Circuit Breaker Switch and Charging House Battery

nevadagold72 · 08-29-2011, 05:41 PM

All,

I have a 1996 SMB with 3 circuit breakers below the bench seat. There are two 15 amp and one 30 amp. When I plug into shore power 110V, which of these switches shoud be turned ON to charge the house battery? As it stands now, with ONLY the 30 amp breaker on, plugged into shore power, I'm seeing about 12.5 V to the house battery. If I switch on the remaining 2, 15 amp switches, the volts jump to 13.2 or so. What combination of circuit breakers on or off should I use for the following situations:

1. Off the grid only on battery
2. Plugged in to charge the van only
3. Plugged in to "camp"

Ford_6L_E350 · 08-29-2011, 05:45 PM

I don't worry about it. When I plug in, I turn on all the breakers.

Mike

**Gooseberry** · 08-29-2011, 08:29 PM

30 amp is the main and the 2 15amp are the load breakers. one is for the outlet anf the other the charger i suspect

joey2cool · 09-26-2011, 02:22 PM

I think you need to get a better handle on how your electrical system is designed, but with mine I don't need to have any breakers in the "on" position to get a charge to the battery - shore power or van alternator.

Also note, unless you're pulling a load from something, anything below 13V is a good indication that you're not getting a charge to the battery.

ANZAC · 09-26-2011, 08:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joey2cool

I think you need to get a better handle on how your electrical system is designed, but with mine I don't need to have any breakers in the "on" position to get a charge to the battery - shore power or van alternator.

Your van is far newer. My 2002 works as above, I need the LH main breaker and the other breaker labelled "outlet" (which in my van is an internal 110v outlet that the charger plugs into.

Anyway, I'd switch them all on (assuming you keep any Starcool AC switched off).

**daveb** · 09-26-2011, 11:33 PM

SMB made many changes over the years and some people might have even requested a specific setup so its possible that 2 vans coming off the line the same day could be totally different. SMB usually gave a wire diagram upon delivery. But it should be easy to figure out what feeds what with a light or voltage tester.

Scalf77 · 09-27-2011, 07:00 AM

See attached picture, I believe it would most likely represent your van. As it sounds like you have an charger/converter. As others have said you will need the 30 amp on and the corresponding 15 amp breaker for the converter ( I would expect the closest to the 30 amp breaker, but not sure) If you do not have any other 110 items that are directly in your van, then I would expect the second 15 amp breaker would control the outlets. Also you can check the WIKI site documents repository for some manuals http://www.sportsmobileforum.com/med...itle=Documents. If you have your own it would have a better chance of representing your vehicle.

Of course as Dave said, anything may have been changed or customized along the way.

hope this helps

-Greg