Main Battery Charging

no

bob@29154 wrote:
My converter keeps by house batteries charged while my engine battery along side it goes dead when in storage. Why can't I put a jumper across for the converter to also keep the engine battery charged?

No real reason you can't except you will need to manually install and remove. The devices linked essentially do the same thing but automatically.

You wouldn't want to leave the jumper in place when not connected to shore power.

BTW, this is the travel trailer section. It must be a unique travel trailer that has an engine starting battery. :B

X2 what WYO TRAVELER says... Use a multimeter and measure across battery terminals to see if they are being charged.

A fully charged battery will read around 12.6-7VDC across its two terminals. When you connect to shore power this should jump up to 13.6VDC or higher depending what the charge mode the RV converter/charger is in at the time.

Roy Ken

WyoTraveler wrote:
Before making the mod you may want to plug into shore power and check to see if your start battery is already being charged.

Probably isn't or it wouldn't be dead.

And you should check the health of the start battery too.

Simply disconnecting the start battery for storage should be good enough .....IF the battery is healthy AND it is fully charged to start with.

I woke mine up from it's winter sleep yesterday. It had been sitting for about 10 weeks and fired right up.

How long is your storage period ??

Before making the mod you may want to plug into shore power and check to see if your start battery is already being charged. My start battery and house batteries charge when on shore power.

How long before the battery dies? It should be good for a month. Besides the above solutions you can install a 2A 2 stage charger.

The reason to not jump them is that without power you could discharge both batteries.

Short answer is you can but gbopp has pointed you in the right direction.

Trik-L-Start

Amp-L-Start

Do it right. :)