I fired up my generator today as I was driving home, with the intention of giving it it's monthly exercise. And something new happened.
With both the generator and the van's engine running, the battery light on the instrument panel came on. That has never happened before. System voltage was fine: 13.9 on both the chassis side and 14.4 on the house side.
That led me to wonder if the separator was misbehaving.
I disconnected the cable between the separator and the house batteries. The instrument panel light went off and stayed off. Without the separator in the system, there were no issues.
Separator: SurePower 1315-200; circa 2006; built well prior to the recall of 2011 and the serial number is not in the recall range.
Hypothesis
The separator is doing something strange when both the alternator and the converter are putting 12v into the system.
Observation
It appears that SMB wired my separator backwards.
The positive cable from the chassis battery is connected to the left post. The positive cable from the house batteries was connected to the right post. Based on the label, it looks like it should be the other way around.
Conclusion
There's a good chance my separator is fried. I'm thinking that if I replace it--and wire the new one correctly--my dashboard light will come on no more.
What do y'all think?
Thanks!