Charging starting battery

[TNGW1500SE]

I have a 2003 Sunova 30B and it stays plugged in over the winter. My house batteries are charged up but the starting battery is not charged off the 110 volt. I was thinking of adding a battery maintainer that gets it's power from the campers 110. There's also the option of a switch that connects the house batteries to the starting battery while parked. Ideas?

[daveB110]

Yes, one needs adequate control of solar power being generated. A charge controller which is equal to this task needs to be employed, and care must be shown to keep the batteries in good shape, for instance, wet batteries will need more water should you be using shore power. Otherwise, you can almost forget about battery problems providing your link from solar/inverter-charger to start battery remains.

[Kayteg1]

Unless you put advanced controller, solar panels can kill the batteries in good weather.
Just like most standard trickle-chargers.

[daveB110]

With solar panel(s) and RV unit stored uncovered we are wired to bring solar to the front where starting battery and two of six solar charged batteries are. A simple wire with alligator clips attached to each end connect 12-volt solar output to the starting battery, so (for awhile) making a total of seven solar charged batteries. The Inverter/Charger need not be powered up. With the RV plugged to shore power, the effect is the same as without external power. The solar will trickle charge the start battery, and any other connected batteries, during daylight hours. This is an advantage of having rooftop solar installed, one may walk away and rely on nature to keep your rig energized, whenever needed, all the time. Plugged in or not, it is always ready, and with AC available throughout when the Inverter is switched on.

[Canadian_Rainbi]

smkettner wrote:

jerseyjim wrote:
I have a TRIK-L-START and it works fine...as long as you're plugged into shore power (like snowbirdng, for instance). Simply put, it "cannibalizes" the power from the 2 6V batteries into the 12V starter battery so it never runs down....and you can always start the motor, and in addition all the stuff powered by the 12V starter battery keeps going.

However....MY experience with the gadget is that if you leave everything intact when NOT being on shore power, (storage, for instance) ALL the batteries drop after a month or two. No coach power...no engine start power. Then the jumper cables come into play.

Trik-L-Start draws 5 milliamps and will drain a typical battery to 50% in 10,000 hours or 400 days.
Just saying it is the other parasites.

Trik-L-Start operates in the same fashion as the Xantrex Echo Charger does; It will charge the Chassis battery ONLY if it needs it and ONLY if the house batteries are at 13.0 Volts or better. In other words, if your house batteries went dead it was not the fault of the Trik-L-Start. For long term storage of course you need to either disconnect the fully charged batteries OR have some charging mechanism either shore power or solar. Either Trik-L-Start or the Xantrex Echo Charger will do what the OP wants.

[time2roll]

jerseyjim wrote:
I have a TRIK-L-START and it works fine...as long as you're plugged into shore power (like snowbirdng, for instance). Simply put, it "cannibalizes" the power from the 2 6V batteries into the 12V starter battery so it never runs down....and you can always start the motor, and in addition all the stuff powered by the 12V starter battery keeps going.

However....MY experience with the gadget is that if you leave everything intact when NOT being on shore power, (storage, for instance) ALL the batteries drop after a month or two. No coach power...no engine start power. Then the jumper cables come into play.

Trik-L-Start draws 5 milliamps and will drain a typical battery to 50% in 10,000 hours or 400 days.
Just saying it is the other parasites.

[pianotuna]

Hi wolfe10,

Before I installed the trik-l-start the starting battery would be at 12.3 volts after six weeks of storage. (E-450 class C)

After installing the trik-l-start the starter battery was at 12.8 volts.

It was being 'fed' from the solar system.

I have seen the starter battery receiving 13.8 volts when on shore power using the wizard equipped progressive dynamics converter and also when using the Magnum inverter charger.

My relays draw 0.88 of an amp--not really suitable for long term storage. A locking relay would be a better choice for starter battery maintenance charging.

I'm pleased with the trik-l-start solution.

[wolfe10]

dstock50 wrote:
Why not just connect the positive house battery to the positive engine battery through a fuse in case a battery goes bad so the house charger won't boil the other dry, or use a standard simple diode/HexfET battery isolator.

A fuse would not keep a bad battery from taking down a good one (the charger would keep "feeding" the total bank which would overcharge the good batteries in an attempt to bring a bad one up.

A diode-based battery isolator normally looses about .7 VDC across the diode. That would not give you enough voltage to keep the second bank charged.

Totally agree, a "modern, non-diode based" isolator would work.

Or go with a commercially available combiner such as the Xantrex Echo charger or small-output stand alone smart charger for the chassis batteries.

[pianotuna]

I added solar to keep the house bats in great shape, then added a trik-l-start to keep the starter battery in good shape.

[dstock50]

Why not just connect the positive house battery to the positive engine battery through a fuse in case a battery goes bad so the house charger won't boil the other dry, or use a standard simple diode/HexfET battery isolator.

[jerseyjim]

DUTCH_12078: Funny you mentioned the alarms...CO, LP, etc....when brand new, (2001) I found that after 3 weeks or so of non-use, I needed jumper cables to start the motor. E-mailing the manufacturer, they suggested these alarms were the source of my problem, and the response went on to say that they were required by law to hardwire these things...which they did to the 12V battery. Therefore, legally they cannot tell me how to disconnect them. But...if I went to my friendly, neighborhood dealer, they could put a toggle switch in. Hello, local hardware store?

[Dutch_12078]

jerseyjim wrote:

However....MY experience with the gadget is that if you leave everything intact when NOT being on shore power, (storage, for instance) ALL the batteries drop after a month or two. No coach power...no engine start power. Then the jumper cables come into play.

There are typically parasitic drains on both batteries, and the Trik-L-Start has nothing to do with them. The engine side has the ECU, radio memory, etc. drawing on it at all times, and the coach batteries usually have one or more alarms, CO, LP, etc., drawing on them. These are very light current draws, but over time it all adds up. Even a disconnected battery looses its charge, albeit very slowly if it's in good shape.

[jerseyjim]

I have a TRIK-L-START and it works fine...as long as you're plugged into shore power (like snowbirdng, for instance). Simply put, it "cannibalizes" the power from the 2 6V batteries into the 12V starter battery so it never runs down....and you can always start the motor, and in addition all the stuff powered by the 12V starter battery keeps going.

However....MY experience with the gadget is that if you leave everything intact when NOT being on shore power, (storage, for instance) ALL the batteries drop after a month or two. No coach power...no engine start power. Then the jumper cables come into play.

[Kayteg1]

HF sells maintainers for $5.
Don't think $5 expense is worth 50 replies to come. 😉

[Ray___June]

harley-dave wrote:
I added a trik-l-start to our class c and it works like a charm.

Dave

Best way to go!