Help with converter and battery charging...

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Using a generator, time is money.

Honda 2000 burns less gas at lighter load. I understand charging fast to minimize noise time. Conversion of gasoline to battery power might be more efficient at 35a vs 80a. JMHO

Using a generator, time is money.

Each of those batteries when discharged can SAFELY accept 40 amperes up until 14.8 volts and this voltage should not be exceeded during regular generator charging. Keep the EIGHTY AMPERE figure in mind. It is the fastest and least expensive method to recharge.

$3.80 gallon gasoline. Thirty gallons PAYS for another battery. Keep THAT in mind.

A combination "smart" charger PLUS a regular charger to = 80 amperes max in my mind is the way to go. The "smart" charger can maintain your battery automatically when you're not paying three dollars a kilowatt hour, rather thirty cents.

OregonTRX4 wrote:
I almost exclusively boon dock. I have a honda eu2000i and was wondering what is the best way to charge my batteries. I have read that some converters are 3 stage and some trickle charge. I have a WF8935ANP converter. Does this have the ideal charging or would it make better use of my time to buy a battery charger and power it with the generator to top of the batteries. Charging time currently seems very slow. If i should get a battery charger does anyone have any recommendations? Thanks

The best way to charge your batteries is to ensure that the charger can maintain 14+ Volts during stage 2-Absorption of a 3-stage charger. A good charger will have separate cables to sense the battery's volts and temperature and adjust Amps accordingly during all three stages. This is rare for a converter/charger.

The WFCO and so many other converter/chargers only use 13.6V during Absorption. Absorption is the stage where Amps are tapered downwards until float conditions are met.

13.6V will ruin a flooded battery if the Amps are not regulated.

The 13.6V during Absorption is a dead give-away that the primary purpose of the converter is to be a power supply of a nice safe regulated voltage for your RV's electronics.

Be sure to read the charger's manual to ensure that 14+V are applied until the battery reaches float condition.

Float for a battery is when it is time for the charger reduce the Volts and AMPs so that the battery is in stasis. Stasis is when just enough Amps are applied to replace current draws. The 13.6V is ok for float to maintain stasis.

HTH;
John

I too mostly camp off the power grid in my 2008 RT14 OFF-ROAD POPUP camper.

I am using the same standard issue 85AH 12VDC Interstate batteries you are using. I started out with four of them in parallel in 2008 with the two new ones that came with my POPUP trailer and then added a third new one in about a month. Then about two months later added the fourth used GP24 similar interstate battery out of my unused 2005 Fifth Wheel. All of these was originally was being charged with the trailer on-board ELIXIR 30AMP non-smart mode converter/charger which constantly always put 13.6VDC.

I lost the oldest battery first in about a year of use that came out of the fifth wheel which boiled out all of it fluids leaving me with three 85AH batteries that were pretty close to to being the same age.

This was the time I decided it was best for me to get smart-mode technology charging going for my batteries. I replaced the older ELIXIR 30AMP single mode converter/charger with a WFCO 8900 series Power Distribution Center and a WF8945 smart-mode 45AMP converter-charger setup. I separated the some ten 12VDC circuits and four 120VAC circuits out to be connected to the new WFCO 8900 series power management setup which was a hugh blessing in disguise having all of the individual 120VAC circuit breaker and 12VDC fuse controls on all my electrical circuits. The older ELIXIR only had one large 120VAC circuit breaker and three 12VDC fused circuits and all the circuits were grouped together accordingly for these supplied circuits.

Immediately I found the WF8945 45AMp Smart Mode Converter/charger unit would never go into smart-mode charging no matter what I changed out or did with my setup. I then added a stand-along PD9260C converter/charger unit and mounted this unit only five feet away from the battery bank. This unit will provide 60AMPS of charging current and the four smart mode technology charging works perfect everytime... As you can see in the diagram below I retained the WF8945 converter/charger unit since it was brand new and only have it around for a BACKUP PLAN B situation. I can turn on either the WF8945 or the PD9260C converter/charger unit by simply throwing the right 120VAC circuit breaker for the unit I want to use.

My 14RT floorplan layout looks like this except for the two 150AH batteries installed on the trailer tongue. I currently have three GP24 85AH GP24 12VDc Interstate batteries here at the present time.




My game plan plan for camping off the power grid is to have enough battery capacity to operate all of my 120VAC and 12VDC items I want to run in a one day/night camping run and then recharge the next morning if I am allowed to run my 2KW generator to get my my battery bank back up to at least 90% charge state in as little of generator run time I can have. Using the smart-mode charging technology this takes me around three hours charge time using my PD9260C converter/charger. I do this by connecting the trailer shore power cable directly to the 2KW generator 120VAC receptacle using a RV30A-15A adapter as shown in this photo.


This is my basic wiring setup using the four each 85AH Interstate GP24 batteries (like yours) in parallel.


I did finally loose my third 85AH interstate battery last season 2012 which ened up with a shorted cell. I am down to two Interstate 12VDC batteries for this season and am planning on a upgarde to get four 150AHs 12VDC Trojan T1275P batteries - two on the trailer toingue and two in the back of my F150 truck bed. These batteries are required for two separate battery requirements for using the truck by itself using radio equipment and can be connected together when being used with the trailer.

Keep in mind this works great for me and you have to come up with you own situation. I sometimes catch some heat from the other experts on here claiming I am doing some wishful thinking here but it has worked great for me over the past few years. My success is keeping a close watch on my Battery Monitor Panel and when the two battery banks draws down to around 12.0VDC I know I am approaching my 50% charge state and will need to start re-charging soon. Using my 255AHs of battery capacity gets me safely down to the 12.0VDC level at 8 AM the next morning with my setup.

I have learned over the years I can get away just fine charging my now three 85AH batteries in parallel using the guideline of having around 20AMPS of charging current available for each of the batteries. The idea for me is to use a converter/charger unit that can give the battery bank whatever current it will accept not to exceed around 20% of the over-all ampere-hour rating and this will not cause overheating. Overheating will of course cause the batteries to start boiling out fluids. A whole bunch of overheating may cause the batteries to explode on you. What I have found was to use around 15-20AMPS of charging for each of the batteries to be well within the safe limits of charging a battery.

Hope this gives you some ideas what to expect.

My operating off the power grid real experience story...

Roy ken

Skip,

The OP identified his converter in his first post.

Jim

If you boondock often then head down to Costco and buy a couple of sixes - won't break the bank and makes a World of difference. If it were me I would upgrade batteries first - then upgrade converter (many prefer Progressive Dynamics which you can manually put into boost mode).

4aSong wrote:

mbopp wrote:
From what I've heard the WFCO's don't go into bulk or fast charge mode easily. And a 35 amp charger won't charge dual batteries very fast.

My old HTT had a single-stage Elixir converter that wasn't good at charging my batteries (dual G27's.) I bought a deck-mount Iota 55-amp converter from Randy and mounted it in the front pass-through. I drilled a hole in the floor and ran the charging cables (all 3' of them) to the batteries. The Iota was powered by an extension cord plugged into my Honda 2000.
I traded the HTT but kept the Iota. It'll go in the front pass through again but I tapped into a bedroom outlet and ran a 115V line with a switched outlet into the pass through. The Iota will get screwed to the pass through ceiling to save floor space (and keep it from getting beat up.)
I had a local car stereo shop make cables for me. $1 / ft for very flexible 8-ga cable and $1 each for gold plated ring connectors crimped on.
The new TT just got refitted with LED lighting, and I put an on-off switch on the radio / DVD player so the current draw is ZERO when the unit is "off." My only full-time load now is 100ma for the propane detector.
The Iota is hard wired to the batteries but I have a disconnect switch between the batteries and trailer 12V circuits. When I'm on generator the full output of the Iota will go to the batteries and the factory WFCO converter will power the rest of the TT. WFCO's don't need a battery to supply clean 12V power.

I recently upgraded my TT and I kept the IOTA DLS45 (45amp) Series M with the IOTA Smart Charger IQ4 from my previous trailer and was hoping to use it somewhere, sometime. The new TT has a WF8955 (55amp) and dual G27's currently. I was thinking of swapping out the WF8955 and installing the DLS45 but when I read your post there seems to be a better use for the DLS45 without removing the WF8955. Could you share what is the best way for me to accomplish similar results to what you have ?. My Honda EU2000i is what I use to charge my batteries when boondocking.
Thanks

You can rig your Iota IQ4 as a portable charger using a cut off end of jumper cables (#8 AWG or fatter) similar to this for use as your fast charger.

http://www.boatandrvaccessories.com/powermax-pmbc-55-12-volt-55-amp-converter-charger-with-cables.html

Advantage of doing that over swapping out the WFCO is the short wire connection to the batteries will allow full amps, where perhaps the OEM TT wiring is too long and thin. If that is not the case, then swapping out would work too.

I fill to just below. Just touching is very max.
Fill after fully charged.
Don't charge unless plates are covered.

If you use a trickle charger to charge your batteries you will likely need to run the generator MOST of the time to keep up with electricity use. Really can't answer what is best for you without knowing what kind of converter/charger you have. A stand alone charger is always a possibility but they can have some problems also. SOME will read the battery state of charge and if the converter is putting anything into the batteries it will read the battery as in a higher state of charge and SOMETIMES will simply think they don't need charging and shut down. Solution is to remove the negative lead and charge the battery without being connected to the converter charger.

Fill until the water touches the split ring.