William52
Well-known member
So, our new to us 2005 HR endeavor inverter is not supposed to keep the Truck battery's charged while on shore power. Question is what do you use? 2 Amp trickle charger? Thanks All.
Charger
- Thread starter William52
- Start date
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SargeW
Site Team
By saying "truck battery" I assume that you are referring to your towed vehicle? Or do you mean the chassis batteries on the motorhome?
OP
OP
William52
Well-known member
Chassis for some reason the inverter only keeps the house batteries charged on shore power. according to my RV tech it's made that way.
Kirk
Well-known member
It is very common for the supply of 12V power from shore power not to be connected to the battery for the chassis. Some manufacturers do that while others do not. We were full-time for 12 years in a class A that didn't have a chassis battery charge connection so I used a float charger to keep the coach battery up when not traveling. I found that doing so kept the starting battery in good condition for far longer than doing nothing or even for just maintaining it fully charged.
Just the way they set them up for some reason. I know mine has an emergency start switch so I believe it connects the house battery to the truck battery to start it.
I would not think just camping you would have to worry about your vehicle battery going down
I would not think just camping you would have to worry about your vehicle battery going down
Kirk
Well-known member
That it does. The emergency start switch parallels the chassis battery with the coach batteries and held down allows the engine to use power from the coach batteries to start or, if you have an onboard generator and the coach batteries won't crank it, holding that switch down will allow the generator to start from the chassis battery.
Rob&Deryl
Well-known member
Ah, Inverter?
The Converter provides 12v on shore power.
The Converter provides 12v on shore power.
Right you are,
If OP is really that concerned about the charge in his vehicle battery a battery minder type charger hooked into shore power would alleviate any problems
Ray-IN
Well-known member
If your starting batteries are discharging while parked, there is a power drain that should be found and eliminated.
My MH has sat in storage for 5 months without starting battery problems.
My MH has sat in storage for 5 months without starting battery problems.
Old_Crow
Well-known member
In my old coach it was the radio. The radio got its power from the chassis battery no matter what position the park/travel switch was in. I ended up using a Harbor Freight battery maintainer to keep the chassis battery up when we were hooked to shore power.
Gary RV_Wizard
Site Team
An even better solution is a device such as the Trik-L-Start that is designed to keep the chassis battery charged by stealing some amps from the house charging system. Wire it in once and you are done. There are more sophisticated (and expensive) devices like the Xantrex EchoCharge or Magnum Battery Combiner but TrikLStart does the job nicely.
SargeW
Site Team
Yep, what Gary said. I added a Trik-L-Start to my rig, even though it has a built in chassis battery algorithm already. The Trik-L-Start does a better job!
OP
OP
William52
Well-known member
Thanks to all I have a smart charger coming. Going to need to keep the new truck battery's up while parked in Florida foe 5 months.
