The Minnow from Aus

[Wayne Smithlily]

G'day. I have a 31ft 2007model W Alpine on Izusu npr 400 and have a few questions about work I am doing on it before I head back out bush.
I will start with one and work from there; Do the crank batteries charge the house batteries whilst driving?
Cheers from Wayne.

 

[Laura & Charles]

Welcome to the forums! Lots of friendly and knowledgeable folks here.
While I’m not familiar with your vehicle or your Alpine, I’ve not come across any cases where the engine’s alternator does not charge both the chassis and house batteries.

 

[Wayne Smithlily]

Thanks Laura and Charles. I shall take your thoughts on board.
Cheers. W

 

[John Canfield]

And a G'day to you Wayne!

I think Winnebago sold RVs down under? Can you confirm?

 

[Steven UK]

it would be easy enough to check... test the voltage of your house batteries with the engine off and again with it running. if the voltage increases them it is at least trying to charge. ideally the charge voltage will depend on your battery chemistry and the electronic giggery pokery that's going on between your start and house batteries. Good Luck.
Regards Steven

 

[Ex-Calif]

It would be extremely rare if the engine alternator did not charge the house batteries.

Welcome aboard.

 

[Oldgator73]

There could be a fuse inline between the house batteries and the alternator that has blown.

 

[Wayne Smithlily]

Thanks people, John; Winnies now Avida in Aus out of Sydney. Most work done by truck mechanics as it sits on Izusu chassis. I shall play with the multimeter re charge and inline fuse.
Cheers All

 

[John Canfield]

Thanks people, John; Winnies now Avida in Aus out of Sydney. Most work done by truck mechanics as it sits on Izusu chassis. I shall play with the multimeter re charge and inline fuse.
Cheers All

Ah-ha. An Isuzu chassis, that's not offered in the US. I know that Isuzu trucks are extremely popular world wide. Best of luck and please keep this thread updated.

 

[Wayne Smithlily]

Hi John. The Izusu truck chassis means I can travel outback on dirt roads with much less worry. Cheers Mate

 

[Wayne Smithlily]

It would be extremely rare if the engine alternator did not charge the house batteries.

Welcome aboard.

Hi. It seems that down here in Aus the engine batteries and the house batteries are separate systems. The thinking being that there is always enough solar for your house batteries and you know you always have fully charged crank batteries each morning. Some days you don't see a single vehicle on the road to give you a jump start.
Cheers. W

 

[John Canfield]

You can buy a "combiner" that will charge both banks of batteries while the engine is running and the alternator is above xx volts but the banks are isolated. It's usually a simple install process.

 

[Ex-Calif]

Hi. It seems that down here in Aus the engine batteries and the house batteries are separate systems. The thinking being that there is always enough solar for your house batteries and you know you always have fully charged crank batteries each morning. Some days you don't see a single vehicle on the road to give you a jump start.
Cheers. W

Interesting. Knowing that the automatic charge relay on my old coach was kaput I installed one of these.

Also installed on a few boats in the past. Works a treat. As long as one side of the circuit is above 12.6 the relay parallels them. If the total voltage drops below a set point (adjustable I think) the batteries disconnect to save start voltage when boondocking.

 

[Wayne Smithlily]

Thanks for that people. I will look into it.
Cheers.

 

[John Canfield]

Here's one by Magnum.

 

[SCVJeff]

As mentioned above, almost all, if not all chassis are configured to charge the house batteries, and that is controlled by a big honkin’ contactor that parallels both house and chassis batteries while on the road, and they break all the time. There are obvious issues with charging different kinds of batteries, especially Li-on together with starting batteries, and those anal about it (I will likely be one) are installing DC-DC converters to charge their house batteries within their own environment on the output of the converter. My cross-connect connector is broken, but since I have 1/2kw of solar I haven’t been in a big hurry to replace it.