Good evening...I must be thinking about this too hard. We are the campers who have had trouble keeping our chassis battery charged until we had a battery disconnect switch installed on our battery when we weren't using the RV (2008 Gulfstream BT Cruiser). We are leaving for Colorado on Thursday and I was going to plug in tomorrow to get things charged up for the trip. Duh,if I leave my chassis battery disconnected, will it still get a charge from plugging in the RV to our home? Hmm...sounds simple, just can't sort it out in my head. (Or does the disconnect inhibit power from even getting TO the chassis battery as well as AWAY from the chassis battery?)
Thanks,
Battery Brain Dead, otherwise known as Carmen
Carmen Dana
2008 Gulfstream BT Cruiser
Model 5316
31'
My understanding, and what the dealer told me, is that it must be open, or on, for the battery to either supply or receive power. The switch basically "disconnects" the battery without physically disconnecting the battery. Pretty clever to call it a battery disconnect, huh? In other words, open the circuit.
Turn the switch ON so the convertor will charge your battery when you are plugged into shore power or are running the Generator. Turn it OFF when you are going to store it without any shore power. Don't overthink this. If the switch is OFF, it is just like taking the battery cable OFF of one of the terminals, nothing can get to the battery with the switch OFF or the cable removed. Turning the switch back ON is just like connecting the cable again.
Othertonka
2004 Southwind 32VS
2002 CRV Toad
U. S. Gear Unified brake system
Retired Fire Captain, SFD
The answer can vary but in general if you leave the battery disconnected then it's disconnected and can not receive a charge
It may, however, still have a load on it (Depends on how good your disconnect is)
As for the chassis (Engine) battery,, It may or may not get a charge off the shore power when it is plugged in. Some do, some done, depends on the coach,in fact sometimes it depends not only on the make and model but the VIN number.
My coach.. It does.. I got lucky in this, the electrical systems on my coach are better than what I expected.
Nothin adds excitment like something that is none of your business John is Near Kenwood TS-2000 housed in a 2005 Damon Intruder 377
Thank you so much for the battery advice. Like you mentioned, I was overthinking the whole concept. "Disconnected" says it all. Thank you for explaining and making it clear. Other than bringing home the RV from it's "birthplace" in Indiana...she is making her maiden voyage on Thursday from Papillion, Nebraska to Vail, Colorado. I hope I can think everything else through. Don't sweat the small stuff, right? Thanks again for the quick response.
The problem is semantics used on the switch itself. In our fiver the switch is labeled as a "battery disconnect", which leads to the question of: if the "disconnect" is "on", should it, by definition, be disconnecting the power to the unit? Instead, "on" means it is really connecting the power. If I were the manuf. of said switches, I believe I might label my switch differently for those of us who take things literally?
Ha! I just read my last paragraph and think it may be time for string theories and multiple dimension discussions!
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