Inverter and charging

[roadrat57]

Hi all!
Question: will my car alternator charge the house batteries while driving? I will be using my in-motion sat dish while driving.

Thanks

[Bill_Satellite]

roadrat57 wrote:
It's Fleetwood Fiesta 31 lx . Sat dish runs off 12 volt with the other systems running on 120. Yah, I can run the gen but would prefer the inverter if the batteries do not get drained while driving.

Yes! Your alternator will provide more than enough juice to keep your batteries charged. There will be no need to run the generator.

[ScottG]

Yes, it will.

[tropical36]

We run the fridge and anything else we might want intermittently, like the coffee maker for example, while going down the road and the batteries are usually up after a few hours running time and depending with how much they were depleted from the previous day's usage. Obviously we don't run the fridge on the inverter for any length of time, shut down and being that it's not of the residential type.

[Jim]

Yeah, modern electronic devices, especially those designed mainly for the RV market, are optimised for low operating current. So, you're good.

[MrWizard]

Very low load compared to other items like the furnace etc..
Should be ok, but I would start the trip with fully charged batteries

[1492]

Moved from Forum Technical Support

[time2roll]

Yes

[enblethen]

I believe they will hold their own. They will not gain much charge, but most likely not drop.

[roadrat57]

It's Fleetwood Fiesta 31 lx . Sat dish runs off 12 volt with the other systems running on 120. Yah, I can run the gen but would prefer the inverter if the batteries do not get drained while driving.

[enblethen]

What kind of rig are we dealing with?
In motion can be operating quite a bit. In a car(?) doubt full whether the alternator can keep up with TV and satelite. In a MH, the alternator may keep up, but not enough to charge batteries and operate the system.
If in RV with genset, run the genset!