danda
Burney, California
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What is the most efficent way to charge the 5th wheel batteries when camping dry? I have always plugged the trailers shore power cord directly to the generator, and let the trailer converter do the charging. Now, a friend suggested I use my marine battery charger, plug that into the generator and then attach the alligator clips directly to the batteries. I am using an ancient 600W Honda for the generator. Any suggestions out there????
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Crazy Ray
Monroe,La
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What size converter ???? I let my 55Amp converter do my btrys. JMO
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portablevcb
Tijeras, NM
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Same thing. I use the converter installed in my trailer.
On my old MH the converter was only 6A. So, I'd take my 3 step, 25A battery charger with me, plug it into the genset and clip to the batteries. Charged much faster.
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smkettner
Southern CA
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You will need to post the make and model of the converter and the marine charger to know what is better. 600 watts will only power about 25 to 40 amps of charging.
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donn0128
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smkettner wrote:You will need to post the make and model of the converter and the marine charger to know what is better. 600 watts will only power about 25 to 40 amps of charging.
I think you are forgetting that many converters do not have the capabilities to put that much charge load on a battery. Besides that the 600 watt (rated) Honda is only good for about 450 running watts or less than 4 amps into the converter. I would try the battery charger directly from the generator to the batteries and see how fast it will recharge the batteries. But you may want to double check the input amps requirement of the charger to be sure that your Honda will supply it with sufficient amps to run properly.
Donn
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Dave H M
IL
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give donno's comments some thought. That converter will not divert it's full amperage to battery charging. I don't know the answer but always got better results on the old camper with hooking a battery charger to the batts.
I don't know what a msarine charger is, I used to charge my boat batt with the same charger i have now for all purpose.
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tvman44
Southwest Louisiana
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Depends on your converter.
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Ron44
Jarrettsville, MD.
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I have been through this scenario already.
Best 2 options in my opinion are...
1)Buy a small portable battery charger that you can hook to your batteries when your generator is running.
2)replace your single stage converter with a 3 stage converter/charger
I opted to upgrade my converter/charger to a 3 stage converter/charge by Power Dynamics(PD9260) with Charge wizard.
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Lynn Rupper
Full-timing USA 13 Years
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I run my converter charger with the on-board generator and plug a portable Marine 10 amp battery charger into the 115 V outside plug and aligator clip it to the batteries at the same time. However, I've heard that this won't work with some converters.
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sirdrakejr
Las Vegas, Nevada
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Moved from 5th wheels to tech issues.
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For those of you looking for expert advice, here ya go!
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