Battery Tender on E450 Chassis? Shore Power does all?

[mleekamp]

We are not new to RV'ing (had various TT's for 20+ years), but are new to our new Class C w/ the Ford E450 chassis.

We have it plugged in to shore power (I have a 30a RV plug on the side of the garage just for our former TT's and now the motorhome) for winter.

*Will this suffice to maintain both house and chassis batteries?

*Will shore power only help house batteries and I need a battery tender for the chassis battery?

Appreciate guidance.

[Acampingwewillg]

I use to plug the MH into my 50amp plug on the garage and allow the inverter/charger do all the charging until I had to back further into my driveway. Long story short, since I only have access to my rear engine hatch, I hooked up a remote connection for my Dual "Battery Tender" and it works better than anything in the 15 years I've owned the MH. Of course, no more sitting out with the air conditioners blowing...:-)

[Dusty_R]

pianotuna wrote:
Acquire a trik-l-start. Then the chassis battery will be maintained whenever the RV is plugged in.

Even better--get a modest solar charging system.

I have an older solar panel that I bought many years ago to use when camping at state forest camp grounds that don't have electric hooks-ups. Found that was not all that practical to use solar panel that way.
We stored our mh inside, so I put the solar panel in a south window and ran a cable over the the mh and hooked it to the engine battery, which worked well.
We moved 6 years ago, and have a barn to store mh in, but no window. We do have a place to keep the mh plugged in, so I added a Trik-Start. That works very well.

Dusty

[Harvey51]

I have the chassis and house batteries connected together with a #14 wire installled by Ford’s auxiliary battery feature. I removed the relay, replacing it with a piece of wire. This works great for more than half the year when the solar panel keeps all three batteries topped up. In winter I disconnect all the batteries, checking every month to make sure they are close to fully charged. I also take a drive every month. Our climate is milder now with a thaw every month.

The MH battery does winter better than our old van that gets too many trips too short to top up the battery after starting. I disconnect the battery most of the time, watch closely and use a maintainer or charger to keep the battery over 12.3 volts.

[memtb]

We run two.....one to the chassis battery (s), and one for the coach batteries!

[2oldman]

Voltmeter is the only way to know for sure.

[ron_dittmer]

I vote for removing the chassis battery and store it in your house or non-freezing garage. Clean the terminals, add distilled water if needed, charge it up completely, and rest easy through the winter.

That is unless you feel the need to run the chassis engine every-other week. If that is the case, idle the chassis engine for a half hour with only your heater on to dry out the interior. That would maintain the battery as well as minimizing any musty odors. If doing this, have all your cabinet doors open so the cabinet interiors also dry out.

But plugging in and relying on your on-board converter, typically won't do it. RV companies are real good about isolating the chassis battery from the house batteries so if you kill the house batteries, you can still drive away.

There are modifications that are often done to maintain all your batteries while being plugged in via controlled by an added switch or modified switch, but that is another topic.

[camperdave]

I know for sure mine will charge the chassis battery when the coach is plugged in. It's easy to check, plug in to your outlet, then check the under hood battery for voltage. If it's over 13v, you're charging. Let it sit for some time before checking though, it can take a while for the relay to connect them up (in my experience anyway).

It's not a function of the Ford portion though, it's a fuction of how the motorhome manufacturer wired up the chassis/house batteries.

[pianotuna]

Acquire a trik-l-start. Then the chassis battery will be maintained whenever the RV is plugged in.

Even better--get a modest solar charging system.

[IAMICHABOD]

You can put a volt meter on the chassis battery and the coach batteries while at rest , should read about 12.6 volts.
Then plug in the MH to shore power and do the same voltage test , should then read about 13.4v or higher.
On some MH's, the MH converter will charge all the batteries, it will depend on how its wired. An isolator solenoid (which acts as a one-way electric gate) should protect your chassis battery from draining while boondocking etc. but that gate would open up to allow your converter to charge all the batteries.
If not, then you need to take measures to monitor the batteries not being charged.

You may have a BIRD or a derivative of it my Tioga has one and I know of many RVs that have them,It will charge thru the Continuous Duty Solenoid Relay as mine does. It may be located in your battery bay as mine is.

Click For Full-Size Image.

It senses voltage on the coach and chassis batteries and charges the one that needs it most,when it is at full charge it will return to the normal function.

[rich85704]

I have a similar rig. I don’t think the shore power will maintain the starter battery up front, although it should take care of the house battery(s). I’m not 100% sure of this.

You might try an experiment: Put a meter on the starter battery... plug and unplug the shore power connection (or turn it on and off) and see if the meter changes.

Just a thought.

I use a very small dedicated solar panel connection to the starter battery via the cigarette lighter-style connector to maintain the starter battery.

R

[Matt_Colie]

Mlee,

I can not say specifically for Jayco, but few MH of any type maintain the main engine (chassis) battery with the house converter. It is even worse now than it was as many ECU draw more when not operating than they used to.

First, I would get the specifications of house converter that was installed and if it is a 3 or 4 stage unit, leave it alone. And, if it is, then get or make a silly jumper to bypass the combiner/isolator so that can maintain both.

If you don't like that ides, there are lots of little battery maintainers that can be installed easily.

Matt

[Robocop]

House battery will be fine. Chassis battery is no different than any other vehicle regarding charging level. This would be my own experience and do not offer mechanical or technical assistance!