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House battery charge rate while driving

Yahoo Message Number: 73323
In our 2002 Intrigue I seem to recall getting higher house battery charging while driving than I do now. But then again, my memory isn't what it used to be! For house batteries I have 8 Trojan T-105s yielding a total of 900 amp-hours. So if I'm down 200 amp-hours (according to my e-meter) I think I used to charge at 50-60 amps while cruising. I'm now only seeing about 15-30 amps and a good part of that seems to be coming from solar. The batteries are good, I've checked the battery connections, and all else seems good so I'm wondering what others are seeing as far as battery charge rate on partially discharged batteries while driving.

Steve B

'02 Intrigue #11382

House battery charge rate while driving

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73388
My question to this group managed to slip by with no responses or comments from anyone so I thought that I would try asking it again.
In our 2002 Intrigue I seem to recall getting higher house battery charging while driving than I do now. But then again, my memory isn't what it used to be! For house batteries I have 8 Trojan T-105s yielding a total of 900 amp-hours. So if I'm down 200 amp-hours (according to my e-meter) I think I used to charge at 50-60 amps while cruising. I'm now only seeing about 15-30 amps and a good part of that seems to be coming from solar. The batteries are good, I've checked the battery connections, and all else seems good so I'm wondering what others are seeing as far as battery charge rate on partially discharged house batteries while driving.
?

Steve B

'02 Intrigue #11382

Re: House battery charge rate while driving

Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73389
? Have your alternator checked and see what amperage it is outputting.
Kevin Burns

2000 Affinity, #5865

Re: House battery charge rate while driving

Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73391
How old are the batteries. Both chassis and house. As batteries age they will not have the capacity they did when new.

Mikee

Re: House battery charge rate while driving

Reply #4 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73396
There is a fuse, in the front electric compartment under the drivers seat, that feeds power to the alternator to excite the field. Check this fuse to make sure it is good before you let a tech change your alternator

Cris Clayton
07 Allure 31534

From: Steve Bufty

Sender: Country-Coach-Owners@yahoogroups.com Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2011 22:33:16 -0700 (PDT) To: country-coach-owners@yahoogroups.com ReplyTo: Country-Coach-Owners@yahoogroups.com Subject: [Country-Coach-Owners] House battery charge rate while driving

My question to this group managed to slip by with no responses or comments from anyone so I thought that I would try asking it again.
In our 2002 Intrigue I seem to recall getting higher house battery charging while driving than I do now. But then again, my memory isn't what it used to be! For house batteries I have 8 Trojan T-105s yielding a total of 900 amp-hours. So if I'm down 200 amp-hours (according to my e-meter) I think I used to charge at 50-60 amps while cruising. I'm now only seeing about 15-30 amps and a good part of that seems to be coming from solar. The batteries are good, I've checked the battery connections, and all else seems good so I'm wondering what others are seeing as far as battery charge rate on partially discharged house batteries while driving.
?

Steve B

'02 Intrigue #11382

Re: House battery charge rate while driving

Reply #5 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73410
Steve Fellow Boomer friend Ken, Remember Q I have a 99 Allure. Kevin hit the nail on the head! Borrow a 1400 Amp Carbon Pile Battery/ Alternator Tester. While having our Inverter repaird at Southeast Power Systems I saw a Tech Load testing an Allegro Bus with the Same Problem, His Case was loose connectoins[Battery Cables] Using an infered heat gun the tech found the problem, Also if you have a leeseniville Alternator google them and call as Southeast Power Systems, They sell and rebuild them. I know your not in Orlando Florida but A GOOD Comm. Starter Alternator shop in you area will give you a fix. Steve keep us posted. On our Allure the volts goes up to around 13.8 after driving a few hours. I just have 3 8-D batterys. Keep us posted, We are always learning! Ken 99 Allure 30356

Re: House battery charge rate while driving

Reply #6 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73413
Steve,

Have you recently installed your solar charge system? I ask because I believe that my alternator charge system is fooled by the solar charge system into thinking that the battery bank is more fully charged than it really is. I find that the alternator will charge at higher rates on a cloudy day, or late afternoon or early morning that at or around noon when solar charging is at peak.

Just a thought.

George in Durrango
'04 Allure 30138
George in Birmingham
2003 Magna 6298

Re: House battery charge rate while driving

Reply #7 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73420
I'm certainly no expert on this subject but, If the alternator is the culprit, then the chassis battery is suffering the same thing. You did not say anything about the chassis battery. Sounds like the device that charges the house batteries from the alternator is the culprit, not the alternator. Improper operation of the alternator would cause the chassis battery to discharge and you would eventually have starting problems.

Jim E

Re: House battery charge rate while driving

Reply #8 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73540
Have you checked the charge relay that ties the chassis and coach batteries together when the engine is running? It has been a relativity common problem to have it fail.
Dave aka Billy Byte (trusty hound)
2000 Allure #30443


Re: House battery charge rate while driving

Reply #9 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73569
Below are answers or comments to some of the responses by others regarding my charging problem. But let me add this. Not only are the house batteries charging at a very low rate while driving, the charging rate with the generator running is also very low. Not zero, but very low. It starts out at a high charge rate and then rapidly tapers off even though the house batteries are discharged by 10-20 percent. THE BATTERIES DO CHARGE VERY WELL ON SOLAR AND REACH FULL CHARGE.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Cris Clayton wrote:

"There is a fuse in the front electric compartment under the driver's seat that feeds power to the alternator to excite the field. Check this fuse to make sure it is good before you let a tech change your alternator."?
Cris, I will check it but if this fuse was blown wouldn't that mean that I get nothing out of the alternator? That is not the case as I get some charging and the chassis battery seems to be charged.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Kevin Burns wrote:

"I saw a Tech load-testing an Allegro Bus with the Same Problem. His case was loose connections (Battery Cables). Using an infrared heat gun the tech found the problem. Also if you have a Leece-Neville Alternator, Google them and call as Southeast Power Systems. They sell and rebuild them. On our Allure the volts goes up to around 13.8 after driving a few hours."? Thanks Kevin. I will try to run diagnostics on the cables and connections. My house battery voltage while driving is around 13.6 volts so there is obviously some current input to the batteries... just not as much as I think I should be getting.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

George wrote:

"Have you recently installed your solar charge system? I ask because I believe that my alternator charge system is fooled by the solar charge system into thinking that the battery bank is more fully charged than it really is. I find that the alternator will charge at higher rates on a cloudy day, or late afternoon or early morning that at or around noon when solar charging is at peak.
No. My 500 watts of solar has been in place for 8 years and it seems to be producing most but not all of the current into the batteries while driving.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

James wrote:

"I'm certainly no expert on this subject but, if the alternator is the culprit, then the chassis battery is suffering the same thing. You did not say anything about the chassis battery. Sounds like the device that charges the house batteries from the alternator is the culprit, not the alternator. Improper operation of the alternator would cause the chassis battery to discharge and you would eventually have starting problems.
Agreed. Neither the house nor the chassis batteries are running down (so far). Other than dash instrumentation, I don't have detail charging information for the chassis battery like I do for the house batteries. The e-meter allows me to see instantaneous house battery voltage, current flowing in and out of the battery bank, and amount of battery capacity used in amp-hours.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dave wrote:

"Have you checked the charge relay that ties the chassis and coach batteries together when the engine is running? It has been a relativity common problem to have it fail."?
Dave, where do I locate or access this relay and how do I test it??? ++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My original comments are repeated below: "In our 2002 Intrigue I seem to recall getting higher house battery charging while driving than I do now. But then again, my memory isn't what it used to be! For house batteries I have 8 Trojan T-105s yielding a total of 900 amp-hours. So if I'm down 200 amp-hours (according to my e-meter) I think I used to charge at 50-60 amps while cruising. I'm now only seeing about 15-30 amps and a good part of that seems to be coming from solar. The batteries are good, I've checked the battery connections, and all else seems good so I'm wondering WHAT OTHERS ARE SEEING AS FAR AS BATTERY CHARGE RATE ON PARTIALLY DISCHARGED HOUSE BATTERIES WHILE DRIVING."?

Steve B, 2002 Intrigue #11382

Re: House battery charge rate while driving

Reply #10 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73713
Steve,

Sorry for the back story but I thought it might help...
We recently purchased a 1997 Magna and just got back from our maiden voyage from Texas to Washington, and back to TX, but not without incident. We listened to "Warning, alternator charge failure" from the voice system in 5 to 10 minute intervals until we finally broke down in Capulin, NM.
Found a replacement alternator at spidermarine.com in Florida and had it overnighted to a mechanic in Trinidad, CO who came to us to install. The DUVAC wiring gave him fits but he finally got it going.
I had to install a new voltage gauge because the original got fried at some point... maybe before I acquired the coach.
Being ultra aware of the charging system after our 4 days of waiting for the part I noticed a couple of things.

1) The alternator doesn't start charging until I rev up to about 1300 RPM's. Once it hits that mark you can let it idle and it will continue to charge. The tach doesn't even respond until the alternator kicks in.

2) My new voltage meter shows between 14 and 16 going down the road and my chassis and house meters show 14.5 volts. Once stopped the house sits at 13.5 and the chassis shows 13.

Anyway.. we made it home. This electrical stuff can drive a guy mad. :)

Tim Mackin

1997 Magna Fanfare

Re: House battery charge rate while driving

Reply #11 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73728
Tim, thanks for your input. Sorry to hear about your alternator failure. The information about the alternator not kicking in until a certain RPM is useful info. As far as what's happening while going down the road, battery voltages while being charged can be very misleading. What I was looking for was the amount of current (amps) that is flowing into the batteries while driving. This apparently can only be determined if you have instrumentation installed that measures the instantaneous current flowing into or out of the battery bank. That instrumentation in my case is a Xantrex Link 10 E-Meter. The Xantrex Remote Control panel (in our case over the entry door) does indicate house battery current but it is averaged current over time and not instantaneous. Any number of E-Meter models would supply the current that I'm interested in with the assumption that the house battery bank starts out discharged at roughly 10-20 percent. Thanks again for your input.

Steve B

2002 Intrigue #11382

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Tim Mackin wrote:

Sorry for the back story but I thought it might help...
We recently purchased a 1997 Magna and just got back from our maiden voyage from Texas to Washington, and back to TX, but not without incident. We listened to "Warning, alternator charge failure" from the voice system in 5 to 10 minute intervals until we finally broke down in Capulin, NM.
Found a replacement alternator at spidermarine.com in Florida and had it overnighted to a mechanic in Trinidad, CO who came to us to install. The DUVAC wiring gave him fits but he finally got it going.
I had to install a new voltage gauge because the original got fried at some point... maybe before I acquired the coach.
Being ultra aware of the charging system after our 4 days of waiting for the part I noticed a couple of things.

1) The alternator doesn't start charging until I rev up to about 1300 RPM's. Once it hits that mark you can let it idle and it will continue to charge. The tach doesn't even respond until the alternator kicks in.

2) My new voltage meter shows between 14 and 16 going down the road and my chassis and house meters show 14.5 volts. Once stopped the house sits at 13.5 and the chassis shows 13.

Anyway.. we made it home. This electrical stuff can drive a guy mad. :)

Tim Mackin

1997 Magna Fanfare

Re: House battery charge rate while driving

Reply #12 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73742
Hi Guys

Just a little side note regarding alternators. Most most alternators have three diod strips used to convert the ac signal to dc for our battries. It is common for one to fail and still get adequit performance with the exeption to sending alternating current to our battries and other componants. I have seen battries damaged in jut a few weeks. The clue to this happening in hearing a whine on your cb or other elecrical devise that ramps with rpm. If you hear this noise on your cb get it checked.

Rod
 

Re: House battery charge rate while driving

Reply #13 –
Yahoo Message Number: 73744
Hi Friend working at Cat, I had a Boat with a Delco type 150 Amp or so Battery Charging Alternator from another Cat Dealer in time I did work for. The service call I was called on was the problem of no charge when the Engine first started up this was a brand new Cat. I will never forget this. I called the Cat Dealer that added this Alternator and ran by the Issue with their Eng. Dept. The Dept head first laughed at me when I told him of no charge at Ide1. This was the Enduser's complaint and why Im here. It turns out you have to Rev up the engine then the Alternator will charge at all speeds! Well it turned out he was right! The Cust. Just got the boat and did not know this. I left and wrote up my report. To me this was wrong and My Eng. group would not of allowed this. I posted while having my Inverter repaired in Florida if you Have a Leese Niville Alternator like I do they rebuild them. If not there are shops out there to properly rebuild or replace you Alternator! This Bother's me as it is not right. But its your Coach not mine. Thanks for sharing Ken 99 Allure 30356.