Born Free Leap'n Lions RV Club Info & Discussion Forum

I will be placing my new to me 2016 Spirit 24RB in a fully enclosed storage unit at a storage facility which has available electricity which I can plug into by using a 15amp adapterr cord. I want to keep my two AGM house batteries charged while in storage (3 to 4 months) by using shore power. Two questions:

1) Should both the inverter battery disconnect located between the generator and battery tray, and the battery disconnect switch located at the entrance stepwell be left on or???

2) Does the Outback power inverter/charger in this situation act as a trickle charger which will not overcharge my two AGM house batteries during the storage period and also not damage the Outback for this 3 to 4 month usage?

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

I leave my coach plugged in all the time in storage. The outback inverter charger will float charge when fully charged.

Thank you John S. for your reply.
Do you leave both switches turned on?

Yes both switches must be left ON. You can't expect the batteries to be charged if the connect switches to them are left OFF.

Thank you Whemme.
Still trying to learn about this coach and its electrical switches.

Our 2015 Splendor inverter did not work well while plugged into less than 30 amps and Firefly confirmed that a 30 amp power source was required for this inverter so we had the same installed at our house in MI. Are you saying that plugging into a 20 amp power source will charge the house batteries while in storage? This would be good news as our coach is in storage with 20 amps available at this time. Thanks!

A related question to my previous post. If we are plugged into 20 amp power, can we leave the refrigerator on for short periods while in storage, say 2 weeks or so. Thanks!

AGM batteries have a very low self-discharge rate. I suggest that you make sure your batteries are fully charged then disconnect the negative battery cable. This will make absolutely sure that nothing will be powered. Even after a year your batteries would be at least 75% charged. Of course if you need something powered you will have to leave your batteries connected. I'm not familiar with the Outback inverter/charger. If your power distribution is typical, you will have circuit breakers for your 120 volt A.C. power and fuses for your 12 volt D.C. power. Your Outback inverter/charger will need power, so your main breaker and inverter input breaker must be left on. The rest can be turned off. Everything that runs on 12 volt will still have power. You won't need 30 amp service. Even 15 amp should be adequate.

My storage facility does not have any electrical provisions. I have the outback inverter/charger and plug into a 15 amp service at home when getting ready to leave on a trip. The refrigerator on the electricity setting does get cold over a 12 to 24 hour period depending upon the outside temperature. Not sure how it would do over a 3 to 4 week time period but would expect it to work. Interesting that Firefly says that you need a 30 amp connection for the outback inverter to charge the batteries. Always seem to have a problem getting my batteries fully charged when about to leave on a trip and now I know why. Guess I will have to install a 30 amp plug on the house or use an accessory charger to give the batteries a boost when I'm getting ready for a trip.

jlef123 wrote:Interesting that Firefly says that you need a 30 amp connection for the outback inverter to charge the batteries. Always seem to have a problem getting my batteries fully charged when about to leave on a trip and now I know why. Guess I will have to install a 30 amp plug on the house or use an accessory charger to give the batteries a boost when I'm getting ready for a trip.

If your coach was using 30 amps a 15 amp breaker would trip immediately. Since a 15 amp breaker does not trip means you are drawing less than 15 amps. Installing a 30 amp service will make no difference in how your batteries will charge.

The Firefly electrical system in the newer coaches includes an Outback inverter/charger. This system is different from the older coaches and perhaps has more capabilities than the old style. I was told at the BF factory not to touch the settings on the control panel and leave it to a technician. If the folks at Firefly said it needs a 30 amp connection to charge a battery there is probably some reason for that. Like much of the instructions in the operators manual there is no explanation why you do anything. In some respects it is a nice convenient upgrade that Born Free introduced to the units, I think in the 2013 or 2014 models, and is like a lot of supposed upgrades to RV's these days it is more complicated and less repairable by a DIY'er. The operating manual is lengthy and understandable only by an electrical engineer/computer expert with lots of time on their hands to read it. Some folks may call me a Luddite but I do wish I had the old style on/off switches and manual shades in the coach. Those I understand.

I agree with Tom above. Even if the Firefly system was recharging the house batteries at a high rate of 50 amps (which I doubt), that means that the output power from the Firefly doing the charging would be 14x50 = 700 watts. Let’s say that the Firefly’s charging efficiency is only 80%. That means that the required 120v AC input power to the Firefly would be 875 watts. A shoreline power connection to the coach thru a 15 amp breaker is capable of delivering 120x15 = 1800 watts power to the coach, more than double the 875 watts required. So I see no reason why a 15 amp power hookup would prevent the Firefly from being able to fully charge the house batteries

jlef123 wrote:If the folks at Firefly said it needs a 30 amp connection to charge a battery there is probably some reason for that.

The Firefly system is a remote control and monitoring system. It can turn on and off several devices. The Firefly system would use very little power. It's the devices that it controls that use the power. If you were to turn everything on you would definitely need a 30 amp service. If you turn on just the bare essentials a 15 amp service would be adequate.

We have Firefly and the Outback inverter in our 2017 Spirit. I really don’t think you need a 30 amp circuit to run the inverter. We do not have one and we connect our unit to a 20 amp outlet. We can have problems if we use lousy or long extension cords. The inverter needs to see a minimum voltage (I believe it is 108 volts consistently for several seconds) before it will start the charging circuit for the battery. Brownouts can also cause an issue. Even with 30 amp circuits at campgrounds, if a heavy load (like air conditioner) causes a voltage drop, charging stops.

If you see the AC IN light on the control panel flashing rather than steady, that usually means that there is poor input voltage. I will try to read the manual and update this post later, but through the control panel you can see what the input voltage is.

I suspect that what Firefly means when they say you need a 30 amp circuit, is that you need consistently high enough voltage for the charging circuit to kick in.

Attached is a photo of the Outback controller menus. To find out what the input voltage is:

- Press the button under STATUS METERS, then, on the next screen ...
- Press the button under METERS, then, on the next screen ...
- Press the button under DOWN until you see the “input voltage” screen

If you scroll too far, just push the button under UP or DOWN until you get the correct screen.

As you can see, there is a bunch of useful info on these METERS screens.

Here is a link to Outback’s page for getting the entire user manual:

http://www.outbackpower.com/downloads/d ... manual.pdf