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Smitty77's avatar
Smitty77
Explorer
Mar 17, 2018

Lifeline 8D Chassis - 200A Delco Alternator

I've had some recent help on a bank of House Lifelines that are either: 1) Heavily sulfated; - or - 2) Dried out from overcharging. Still trying to determine which:)!

This made me think about the 8D Lifeline I installed for Chassis duty about 8 weeks ago. When the 160A Alternator went out, we replaced it with a 200A Delco unit. Bu nothing else was changed to feed the charge to the Chassis battery.

What adjustments, if any, would be recommended? I see 3 stage units in the boating community usage, is this a good change for this RV Chassis feeding application?

Note: While on Shore Power or Solar, the Chassis gets fed when appropriate from a Magnum Smart Battery Combiner (SBC). On Edit: This is where I also should have mentioned the engine alternator does feed amps to the house too. So while this is a specific question about the chassis, suppose as I look for reasons of overcharging contributions to our house bank - I should fully understand what the engine alternator is pumping into the house bank too:)!

TIA for any input, and best to all,
Smitty

7 Replies

  • pnichols's avatar
    pnichols
    Explorer II
    Mar 18, 2018
    For what it's worth, when I had Lifeline on the phone some time ago asking about their specifications for float voltages, they told me that subjecting Lifeline AGM batteries to too-high float voltage levels would over time eventually dry them out.

    What Lifeline told me made complete sense, so for our RV I chose another brand of AGM batteries that specified a higher float voltage - to better match to our RV's charger.
  • Smitty77's avatar
    Smitty77
    Explorer
    Mar 18, 2018
    MW - Yep, from memory, that looks like the one. I'll take a voltage reading the next time I pull out the coach (Tight fit where it's parked, can't open the battery basement door.)

    Will get the House battery down some, start the engine and bump up the RPM idle. Want to see what the voltage is going to the Chassis, and all see what the BMK Meter reflects goes on with the House. (I believe I've seen 40+ Amps flowing into the House while the engine is running. But don't know if that was with house batteries needing to be charged up, and that it would taper off once the battery is full. So want to watch what is actually going on.

    The drying out of those L16's is what I'm trying to pin point the Root Cause of:)!

    Thanks,
    Smitty
  • MEXICOWANDERER's avatar
    MEXICOWANDERER
    Explorer
    Mar 17, 2018
    Does your alternator look like this Delco 28 SI ?

    This is a trapezoidal mount they make them with the standard J180 swivel mount.




    REGULATOR, 12V - DR 28SI. AMSCO#:10527282. Description. AMSCO#: 10527282. TRANSPO#: D1282 OEM#: 10510911, 10527282. LESTER#: 8746, 8749. DELCO 28SI ALTERNATORS DETAILS: 12 VOLT, B-CIRCUIT, HIGH SIDE DRIVE REGULATOR, 14.2 VOLTAGE SETTING

    14.2 is an ideal compromise alternator voltage regulator set point for the Lifeline.
  • MrWizard's avatar
    MrWizard
    Moderator
    Mar 17, 2018
    chassis battery doesn't need the add-on special 3 stage charger

    the boating industry does use them, and i think it is because they use a bank to power everything lights and other systems when the engines/charge system is not on, and they deep cycle them
    usually (2) or more banks so they can switch between them

    in an RV the chassis battery is rarely used for anything more that starting the engine, and not normally deep cycled

    yes we have at least one special case (landyatch) who uses one battery for chassis and house in his camper van, and has a specialized charging system for that very reason

    Mexi and others with more boating experience can provide more detail

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