help,
new to rv's. I have an 88 honey. It has a Onan generator with internal switch. I have the usual battery under the hood and one under the back bed hooked to the generator. Does the alternator charge that battery? Does the generator have to run to charge the battery, or do I have to purchase an aftermarket charger and charge between trips.. sorry for simple question just new... thank you
The vehicle's alternator will charge both batteries when the generator is off.
When the generator is running, the invertor will charge the RV's battery.
Welcome to the fun world of RVing!
There's never a dull moment.
Check under the entry step for another battery or set of batteries. Some used three battery setups. One for the chassis, one for the genset and one for the house batteries. The chassis and house get charged from the chassis system and the genset was isolated and only charged off genset..
RODT82721 is incorrect about charging from the "inverter", your system charges from a "converter".
There is a lot of variation in charging systems. I have a 79 and it charges the coach battery at a maximum rate of 3 amps via both the converter and the generator. At this charger rate it takes forever to recharge a battery.
If you are parked for a couple of days the converter will recharge it OK. However if you leave it on too long it boils the battery dry and this destroys it.
You can't really charge the battery from the generator since it would take about 16 hours to recharge a battery that was at half capacity. I plug in a 35 amp portable charger to the generator to recharge the coach battery.
Newer RV's have better systems than mine. Yours is not that much newer so you may have a similar system to mine.
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