'90s era Power Converter, How do they work ?

[Downwindtracke1]

This only a general information question. We just purchased a '98 TC, an Adventurer 810WS for hunting, mostly. Talking to other hunters, I know furnace fans use up battery power, when it's cold, it's one night, one battery. I have a generator, so how effective is battery charging through the power converter? The battery that came with it is Interstate deep cycle 27,I have another, so I'll add it as well somewhere .

[jmcgsd]

My Magnatek in my Lance 880 takes at least 8 hours to bring the grp 27 battery back from 50%. Haven't made a winter trip with it yet, but I'll probably carry both my Honda EU2000 gas genny in addition to the built in Onan and an external battery charger if I will be using the furnace a lot.

The Lance has 2 7 Gal. horizontal propane tanks, but those will get used pretty quickly by the furnace so the Honda will allow me to run the shore power and charger with gas. The extra charger will bring the battery up more quickly in an emergency.

My TT is an '09, but it has a huge 4D 200AH battery and solar. Howecer the solar is marginal during the winter, especially in a tree covered campsite, so there is an auxiliary 30A charger mounted in the front storage area (SEC 1230). That puppy brings the big battery back up quickly, but it also draws a bunch from the Honda. If the aux. charger is operating and I try to run the microwave, it sometimes overloads the Honda.

[Downwindtracke1]

Thank you for the answer, it exactly the what I was wondering. I googled and even found a 2010 post from this site, describing the converter, a SMI, at lest he had specs, which is more than I have. Amazing. It's like you said, with just 5amps charging. And I, too, have computerized charger.THX

[RoyB]

You need to have a smart mode converter/charger that produces at least three DC voltages for keeping your batteries maintained to their best (14.4VDC-13.6VDC-13.2VDC)

The older converter/chargers only produce 13.6VDC which is known to boil out your battery fluids if left ON for long periods of time...

If you are needing to add more batteries then the rul of thumb is you need 17-20AMPS foe each battery if you wish to re-charge to at least the 90% charge state in a three hour time frame.

I found the Progressive Dynamics Model PD9260C 60AMP SMART MODE Model a perfect replacement to maintain my larger battery bank.

Roy Ken

[Kayteg1]

The old converters had very small DC circuit for battery charging.
Even my 2004 parallel converter has big amps, when I start generator for recharging the batteries, the converter will overheat after few minutes ans stop charging till it cools down.
I carry computerized charger for such occasions.

[enblethen]

You need to locate and post make and model of the converter.
I have seen some of the hunters here just sit the battery outside the rig and use jumper cables to connect it to rig.