Battery charging |
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Olddawgsrule
Senior Member Joined: 20 Sep 2017 Location: New Hampshire Online Status: Offline Posts: 1014 |
Topic: Battery charging Posted: 03 Dec 2017 at 8:50am |
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I'm now looking at generators and researching ways to re-charge the batteries when 'push comes to shove'.
Disappointing thing is the onboard genny 12v system looks like only 6amps. So I'm thinking of going to a 'bench' charger when required. I found this one I like so far. https://www.amazon.com/BLACK-DECKER-BC15BD-Battery-Alternator/dp/B00KNMKRU8/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1512309639&sr=8-14&keywords=battery+chargers+automotive What I like: Auto adjustment of amperage with high at 15a Car start mode (never know if you'll need it) Maintainer (pulse mode to de-sulfate the battery) Onboard battery voltage meter Runs on <2.5amps (120v) Cons: The typical I find with all genny's... You start with DC power (lots of it!), convert to AC, only to convert back to charge the battery. Drives me nuts!! LOL I'll have to research Black+Decker genny's some more to see if even 'they' incorporated their charger into 'their' genny. Probably not, it would just make to much sense to do something like that.. LOL |
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Tars Tarkas
Senior Member Joined: 14 Jan 2013 Location: Near Nashville Online Status: Online Posts: 1446 |
Posted: 03 Dec 2017 at 9:30am | ||
I'm confused. It seems you think the onboard converter isn't powerful enough; I guess that's a matter of opinion, and you may be right for your purposes. But If I understand, you want a more powerful battery charger (you're use of the word "genny" is one thing that's throwing me), I guess so you can charge depleted batteries more quickly.
You have to have shore power for your B&D thing to work, as you do with the onboard converter. As a practical matter, if you have shore power, you usually have it long enough to top up your battery with the onboard converter. You're probably hooked up overnight. Now, I don't think this is clear, but it could be you are talking about times you don't have shore power but you do have a generator; likely an inverter generator, plus a battery charger to charge batteries faster. Maybe that makes sense. For those situations when you have to charge your Pod battery quickly, some stout jumper cables hooked up to your tow vehicle might work though. If you're boondocking and want to charge your battery indirectly with your generator I'd skip the B&D charger and just run the generator a little longer. We dry camp just about all the time. I have a generator though, and, when I can use them, solar panels. We're gone most of the day usually, but we use 12v and 120v relatively intensely in the morning and at night, and we never have an issue with battery power. Maybe I run my generator more than you want to run yours though. Where I usually camp there are quiet hours when the generator is not allowed. For dispersed camping, you can run your generator all night if you want. I get your frustration with generators starting with 12v, inverting to 120v, and then if you want to charge your battery, you need to convert that back to 12v, but for what it's worth, my Yamaha 2400iSCH has a 12v outlet for directly charging the battery. I've never used it, because, well, why bother, and because the wires from the generator to the battery are so small, it would be more efficient to use jumper cables from the vehicle. So... I could be totally misunderstanding you, but my thoughts boil down to, it seems like you may be contemplating worst case scenarios, whereas for most practical matters you may be overthinking things. TT |
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2010 176
FJ Cruiser |
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Olddawgsrule
Senior Member Joined: 20 Sep 2017 Location: New Hampshire Online Status: Offline Posts: 1014 |
Posted: 03 Dec 2017 at 10:54am | ||
Thank you for the response and I was probably typing/thinking too fast.. LOL
The trailer battery controller I really don't know for certain what it can or can not do. That concerns me. Also it's mean for 'general usage. I doubt very much it has mode selection for proper charging. When I refer to Genny it's short for generator. Yes, the Yamaha I'm looking at also has a DC connect and cables to charge direct, but only at 6amps and not controlled. The stand-alone charger is meant just to charge and properly. Auto select for current and maintenance modes. I doubt the trailer one is setup like this. I just don't know quite yet.. My intent is to dry camp as much as possible. So with determined power usage (my power audit) I see up to 3.5 days before re-charge. 3 days of rain, well, I have to do something. Since I will be buying a generator (1000w), an additional $60 for a very good charger/controller seems well worth the money spent and peace of mind. Again MHO and my intents. |
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GlueGuy
Senior Member Joined: 15 May 2017 Location: N. California Online Status: Offline Posts: 2629 |
Posted: 03 Dec 2017 at 11:11am | ||
One question to ask is whether the 12V outlet on the generator is actually 12V, or something more intended to actually "charge" batteries. You need quite a bit more than 12V to actually charge a 12V battery. The absorption voltage for a lead acid battery is going to be "about" 14.6 - 14.8 volts. The float voltage for a 12V battery is going to be "about" 13.5 volts.
So if that 12V output is not going to between 13.5 and 14.6 volts, it won't really charge a battery. This is why you need an actual charger that can deal with this. |
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bp
2017 R-Pod 179 Hood River 2015 Ford F150 SuperCrew 4WD 3.5L Ecoboost |
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john in idaho
Senior Member Joined: 04 Nov 2014 Location: Eagle Idaho Online Status: Offline Posts: 611 |
Posted: 03 Dec 2017 at 11:11am | ||
A 1000w generator will mainly only charge batteries. It won't run anything bigger than an electric drill. A 2000 w will run the microwave and TV. Any thing bigger is too heavy to carry around.
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WillThrill
Senior Member Joined: 04 Jul 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 298 |
Posted: 03 Dec 2017 at 11:21am | ||
Yes, the DC charging feature of inverter generators, at least all of those I've seen, is close to worthless. An uncontrolled charge of your battery is far from optimal. And if you ever really needed to do this, you can just connect your RV battery to your vehicle's battery with jumper cables and let the running vehicle charging your RV battery. I've been forced to do this in the past, and it gets the job done.
The Pod's onboard converter/charger is indeed a 3 stage computer controlled charger. I cannot recall what the maximum amperage is (it's here in the forum somewhere, perhaps in the 'manual for R-Pod' thread), but I think it's around 15 amps, which is fine for one or two batteries.
Having a backup charger is certainly not a bad idea if you're boondocking as it wouldn't be pricey or take up much weight or space. And if your battery ever gets significantly discharged, you can actually run both the onboard charger and an additional charger at the same time, at least until the chargers move from bulk charging to absorption charging (when the batteries reach ~80% state-of-charge). There is another option for charging batteries. Most people focus on generators and solar panels, but another very viable option is to use a solar charge controller in conjunction with your tow vehicle. When a vehicle is idling, the voltage is high enough to 'activate' a 12 volt solar charge controller, and it can then charge your batteries just as though the input power was coming from solar panels. An electrical engineer I know showed me this trick, and it works perfectly. In fact, you can hard wire the vehicle's battery to the charge controller and then wire that directly into your RV batteries; the controller will only charge when the vehicle is running (without the alternator running, the voltage is too low to activate the charge controller), and it will charge the batteries as a 3 stage charger should. The electrical engineer had this separate up for an emergency battery bank comprised of golf cart batteries in the toolbox of his pickup truck (he also had inverters, 12 volt sockets, a 21' set of jumper cables, extension cords, and a spare inverter and 120 volt charger). Being able to invest as little as $20 in a charge controller and a bit of wire to charge the RV battery from a car is, IMHO, very worthwhile and may be a better investment for your money than an $800 inverter generator (that's what the 1kW Yamaha and Honda models go for), especially since a 1kW generator will not run your microwave or air conditioner.
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"Not all those who wander are lost." Tolkien
2014 Hood River 177 2005 GMC Envoy XL |
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Olddawgsrule
Senior Member Joined: 20 Sep 2017 Location: New Hampshire Online Status: Offline Posts: 1014 |
Posted: 03 Dec 2017 at 11:34am | ||
Again thank you Will for the response. More food for thought!
Heh.. Don't have nor intend to have either the Micro or AC. Not how 'we' roll when camping. LOL
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GlueGuy
Senior Member Joined: 15 May 2017 Location: N. California Online Status: Offline Posts: 2629 |
Posted: 03 Dec 2017 at 12:12pm | ||
http://wfcoelectronics.com/product/wf-8955-55-amp/ |
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bp
2017 R-Pod 179 Hood River 2015 Ford F150 SuperCrew 4WD 3.5L Ecoboost |
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Olddawgsrule
Senior Member Joined: 20 Sep 2017 Location: New Hampshire Online Status: Offline Posts: 1014 |
Posted: 03 Dec 2017 at 1:47pm | ||
Followed your link and read a bit. Thank you for the link and the response! It is a 3 stage charger, but, what they don't state is amperage or wattage for charge (well, as far as I can see anyway..). Seems like a decent charger, just wish they'd state wattage on charge. Really would like to know if it's a 10-15amp charger. I'd be real happy if it was! |
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Tars Tarkas
Senior Member Joined: 14 Jan 2013 Location: Near Nashville Online Status: Online Posts: 1446 |
Posted: 03 Dec 2017 at 2:51pm | ||
It's meant for charging batteries; not as a source for 12v power. But I've never cared to use it so I haven't actually checked the voltage. And as far as I know, it's not controlled. Whatever it does, I think it does it all the time. TT |
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2010 176
FJ Cruiser |
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