Hello. Looking to power my fifth wheel travel trailer for off grid boondocking using combo seeking a maximum reliance on solar and a minimum on generator. My goal is to carry, due to size and weight, the smallest generator necessary to bring an 800 amp hour AGM battery bank up to 100%. Magnum MSH 3012 has a 125A charger and the max charge rate is set to 80%; so max 100vdc I guess. Magnum's manual says 18AAC input current is needed to operate at it's continuous rated output. Honda 2000's max of 2.0kVA (16.67A) and continuous of 1.6kVA (13.3A) seems insufficient. I don't understand if only 13.3A from the Honda will NEVER allow the Magnum to charge the batts to 100% OR whether the lower input to the Magnum will just take longer. (????)If it just takes longer, I wonder how much longer. For example, if I'm down 150AH on the bank and have 3 rainy days with no meaningful contribution from solar, and crank up the Honda 2000, how effective/ practical will this be? I'm aware that my max charge 80% setting limits the charge to a max of 100vdc, but have no idea what under powering the charger, if at all, will do. I hope this makes sense. Thanks

The Honda is not big enough. Trying to run a bigger load like your charger will result in the Honda tripping its breaker and/or supplying low voltage which will destroy your charger and if you keep doing it, may damage the Honda as well. You don't want to do this.

If you have a remote for the Magnum, you can program the charge input current to lesser amps. Off a single blue 2000 watt, I set for 13a and my MS2812 can hit 100 amps charging current into a depleted bank on a cold day. I recommend saving input current as one of your FAV settings.

Honda is not large enough to put 125 amps into the battery. Of course the Honda can fully charge the battery... you just need to dial down the amps to about 80 and you should be fine.I believe the 80 percent is 80 percent of the 125 maximum amps or 100 amps maximum charge rate. Honda might hold this charge level but I think you are better at 60 or 70 percent that would give 75 or 87.5 amps. It just takes longer. Magnum does not stop charging at any specified battery level.The charging rate is not linear unless you have a lithium battery. With lead-acid you are looking at 2 to 4 hours to get 90 percent charged. The last 10 percent will take another 2 to 4 hours.

Thanks. I forgot to mention, the MSH 3012 has a "shore power" setting, which I set to 15amps max when using the Honda 2000. I'm studying this, but I gather this setting should match the Honda 2000's circuit breaker rating. Also, my bank is 800AH AGM; 4 (6) volt Fullriver DC-400-6s. I gather the max charge rate at 80% is .8*125 or 100 max. With shore power on max 15, the Honda's breaker doesn't trip, and the Magnum display inside says 90-100 dc amps when the batterires are in bulk. It would appear these setting prevent damage (I suppose). It just seems to take forever, especially the last 5% of battery capacity while in absorption. I guess I'm tryign to understand whether an Onan 3.6k would be any faster. If the onan ran at 125 dc amps, I guess that's 25% faster in bulk perhaps, but would either generator be faster during that last 5% absorption phase, when the batteries seem to accept only what they need, regardless of the DC amps being thrown at them. $3,500 for an onan, when I already own a Honda 2000, seems like a lot. It's hard for me to quantify the marginal charging time.

Magnum has a table for input amps vs charger output. I recommend consulting that chart. There is no output amps adjustment, that part is automatically computed.

Will Honda 2000 supply MSH 3012's charger? | Good Sam Community

outwestbound
Explorer
Sep 17, 2017
pianotuna wrote:
outwestbound,

I don't see how you could ruin AGM's with 960 watts of solar to maintain them. Do you full time in the RV?

I am full time. Back when I got the bank, the camper was being used pretty hard for camping, partying, bike trips with groups of people. Like some boats I've had in the past, stuff just gets broken with people in and out, randomly pushing buttons they see, etc. So in short, I figured abuse would result in a shorter AGM duty cycle.

But, I've been able to do better than I thought, so maybe they will last longer. Changing the controllers that you are aware of will help. I'm buying new controllers Monday and sticking them in. That will solve 75% of my issues, and take the charging up to the manufacturer's recs.
Itinerant1
Explorer
Sep 17, 2017
Delete
outwestbound
Explorer
Sep 18, 2017
outwestbound wrote:
Itinerant1 wrote:
outwestbound wrote:
time2roll wrote:
Sounds like you are doing just fine. Only thing better would be some lithium batteries ;)

The industry average cost curve makes them uneconomic in my opinion. I suspect RV turnover is a multiple of the breakeven, if one looks at the economic argument for lithium. I someone going to pay me their residual value when I sell my used RV every 4 years? It's laughable to think so, from what I know of the market.

I think if one is an avid hobbyist or has a material weight issue, then falling on the knife for $10,000 in lithium might make sense.

I think I'll pass.

$10,000 might stretching it more like $4,200 to equal what you have.;)
With what the AGMs cost maybe $2,000+ difference.

Maybe. I was recalling the pricing I did in like April 2016, but that was the total price, not the marginal difference. Perhaps lithium is more cost effective now. I think lithium was like 2.4X what I paid for the fullriver AGMs, but maybe I'm off.

Not naming companies, but I refreshed my quote from a year ago for a lithium bank with 480 usable at 80% (Victron batts), the controller, monitoring kit, wiring, shunt and labor at their average install rate (about 50 hours); $15,000. This is (2) 300AH Victron batteries.

I have no competency to install this stuff and have no access to better pricing, so a turn-key installed price is all I can access. If a home builder's customer asks "what does that window cost to add into that wall there", they are not asking the wholesale cost of the window. Instead, they are asking the 100% turn-key cost for the entire assembly and scope of work. I think folks need to be careful when talking about lithium, because the labor, accessories and parts are expensive.

The labor was about $6,200 and it's likely the materials could be had for less. If someone paid 85% of my quote on materials, and did the labor him/herself, then the total becomes $8,100. Big difference!
time2roll
Nomad
Sep 18, 2017
There are drop in replacement lithium batteries. Any handyman could swap it for you.
time2roll
Nomad
Sep 18, 2017
pianotuna wrote:
Li have issues with cold. I'd rather go to firefly or outback jars.
Not sure I like the memory function of the carbon foam. That full charge required to reset full capacity has me skeptical about how they would work full time off-grid.
Itinerant1
Explorer
Sep 18, 2017
outwestbound wrote:
outwestbound wrote:
Itinerant1 wrote:
outwestbound wrote:
time2roll wrote:
Sounds like you are doing just fine. Only thing better would be some lithium batteries ;)

The industry average cost curve makes them uneconomic in my opinion. I suspect RV turnover is a multiple of the breakeven, if one looks at the economic argument for lithium. I someone going to pay me their residual value when I sell my used RV every 4 years? It's laughable to think so, from what I know of the market.

I think if one is an avid hobbyist or has a material weight issue, then falling on the knife for $10,000 in lithium might make sense.

I think I'll pass.

$10,000 might stretching it more like $4,200 to equal what you have.;)
With what the AGMs cost maybe $2,000+ difference.

Maybe. I was recalling the pricing I did in like April 2016, but that was the total price, not the marginal difference. Perhaps lithium is more cost effective now. I think lithium was like 2.4X what I paid for the fullriver AGMs, but maybe I'm off.

Not naming companies, but I refreshed my quote from a year ago for a lithium bank with 480 usable at 80% (Victron batts), the controller, monitoring kit, wiring, shunt and labor at their average install rate (about 50 hours); $15,000. This is (2) 300AH Victron batteries.

I have no competency to install this stuff and have no access to better pricing, so a turn-key installed price is all I can access. If a home builder's customer asks "what does that window cost to add into that wall there", they are not asking the wholesale cost of the window. Instead, they are asking the 100% turn-key cost for the entire assembly and scope of work. I think folks need to be careful when talking about lithium, because the labor, accessories and parts are expensive.

The labor was about $6,200 and it's likely the materials could be had for less. If someone paid 85% of my quote on materials, and did the labor him/herself, then the total becomes $8,100. Big difference!

Outwestbound I was in the same boat as you when having the competence/ confidence of installing my own system so like you I did the samething of having a professional do it, Knowing that the cost would be offset by boondocking instead of paying to stay in campgrounds.

Using our previous 2 years (fulltiming) of rv campground cost it averages to $25.00 a day.
443 days of boondocking needed for return on solar.

Dispersed camping
2016 (4/16 - 12/31) 200 days
2017 (1/1 - 9/18) 260 days

Consecutive days dispersed camping as of September 18, 2017
Starting 12/23/16 - 269 days

Forum Discussion

Will Honda 2000 supply MSH 3012's charger?

About Technical Issues

Related Content

DC to DC charger

inverter/charger

todd engineering pc30b power source batt charger/pwr supply

Charger converter??

DLS-45/IQ4 Power Supply / Charger