Battery Charger Choice/Brand/Experiance

[billwilson]

Specificly:

charge One 4d and two group 27
total of 400 amp hours of storage

charge from Shore Power or Generator

NOT trickle charge

Example:
Dont want to run engin
Solar out of commission due to fault or snow or rain

Have Yamaha 2400 watt gas generatior to charge the batts

Watts needed?

Brands / Models you have First hand experiance with

Time to top up?

thanx in advance

bw

[jage]

You want a built in or a portable charger?

[billwilson]

Originally Posted by jage

You want a built in or a portable charger?

Built in hard wired

We used the SMB installed inverter
a big ass Freedom combi 485

upon reading the manuel ( 2 minutes ago )

it appears it has a charger and i did not wire correctly

STILL in need of suggestion for a seperate hard wired unit

However gotta test this deal and see if it is built into the inverter

over

[spurious]

Try this...

http://www.intellipower.com/

[daveb]

Just remember that it's not a good idea to have different battery groups connected together on a single system. Banked batteries should be the same type and age or you might be asking for trouble unless they are separated from each other by some means. Connected to each other under a charge is usually OK but not the best solution. Most RV sites will support this idea. I've been told by Xantrex that charging is not a big issue but I still believe that AGM batteries deserve a different charge voltage/session than wet cells and so on. I do know for a fact that my Xantrex inverter/charger does charge both the house and starting batteries. This has posed a problem for me in the past when I had a failing starting battery. The charger put out a massive charge to try to supply the failing battery what it needed. No damage was done to my house batteries but if I had it to do all over, I would have a separate battery charger for the house and starting battery systems. Only my opinion for what it's worth.

SLIGHTLY OFF TOPIC:
When charging by solar, it is suggested by most RV sites that the starting batteries should be charged by a different solar panel than the house system. In the past SMB had stated that the solar charged both the house and starting batteries. But now the thought is that the solar only charges the house battery or batteries until the house system reaches 13.2 SMB now supplies a JUMP switch to aid in starting the engine off the house battery system. Some of this is vague per SMB, but I have yet to find that the solar charges the starting batteries until separator sees 13.2 or higher. Older systems might be different than my van. It all depend on when the battery separator is closed and I've yet to find it closed when the van sits in full sun and the solar is charging. [edit] I found out my SurePower separator was failing and after switching to the Blue Sea MCR the solar does indeed charge the starters after the house reaches above 13.2vDC @ the relay.
This is only from some of the research I've done and discussion with SMB. This could be wrong and you should check it out yourself to make sure it applies to your van.
Dave

[billwilson]

Ladies and Gents:

Wilson is wired with the starter TOTALLY seperate from
Xantrex and Blue Sky Solar controler

Starter ONLY recieves from Alternator
Alternator DOES have a Isolator to charge House batts

(fyi- this is what i spec'd, i did not wire, i will trace on wed when i final the rebuild)

Blue Sky Solar controler charges my House batteries
1- 4d with 210 amps
2- Group 27's(?) with 100 amps each
- not ideal batt bank but all i could squeeze in
- i understand and have convo's with various vendors re: mixing batt sizes and possible wiring for charging

Xantrex according to the lititure from the orginal build
has a charger.
- when on the Sample Meadows shake down i took a voltage reading before Sa'more time
- ran the Yamaha @ 2 hours
- no gain in voltage
THEREFORE:
a) xantrex not wired correctly to charge
b) there is sime button to press to make it charge
c) the charger portion no longer works
d) i need new glasses

Needed at this point:
1) hard wired seperate charger reccomendation
2) need to test test/trace the wirking currently in place

[jage]

I have a Xantrex PureSine 2000 and the charge feature is on/off. I always just leave charge on via the control panel. There are a bunch of lights and buttons? on the side of the invertor itself... can't read 'em and never knew they were there until I pulled up a photo of the unit.

If you have a control panel I can list the steps to turn charge on, if not you can probably google a bigger photo of the unit buttons than real life.