Hah! Teenage years re AGM. Good way to phrase it. Ahead? Hah! Noooo. I'm a rookie, and I knew I was going to put my batteries to task, so I didn't want to scrap an expensive bank by doing something stupid. For me it was an easy evaluation because I removed my generator. I had a blank canvas for battery storage. That meant basically zero dimensional limitations and plenty of venting outside of the coach. With that freedom, 6V flooded were the best bang for the buck for my needs.Blue~Go wrote:Now we can see that Scott is ahead of us all. At some point he'll just jump right from his flooded cells into feather light, no absorption, lithium batts. None of that "awkward teenager" stage with AGMs
Hooking Inverter to House Batteries to charge while driving
Re: Hooking Inverter to House Batteries to charge while driv
1994 Premier
Re: Hooking Inverter to House Batteries to charge while driv
OK Folks...yet another question about hooking-up my new 1000 watt pure sine inverter to the batteries for use in charging my electric bikes (Copenhagen Wheel).
The positive threaded terminal of "incoming" House Battery (Duracell Group 31 deep cycle flooded) is just about full-up. There is a standard (unthreaded) positive post on this battery as well. Can I use that for the 1/0 wire connection to the pure sine inverter? Is this one way I can simply increase the number of things (like this inverter, and soon the solar connection) I can put onto the battery terminal? Can I do it without connecting it to the threaded terminal. My thinking is to get one of those post connectors that has a threaded attached, and go ahead and use that to hook up both the inverter and the solar.
Am I on the right track? HELP!
By the way, the Xantra 1000 pure sine inverter comes with an LED read out right on it of volts and amps! So that, coupled with the "smart" 5-way 15 amp control charger that comes with my Zamp 200 watt portable solar system will make me a battery watcher after all! How bout that!
David
The positive threaded terminal of "incoming" House Battery (Duracell Group 31 deep cycle flooded) is just about full-up. There is a standard (unthreaded) positive post on this battery as well. Can I use that for the 1/0 wire connection to the pure sine inverter? Is this one way I can simply increase the number of things (like this inverter, and soon the solar connection) I can put onto the battery terminal? Can I do it without connecting it to the threaded terminal. My thinking is to get one of those post connectors that has a threaded attached, and go ahead and use that to hook up both the inverter and the solar.
Am I on the right track? HELP!
By the way, the Xantra 1000 pure sine inverter comes with an LED read out right on it of volts and amps! So that, coupled with the "smart" 5-way 15 amp control charger that comes with my Zamp 200 watt portable solar system will make me a battery watcher after all! How bout that!
David
Re: Hooking Inverter to House Batteries to charge while driv
Typically when there are more than one or two wires on a battery post, one goes to a bus bar instead (or a power post). Although ABYC does allow four terminals on something like a power post lug, crowded battery posts are just not that great. It's hard to get all the lugs to lie flat and make good contact, you get big "pinwheels" of wires going off in all directions, and there can be a lot of leverage on the post. Not that it can't ever work, but ...
I strive to keep battery posts clean, with just the main cable or jumper. Then both the positive and negative go off to a bus bar. Then all the cables attach to the bus bars, and from there go off and do what they do. Easy to label and keep track of what's what. This also provides a place to fuse any wires that are smaller and thus need to be fused differently than the main wire.
Nonetheless, I still have a couple of wires on each battery terminal. That's because the charger temperature compensation cable goes there (has to, since it measures the temperature of the battery bank), as does the voltage sensor for the Smart Gauge.
It is tempting to use the battery terminals if you only have two large cables, or maybe that plus a smaller one. So you just have to analyze your space and decide. Blue Sea (no, I don't have stock) has quite a few sizes and shapes of bus bars and power posts.
Sometimes you can also have something do double duty if you just have two or three wires. For example, a battery switch on the positive side, or the shunt on the negative side if you have a shunt-based battery monitor. You can come onto these with the one cable from the battery bank, then take a couple of wires off to go do their thing.
Uh-oh, wall of text?
So to summarize: Big clots of cables on the battery posts are somewhere between a no-no and just undesirable. Also, unless all of your ongoing cables are the same (large) size as the main cables (which they often aren't), you will want to provide OCP (fusing), and then things would get REALLY crowded.
Maybe this photo of a small system I helped a friend set up in a mini van will illustrate the idea. As you can see, this is physically very small. The box behind the "wings" is what holds the batteries (two Group 27 AGMs) (it is strapped down but that's out of sight), so that gives you some idea of the very compact space. The van has two 100 watt solar panels on the roof, a 300 watt inverter (future 400 watt replacement), some LED lights, and four each of switched cigarette outlets and USB ports. Then there is an "umbilical" cord that runs to a small camping trailer, which has its own small ATO fuse block feeding more LED lights, cigarette outlets, usb ports, and a marine fan. More text below (but not a wall, because, photo!) I know this isn't exactly what you asked about, but I'm thinking it shows an example of the use of bus bars, OCP (over current protection, i.e. fuses or breakers), and how it can be organized in a very small space.
I think it will get larger if you click on it once, and then larger again with another click.
So starting from upper left corner:
1) The wire coming out the "hole" is the positive lead from the house battery bank. There is a Blue Sea MRBF (fuse) right on the positive battery post which you can't see - it has an AIC rating high enough for the short circuit rating of the battery bank, and is sized to protect the main battery cables (using ABYC ampacity table). Just after it "appears" out the hole it goes into the red main Blue Sea battery switch. When this switch is off, no power goes to or from the batteries. (That said, some setups have it so that charging can still go TO the batteries, but no power can go OUT OF the batteries when the switch is off; that's a matter of personal preference and situation.)
Next the main positive wire goes from the switch, to the thing in the center (with the purple bands). That's an item that is a combination of a positive bus and a fuse block made by Blue Sea (called a Safety Hub 100). It organizes and fuses all of the positive wires. I chose it here due to the tight space, and the fact that the 400 watt inverter was going to call for a slightly larger fuse than would go in a normal ATO type fuse block. The purple bands are tubular webbing that covers exposed terminals so they can't accidentally be contacted by other items. Under the central removable clear plastic cover, are spaces for three AMI fuses (larger loads - AMI fuses go from 30-200 amps), and four ATO fuses (smaller loads, fuses up to 20 amps). In this case the ATO fuses cover the lighting (one fuse) and the outlets (two fuses) in the van. There is one empty block left for future.
The larger fuses at the bottom are for the wire that leads to the inverter (10 AWG with 30 amp fuse in this case), the umbilical to the trailer (8 AWG with 30 amp fuse) and the solar controller (6 AWG with 30 amp fuse - 6 AWG could have a much larger fuse, but this way spare fuses don't need to be kept in a bunch of sizes, and there is no need to fuse it higher).
The black switch at the lower left interrupts the positive "umbilical" wire that heads to the trailer. So that can be switched off when it's not connected.
The vertical thing to the right of the Safety Hub is the negative bus. This organizes all the negative wires. Just above it, the cable coming out of the black 'hole" is the main negative wire from the house battery bank. The other wires are the returns from the lighting and cigarette/USB charging circuits, the inverter, the solar controller, and the "umbilical" to the trailer.
The black "box" on the right side wall is the solar controller - it's a Morningstar Sunsaver 15 MPPT. Just to the right of that you can see a metal "hoop." That's a guard for the breaker that is on the incoming wires from the solar panels to the solar controller. It's mostly used as a switch so that the solar input can be cut off at will. Actually, I would have used a switch but for two reasons: One is that originally we were going to go with some used solar panels that were 24 volts each, and they were going to be wired in series. That would have been too many volts for the typical switch, but this breaker can handle higher voltages. In the end we elected to use a new pair of panels for size reasons (more compact), but we already had the breaker and it is physically smaller than a switch. It is rated to be used for switching. But it's a little easier to accidentally bump, hence the guard strip.
And that's basically it. There are a few wires that you can't see. A temperature compensation wire runs from the solar controller to one of the negative battery posts (just to measure temperature), and positive and negative wire for the Smart Gauge have to read directly from the battery posts. So much for only having one wire on each post
Heh, but at least the additional wires are small and really have to be there.
This setup doesn't have any provision for alternator charging, so you don't see any of those type of components or wire.
So the buses organize (plus there are labels on each wire under the loom) and allow for correct fusing. Basically for each load I took a few things into account to decide on the wire size. It's a spm:what circular process of checking one thing against another until they are all satisfied: What is going to be the maximum amp draw (or charge amps)? How long will the wire be (round trip)? How much voltage drop is acceptable (adding up all legs of a run, not just this one)? Then once a theoretical wire size is chosen based on that set of parameters, I consult an ampacity table and see what the maximum allowable fuse size is for that size wire. As long as that doesn't contraindicate what I came up with in the first answers, then all is good. Going down the line from batteries to components, whenever a larger wire steps down to a smaller one, probably a fuse or breaker needs to come into play to protect the new wire size (see ampacity table again). For example....
Let's say the main battery cables here are 4 AWG. So there may be a 100 amp fuse in the MRBF terminal on the battery post. Then at the positive bus, a smaller wire goes off to the inverter. If that smaller wire can't be fused at 100 amps, a new smaller fuse needs to be put in at that junction to cover the now smaller wire run heading off to the inverter. The wires to the LED lights are even smaller, so they, too, need to be fused with their own smaller fuses.
Of course on the typical Chinook, these functions are a bit more split up -- some things in the battery compartment, some at the brown box, etc. But the concept is the same.
I hope this wasn't too "off track" as a reply to your question (you know, the one you thought might be covered in a one-sentence reply
I just thought perhaps showing how one small system was organized (and this one was easy to show in just one photo) might help you to visualize a positive and negative bus vs. a cluster of wires (and fuses?!) on a battery post.
I strive to keep battery posts clean, with just the main cable or jumper. Then both the positive and negative go off to a bus bar. Then all the cables attach to the bus bars, and from there go off and do what they do. Easy to label and keep track of what's what. This also provides a place to fuse any wires that are smaller and thus need to be fused differently than the main wire.
Nonetheless, I still have a couple of wires on each battery terminal. That's because the charger temperature compensation cable goes there (has to, since it measures the temperature of the battery bank), as does the voltage sensor for the Smart Gauge.
It is tempting to use the battery terminals if you only have two large cables, or maybe that plus a smaller one. So you just have to analyze your space and decide. Blue Sea (no, I don't have stock) has quite a few sizes and shapes of bus bars and power posts.
Sometimes you can also have something do double duty if you just have two or three wires. For example, a battery switch on the positive side, or the shunt on the negative side if you have a shunt-based battery monitor. You can come onto these with the one cable from the battery bank, then take a couple of wires off to go do their thing.
Uh-oh, wall of text?
So to summarize: Big clots of cables on the battery posts are somewhere between a no-no and just undesirable. Also, unless all of your ongoing cables are the same (large) size as the main cables (which they often aren't), you will want to provide OCP (fusing), and then things would get REALLY crowded.
Maybe this photo of a small system I helped a friend set up in a mini van will illustrate the idea. As you can see, this is physically very small. The box behind the "wings" is what holds the batteries (two Group 27 AGMs) (it is strapped down but that's out of sight), so that gives you some idea of the very compact space. The van has two 100 watt solar panels on the roof, a 300 watt inverter (future 400 watt replacement), some LED lights, and four each of switched cigarette outlets and USB ports. Then there is an "umbilical" cord that runs to a small camping trailer, which has its own small ATO fuse block feeding more LED lights, cigarette outlets, usb ports, and a marine fan. More text below (but not a wall, because, photo!) I know this isn't exactly what you asked about, but I'm thinking it shows an example of the use of bus bars, OCP (over current protection, i.e. fuses or breakers), and how it can be organized in a very small space.
I think it will get larger if you click on it once, and then larger again with another click.
1) The wire coming out the "hole" is the positive lead from the house battery bank. There is a Blue Sea MRBF (fuse) right on the positive battery post which you can't see - it has an AIC rating high enough for the short circuit rating of the battery bank, and is sized to protect the main battery cables (using ABYC ampacity table). Just after it "appears" out the hole it goes into the red main Blue Sea battery switch. When this switch is off, no power goes to or from the batteries. (That said, some setups have it so that charging can still go TO the batteries, but no power can go OUT OF the batteries when the switch is off; that's a matter of personal preference and situation.)
Next the main positive wire goes from the switch, to the thing in the center (with the purple bands). That's an item that is a combination of a positive bus and a fuse block made by Blue Sea (called a Safety Hub 100). It organizes and fuses all of the positive wires. I chose it here due to the tight space, and the fact that the 400 watt inverter was going to call for a slightly larger fuse than would go in a normal ATO type fuse block. The purple bands are tubular webbing that covers exposed terminals so they can't accidentally be contacted by other items. Under the central removable clear plastic cover, are spaces for three AMI fuses (larger loads - AMI fuses go from 30-200 amps), and four ATO fuses (smaller loads, fuses up to 20 amps). In this case the ATO fuses cover the lighting (one fuse) and the outlets (two fuses) in the van. There is one empty block left for future.
The larger fuses at the bottom are for the wire that leads to the inverter (10 AWG with 30 amp fuse in this case), the umbilical to the trailer (8 AWG with 30 amp fuse) and the solar controller (6 AWG with 30 amp fuse - 6 AWG could have a much larger fuse, but this way spare fuses don't need to be kept in a bunch of sizes, and there is no need to fuse it higher).
The black switch at the lower left interrupts the positive "umbilical" wire that heads to the trailer. So that can be switched off when it's not connected.
The vertical thing to the right of the Safety Hub is the negative bus. This organizes all the negative wires. Just above it, the cable coming out of the black 'hole" is the main negative wire from the house battery bank. The other wires are the returns from the lighting and cigarette/USB charging circuits, the inverter, the solar controller, and the "umbilical" to the trailer.
The black "box" on the right side wall is the solar controller - it's a Morningstar Sunsaver 15 MPPT. Just to the right of that you can see a metal "hoop." That's a guard for the breaker that is on the incoming wires from the solar panels to the solar controller. It's mostly used as a switch so that the solar input can be cut off at will. Actually, I would have used a switch but for two reasons: One is that originally we were going to go with some used solar panels that were 24 volts each, and they were going to be wired in series. That would have been too many volts for the typical switch, but this breaker can handle higher voltages. In the end we elected to use a new pair of panels for size reasons (more compact), but we already had the breaker and it is physically smaller than a switch. It is rated to be used for switching. But it's a little easier to accidentally bump, hence the guard strip.
And that's basically it. There are a few wires that you can't see. A temperature compensation wire runs from the solar controller to one of the negative battery posts (just to measure temperature), and positive and negative wire for the Smart Gauge have to read directly from the battery posts. So much for only having one wire on each post
Heh, but at least the additional wires are small and really have to be there.This setup doesn't have any provision for alternator charging, so you don't see any of those type of components or wire.
So the buses organize (plus there are labels on each wire under the loom) and allow for correct fusing. Basically for each load I took a few things into account to decide on the wire size. It's a spm:what circular process of checking one thing against another until they are all satisfied: What is going to be the maximum amp draw (or charge amps)? How long will the wire be (round trip)? How much voltage drop is acceptable (adding up all legs of a run, not just this one)? Then once a theoretical wire size is chosen based on that set of parameters, I consult an ampacity table and see what the maximum allowable fuse size is for that size wire. As long as that doesn't contraindicate what I came up with in the first answers, then all is good. Going down the line from batteries to components, whenever a larger wire steps down to a smaller one, probably a fuse or breaker needs to come into play to protect the new wire size (see ampacity table again). For example....
Let's say the main battery cables here are 4 AWG. So there may be a 100 amp fuse in the MRBF terminal on the battery post. Then at the positive bus, a smaller wire goes off to the inverter. If that smaller wire can't be fused at 100 amps, a new smaller fuse needs to be put in at that junction to cover the now smaller wire run heading off to the inverter. The wires to the LED lights are even smaller, so they, too, need to be fused with their own smaller fuses.
Of course on the typical Chinook, these functions are a bit more split up -- some things in the battery compartment, some at the brown box, etc. But the concept is the same.
I hope this wasn't too "off track" as a reply to your question (you know, the one you thought might be covered in a one-sentence reply
I just thought perhaps showing how one small system was organized (and this one was easy to show in just one photo) might help you to visualize a positive and negative bus vs. a cluster of wires (and fuses?!) on a battery post.1999 Concourse
Re: Hooking Inverter to House Batteries to charge while driv
Blue...do you ever sleep?
So, this time around, I confess to having a little trouble scaling your wall of text...took me a couple of reads, and an extra cup of coffee. But, I am now sitting atop the wall, looking down. Good morning brain exercise!
Though still not headed down the "monitoring and control" road that you tend to travel, your detailed description (pic included) of the system you helped your friend set up has served to continue my education. Thanks.
That said, I'm still looking for that simple, one sentence answer as to whether or not I can use the regular positive post of my battery in conjunction with the other threaded positive post that is on same battery as part of my effort to de-clutter the threaded post (for precisely the reasons you describe--pinwheel effect of leads). If I can spread the leads over the two terminals, the leads become much more manageable. And, if I can indeed use both of these positive terminals at the same time, do I need to connect them in some fashion. I would think not (seems to me that these are just two different types of posts serving the same purpose), but clarification/confirmation of that is what I am looking for.
Best,
David
So, this time around, I confess to having a little trouble scaling your wall of text...took me a couple of reads, and an extra cup of coffee. But, I am now sitting atop the wall, looking down. Good morning brain exercise!
Though still not headed down the "monitoring and control" road that you tend to travel, your detailed description (pic included) of the system you helped your friend set up has served to continue my education. Thanks.
That said, I'm still looking for that simple, one sentence answer as to whether or not I can use the regular positive post of my battery in conjunction with the other threaded positive post that is on same battery as part of my effort to de-clutter the threaded post (for precisely the reasons you describe--pinwheel effect of leads). If I can spread the leads over the two terminals, the leads become much more manageable. And, if I can indeed use both of these positive terminals at the same time, do I need to connect them in some fashion. I would think not (seems to me that these are just two different types of posts serving the same purpose), but clarification/confirmation of that is what I am looking for.
Best,
David
Re: Hooking Inverter to House Batteries to charge while driv
I agree with your reasoning on the posts. But if you wanted to be positive (ha), you could contact the battery mfgr. Still, I couldn't imagine that they wouldn't just be two heads of the same mushroom.
Okay, I just erased what probably amounted to an annoying sermon
The upshot was that I can't quite see in my mind how you would fuse that many "main" wires (a main wire being one that hooks directly to the battery). This is one reason people try not to put too many wires on the battery posts. Each positive wire would have to have a fuse with a large AIC rating, in addition to being the right size for the wire (whereas normally just the main battery wire has the large AIC rating, and everything downstream is covered, so you can just use "regular" fuses).
Did you mention up above (and I forgot) what each wire is for and what gauge they each are? Maybe that would help to "see" how you could manage them all on the battery posts. For starters I can picture a 4AWG cable going off toward the Ford alternator, and an 8AWG cable (if still stock) going off to the loads/charging. There must be a new cable somewhere in the mix for the inverter, plus a cable going to the solar controller, but I don't know what gauge you are running.
The issue of fitting all the fusing right on the battery posts, the need for anything right on the battery to have a large AIC rating, and the fact that usually the "branch" wires are not all the same size as the main battery jumpers is what leads people to not try to fit them all on the batteries.
Okay, I just erased what probably amounted to an annoying sermon
The upshot was that I can't quite see in my mind how you would fuse that many "main" wires (a main wire being one that hooks directly to the battery). This is one reason people try not to put too many wires on the battery posts. Each positive wire would have to have a fuse with a large AIC rating, in addition to being the right size for the wire (whereas normally just the main battery wire has the large AIC rating, and everything downstream is covered, so you can just use "regular" fuses).
Did you mention up above (and I forgot) what each wire is for and what gauge they each are? Maybe that would help to "see" how you could manage them all on the battery posts. For starters I can picture a 4AWG cable going off toward the Ford alternator, and an 8AWG cable (if still stock) going off to the loads/charging. There must be a new cable somewhere in the mix for the inverter, plus a cable going to the solar controller, but I don't know what gauge you are running.
The issue of fitting all the fusing right on the battery posts, the need for anything right on the battery to have a large AIC rating, and the fact that usually the "branch" wires are not all the same size as the main battery jumpers is what leads people to not try to fit them all on the batteries.
1999 Concourse
Re: Hooking Inverter to House Batteries to charge while driv
Blue--good idea to contact mfg (East Penn actually makes my Duracell Ultras)...I just got off the phone with them, and, yes, I can use both terminals at the same time to spread the connections.
You are certainly on the right track with the picture you have in your head about what is going on. On the first battery positive, I believe I currently have the 4 awg coming from the Blue Sea 7622, the other line you mentioned to "loads" and a jump to the 2nd battery. I'm not in front of the battery box at the moment, but I do recall that one of the lines is also fused.
Moving to install the 1/0 wire (fused at 150 along the line) running to the inverter in the cab (behind driver seat), and soon a 10 awg wire to connect my solar is what got me thinking about using the second positive post, rather than trying to get all those things onto just the threaded marine.
So, with confirmation from the Mfg, and added useful commentary from the peanut gallery, I am now good-to-go!
David
You are certainly on the right track with the picture you have in your head about what is going on. On the first battery positive, I believe I currently have the 4 awg coming from the Blue Sea 7622, the other line you mentioned to "loads" and a jump to the 2nd battery. I'm not in front of the battery box at the moment, but I do recall that one of the lines is also fused.
Moving to install the 1/0 wire (fused at 150 along the line) running to the inverter in the cab (behind driver seat), and soon a 10 awg wire to connect my solar is what got me thinking about using the second positive post, rather than trying to get all those things onto just the threaded marine.
So, with confirmation from the Mfg, and added useful commentary from the peanut gallery, I am now good-to-go!
David
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HereComesTrouble
- Posts: 28
- Joined: June 19th, 2016, 9:16 pm
Re: Hooking Inverter to House Batteries to charge while driv
Hey Blue, I have the perfect solution to accomplish this task with only about 40 lbs added. I've used one of these for many years instead of my 1000 watt inverter. The beauty of this device is, unlike the inverter, nothing discharges the batteries until the load is actually turned on, by pulling the trigger on your electric tool of choice. I have one in a box in the bed of my truck that I occasionally run something like an an electric chainsaw, an angle grinder or a skil-saw with. you might even get away running a very small air conditioner. It will deliver 1600 watts continuous. The one I used years ago would deliver 15 Amps at about a 33% duty cycle. Out of an 8 hour day, it was run about 2.5 hours. In 20 years of use 5 days a week, the only repairs ever made was 2 new sets of brushes.Blue~Go wrote: I've been thinking about what I think might be a fiendishly clever solution to something that has been annoying me. Namely, carrying around a 180# generator in my best outside storage locker when I use it about ten minutes per month, on average. But I DO have a few tasks I like to use it for. These are short duration, infrequent tasks. For example: 30 seconds of heat gun to shrink tubing over electrical connections, 45 seconds of running a trim router, a minute or two of Multimaster tool, a few minutes of vacuuming.
This is really a very simple device. It's basically a DC motor that comes on and turns a small A/C generator when you pull the trigger on the tool you have plugged into it.
I've included a link to an ebay auction. This seller is priced about $1,500 too high even being new. Obviously, he's just plain greedy but, he does include free shipping, LOL. New they are probably about $1,000 and if you wait for the right one used, you should be able to find one for a bit under $500. I'm also going to attempt to upload one of the manuals for this product. It covers all of their units.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Generator-Inver ... SwoydWmlj3
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Re: Hooking Inverter to House Batteries to charge while driv
Interesting device. I had never hear of them. Not knocking your suggestion, and thanks for posting it, but I'm scratching my head a bit. Without much thought or consideration, I assume these have a huge conversion loss (probably a brushed DC motor driving an alternator, converting back to DC, then running through a built-in inverterter to get usable 110V AC). Not to mention mass, volume, cost, or reliability. There's already an engine-driven alternator under-hood, so I would have to guess that an inverter would serve better at a fraction of the cost and size; just switch it on right before use. Plus, at that price and size, you can get the best-of-the best 2000w generator, which can be used anywhere for anything, without a vehicle. I'd like to better understand its target application...
1994 Premier
Re: Hooking Inverter to House Batteries to charge while driv
I just ordered an inverter today, as it happens. Always interesting to see alternatives though. The item shown a couple of posts above - if I'm not mistaken - seems large and maybe more suitable for another purpose (?). Maybe I am not completely understanding it. Based on past usage, I'm envisioning using my inverter setup for maybe five minutes a month on average. (But it's a key five minutes!)
My main purpose is to use it when the engine is running and I'm "combined" for the occasional very short term use of a heat gun, trim router, or Multimaster. I haven't found very satisfactory 12 volt or gas versions of these few items, and they are very occasional use things that only have a very short duration (five minutes or less). But when I need them, I need them.
I experimented on a friend's setup and could see that when running any of the above while the engine was idling and the two banks were combined, it only drew a few amps from the house bank (most of it was supplied directly from the alternator). That should work just fine. Not something I'll do often or for medium or long duration (for those uses I'd want to use a generator).
I'm planning to remove the generator, since the above are my only uses for it. It's a disservice to the generator to use it so little, and it's #175 pounds I'm hauling around for no reason. I'd rather put chairs or a rug or outdoor sporting gear in there.
Not that I'm saying anyone else would want to approach it this way - my use is somewhat idiosyncratic, and I'm doing it for me, not for re-sale or etc. Although, who knows, perhaps there are a few people out there who would be looking for boondocking optimized rigs, since normally you have to "make" one yourself.
Well, we'll see how it goes. Worst case scenario I have an inverter. Could be worse!
My main purpose is to use it when the engine is running and I'm "combined" for the occasional very short term use of a heat gun, trim router, or Multimaster. I haven't found very satisfactory 12 volt or gas versions of these few items, and they are very occasional use things that only have a very short duration (five minutes or less). But when I need them, I need them.
I experimented on a friend's setup and could see that when running any of the above while the engine was idling and the two banks were combined, it only drew a few amps from the house bank (most of it was supplied directly from the alternator). That should work just fine. Not something I'll do often or for medium or long duration (for those uses I'd want to use a generator).
I'm planning to remove the generator, since the above are my only uses for it. It's a disservice to the generator to use it so little, and it's #175 pounds I'm hauling around for no reason. I'd rather put chairs or a rug or outdoor sporting gear in there.
Not that I'm saying anyone else would want to approach it this way - my use is somewhat idiosyncratic, and I'm doing it for me, not for re-sale or etc. Although, who knows, perhaps there are a few people out there who would be looking for boondocking optimized rigs, since normally you have to "make" one yourself.
Well, we'll see how it goes. Worst case scenario I have an inverter. Could be worse!
1999 Concourse
Re: Hooking Inverter to House Batteries to charge while driv
Now I have to go look up idiosyncratic. Thanks Blue......
Steve aka SMan
2004 Premier V10
2004 Premier V10