Recharging house batteries

[countrykids]

When leaving a campground with partially drawn down house batteries, the engines alternator will slowly recharge them.

Can I charge those batteries faster by starting the in house generator at the same time charging from two sources?

[dougrainer]

It REALLY depends on how long you drive. If over 4 hours the Chassis alternator WILL fully charge the Coach batteries. Doug

[pianotuna]

theoldwizard1 wrote:

pianotuna wrote:
However, a DC to DC boost device added between the alternator and the house batteries may be just as fast.

Concur ! Modern vehicle charging systems reduce the alternator voltage to about 13.2V shortly after the engine starts. This will never fully recharge a house battery bank. You need a DC-DC charger.

pianotuna wrote:
I added a 2nd charging path using #8 wire--and I have manual control of the charging solenoids.

Re-read the above.

Yes larger gauge wires helps, but you will never be able to get a house battery bank back to 100% SOC on 13.2V !

When I put in the 2nd charging path I had identical batteries for house and starter (marine cycle). I did see over 70 amps of charging.

Also, at that time, getting a dc to DC charging device was pretty much unheard of.

Now that I have AGM telco house bank and an AGM starter, my solar sends energy to the engine--so I get almost no alternator charging.

[Bert_the_Welder]

Good question and was surprised reading you could....then read on, and you can't.....but doesn't diminish from it being an interesting question.....

[theoldwizard1]

pianotuna wrote:
However, a DC to DC boost device added between the alternator and the house batteries may be just as fast.

Concur ! Modern vehicle charging systems reduce the alternator voltage to about 13.2V shortly after the engine starts. This will never fully recharge a house battery bank. You need a DC-DC charger.

pianotuna wrote:
I added a 2nd charging path using #8 wire--and I have manual control of the charging solenoids.

Re-read the above.

Yes larger gauge wires helps, but you will never be able to get a house battery bank back to 100% SOC on 13.2V !

[RJsfishin]

No. depending on converter output and alternator output.
My 140 amp alternator will charge much faster than my PD 45 amp converter.
And 2 different charging sources will usually fight each other. The one w/ the highest voltage will do most all the charging

[pianotuna]

Yes.

However, a dc to DC boost device added between the alternator and the house batteries may be just as fast.

I added a 2nd charging path using #8 wire--and I have manual control of the charging solenoids.

[enblethen]

You may want to check your converter to see what kind of output it is. It may even pay to replace with a higher output.
Genset through the converter will give more charge combined with alternator.

[rk911]

what he said. ^^^^

[Bobbo]

Short answer: yes.
Long answer: yes, absolutely.