What does the alternator charge

ArchHoagland wrote:

FIRE UP wrote:

ArchHoagland wrote:
Well I hate to do battle with Wolfe10 as he knows his stuff but on a 2004 Monaco La Palma with the 8.1 gas engine it does not charge the house batteries.

I don't mind battling with you other guys...just Wolf10....LOL

So you're saying that, an expensive Monaco coach, in the '04 era, designed it so that driving from one camp site to another or, long term camping, or, traveling, that engine alternator is NOT SUPPOSED TO CHARGE THE HOUSE BATTERIES, CORRECT? And that it's (the alternator) is only supposed to charge the chassis batteries? I personally don't believe it was built that way. I have never owned one and, in all reality, I have no basis for my side of the argument.

But, as there are a few different styles of linking both sets of batteries to the alternator, I would surely think Monaco would have utilized at least one version of them, to keep the house batteries charged while driving. I mean, what happens if the generator goes south while you're dry camping? Are you just supposed to give up and go home?

Personally I'd have to dig into that wiring to make sure that something's not broke, disconnected, fried, bad ground, bad solenoid, bad circuit board, something!
Scott

I took it back to the dealer when brand new and they confirmed it.

Actually I prefer it that way. I don't want my engine electrical tied into my house electrical at all.

I've never had a problem with the batteries staying charged on house or engine side other than I do shut off my engine battery with the big disconnect switch Monaco installed.

I'm just the lowly bottom of the line entry model. In fact Monaco has some owners clubs and I'm so low I wasn't allowed to join them. They are for just the top three models that year. So don't pick on me, it's bad enough I'm an outcast. LOL

Sorry, but as a Technician that worked and we sold Monaco(La Palma also), ALL Monaco's charge both battery banks from the engine. Just because YOUR dealer stated they checked it just shows they either lied or did not know what they were doing. As I have stated in posts for years, there sre only 2 models of Motorhomes that did not charge the Coach batteries and they are out of business and I do not remember the 2 models and this was over 15 years ago. Now, lets talk about Monaco systems. They had a TSB from the mid 2000's that addressed a small problem. What to do when driving and you had the LARGE 1500 to 3000 watt Inverter charger and you had the Genset on while driving. They installed a hot wire on the Genset 12 volt indicator light to a Bosch relay so when the Genset was ON, the chassis would NOT charge the coach batteries. The production from then on had the Bosch relay as OEM build. Genset OFF and the Chassis Alternator charged the battery banks. Doug