Battery surprise!

[Jon Wehrenberg]

If and when the time comes to change out batteries Truk is absolutely right. A failure to hook everything back the way it was can have some serious consequences. Unless you can get a battery supplier to sell you batteries at a fair price INSTALLED you are faced with paying serious dollars to make the change out so consider getting a POG member to help.

If you find someone to do it, take pictures, make sketches, mark the cables with numbers, and generally do whatever you have to do to insure the cables end up where they started.

I dread the day I need to replace house batteries. And my house batteries are right where I can get at them. Chassis batteries will be simple.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Jon, I wanted to see where his amps were registering on panel 2.

Mine are always very high, around 20 or above often 55.

JIM

[rfoster]

Jimmy C. What all do you have on when you are pulling over 20?

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Roger asked the correct question Jim.

If you have all the coach lights on it will be common to see one or both of the inverters with high loads on the right hand column.

If you have had the coach dark and the inverters on full time you should see both panels with the RH column display at the lowest level, and it should remain there until you start adding some DC loads such as lights.

If on the other hand with the DC loads off, the load shows the high levels you are seeing, it may be a battery is starting to go bad. Our chach is always plugged in at home and the inverters and house batteries are never turned off, so when I walk into a dark coach and look at the inverter displays my voltages in the left hand column are 27 or thereabouts, and the only lights lit on the right hand column at the bottom lights indicating the inverters are not putting out much if any charging current.

Remember that when you are connected to shore power, even if you have any 120 V circuits drawing current such as the refrigerator, or the forward or rear outlets, the TV, or anything else that goes through the inverters those are only pass through loads and will not add to the load shown on the right hand displays. Those loads will show up on the 120V ammeters.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

I am showing 25A with Tivoli and lighting master off.
The only things running are battery chargers 1&2 refrigerator and webasto.

JIM

[rfoster]

Jim C. That sounds like a lot for just the webasto , chargers should be to float?and Refer. How about the TVs,(at least the big 3) VCRs,(2) Sat Dish recevier and controller? Toe kick heaters? cruise airs off at the breakers?, Engine block heater? Engine battery charger off? I always cut the bottom little refer off at the dial when stored.

& I always cut the front outlet breaker off to stop the tvs/vcr/dvd from being on instant on.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Jim, The Webasto is a 24V device. If you cut that off does the panel show lower current draw?

Running a Webasto says the bus is outside in the snow. Do we need to talk about garages again?

Don't worry about any of the 120V devices if you are runing the generator or using shore power because they are not drawing on the batteries.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

No, the bus is in the garage, and I was just stating what was turned on at the moment Roger asked.

I keep the sliding door open and run the webasto as needed to keep warm.
While I am building/finishing off the barn interior I am living in the bus, aro 4 days a week.
When I am not here I heat the bus with electric. It has worked fine so far, even with many days much below freezing.

Inverter #2 just bounces around the high amps all the time, rarely dropping down to the 5A level.

I have a new inverter ready to be put in, but not until it gets warmer here.
I found one (new) at such a low price I doubtful I would get it, but it arrived in 3 days in a sealed factory box. I copied the link to recommend the source, and discovered that the inverter is now discontinued, so no wonder about the price. Including it anyway, as they have many other items we all use at very low prices, compared to other sources.

http://www.marineboatsupplies.com/el...s-c-85_30.html

I want to check out the batteries, but with the cold and their being tucked into that small compartment behind the tag, I will not attack a job like that (first time) under adverse conditions.

There could very well be some poor/dirty/loose connections somewhere.
Inverter no1 shows all normal and good, so wouldn't that mean the batteries are not the issue for inverter no2??? If they work for inverter 1, then wouldn't they be good for inverter2???

I did not winterize the bus, just spending a lot of garage time in it instead.


I am getting better at the picture posting. Fixed the posting with the bus outside the barn, there were some photos that did not go in the first time.

The internet is poor here and I do not have a solid connection. In and out

When I get a chance I will post more pics of my barn project.
Just finishing the electric after the framing and today will start the drywall.
I like doing the work, but alone no records are being broken, especially with the cold. Pulling no 12 wire and connecting 45 duplex receptacles in 20deg .

Sorry for the rambling too lazy to make separate posts.





JIM

[rfoster]

Jim C: that Sounds to me like you are doing just fine.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Jim,

A couple of comments and questions.

Why do you think you need another inverter? Just curious. Is this going back to the original questions you had relative to voltages which are so long ago I forgot the details?

As far as batteries, those behind the tag are easy enough to reach that an hour or so disocnnecting the cables and running a battery test may answer your concerns about the charging. Far better to find out sooner, than when you take Barbara on her first long trip and things start acting up. You get tense, she gets upset and it goes downhill from there. Wait until later trips before you have stuff break.

The question about inverter #1 and #2 is easily resolved. Turn one off at a time using the switch on the display. Wait a while because there is a small delay, but after a few seconds the unit that is on should pick up the charging load. Do that with both and the results should be the same.

I think the inverters sense the state of charge and reduce charging current to the batteries once they are topped off by going into float. I suspect because of tolerances the voltages each sense may vary slightly, so one ends up with the task of charging, and the other which senses the batteries are charged just kind of idles. When you turn the other inverter off, the remaining one should show it is carrying the charging responsibility. If you pull the batteries down deep enough they should both show higher than normal charge rates, subject to the charge rate you have set with the dip switches.