How to Increase Battery Capacity
After spending 10+ years studying RVs prior to buying one I’m amazed at what I still don’t know! Turns out the cure for that is this amazing forum. The latest issue I’m lost about is a LOT more ...
Forum Discussion
2112 wrote:
This is our recharge mode for the few times we have boondocked for a few days. A one hour truck charge in the morning gets us to the next morning. I'll hold the RPMs at ~1500rpm for the first 5 minutes or so. This is where my alternator is good for about 130A, not saying the battery it taking that much. After that I'll let it idle which produces ~60A. This is taking place on private property without other campers close by so engine noise is not a issue.
This is similar to what we do for 2-3 days of drycamping in our small motorhome. We idle the main engine (gas V10) for about an hour, which supplies up to 70 amps to the two 12V coach batteries. The engine idles very quiet, so we can do this without disturbing other campers.
If we want to charge beyond that in boondock or widely dispersed campsite situations, we can use either a small 600 watt Honda four-cycle generator (54dB noise level) we bring along or the built-in generator.
We've never went solar because we don't stay long enough in the sun in any one spot long enough to make it necessary or efficient. Going down the road, the engine alternator brings up the coach batteries to full charge in 3-4 hours, max.
