be appreciated!


    need a little more context here, what kind of batteries, what is your converter now and how long are you running the generator for.

    Steve
  • You did not state what type of batteries you got are they FLA or LifePO4?
  • If it's a WFCO converter they're notorious for not going into bulk charging mode. I have 2 GC batteries and an IOTA-55 converter for faster charging off a generator.