We did this all the time when I was camping off-grid in my setup... I ran my batteries down to their 50% charge state by 8AM the next morning most often. Then i would hook my 2KW generator up to my shore power connection to run my on-board Converter/charge unit to recharge my batteries.
This would typically take three hours of generator run to get from the 50% charge state to only the 90% charge state. Some places doesn't allow you run your generator this long so that presented a problem sometimes.
My batteries want to see around 17-20AMPs of DC current for each battery when first hit with the 14.4VDC Boost charging from my converter. It showed 53-55AMPS on my main DC CURRENT meter setup when first starting to charge. This would settle back as the charge continued and eventually would get the batteries to their 90% charge state. I would have almost 99% of full performance running at the 90% charge state so was good to go for the next 50% to 90% charge cycle the next morning. I could do some 10 or 12 of the these 50% to 90% charge state without doing damage to my batteries. After that they wanted to see a 100% charge state which in my case would take are 12 hours or so. No way could I find a camping spot that would allow running a generator that long here on the East side of the US...
I never had any luck just running a charge for short periods of time as it would get dark on me around 9PM at night. I would never use my batteries when they dropped down to the 12.0VDC readings... For me this is the approximate 50% charge state.
Just me - I'm sure others do it differently. My three 12V 85AH Interstate was installed in 2009 and lasted up until just a couple of seasons ago before they gave up the ghost. I am presently building up a new battery bank...
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My on board converter/charger is a PD9260C 60AMP DC Smart Mode setup...
My Generator is a Honda 2KW EU2000i model sitting in the tail gate of my truck bed
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Roy Ken
