The Ultimate Battery Life

[jdarryl]

Newbie on the loose! There is so much to learn, I love it!

And we absolutely love our new BF, hard to imagine what it was like before BF.

If I'm not plugged in to shore power do I need to shut off the famous switch beside the drivers seat?

When I'm plugged into shore power is this the switch that I should shut off to prevent over charging?

If this switch is in the off position and I start up my generator will it still charge the coach batteries.?

Sorry to be so thick about this.

[whemme]

JD,

If your coach is in storage, you need to shut off the large rotary battery cutoff switch to prevent slowly draining of your charge due to small time current drain due to such things as your propane leak detector which is ON all the time.

It is the switch that you shut off when hooked up to shore line power after you know the batteries are fully charged. Then shut the switch off to prevent over-charging the batteries. If you have converted to one of the new 3-stage type charger/converters, then you don't need to do this. Your coach came most likely with a single stage Magnetek/Parallax 7345 converter/charger in it.

If this switch is off, running your generator then will not charge your coach batteries.

Think of this switch as a battery isolator switch - it completely disconnects your coach batteries from being connected to anything in your coach. They will not even be charged from running your Ford engine alternator with this switch in the off position.

[Mike Jean Bandfield]

There is one exception to Bill's statement. The solar panels, as installed by the Born Free factory, remain connected to the battery when the battery disconnect switch is "off".

Mike

[jdarryl]

Thanks again Bill, that's exactly how i needed to hear it.

[whemme]

Mike,

I stand corrected. I did not know that the Born Free factory wired the solar panels directly to the coach batteries and not thru the rotary battery cutoff switch. I guess if I had solar panels on my born Free I would not like it that way necessarily.

Question? If you were to store your Born Free outside in the sunlight for an extended period of time, will the solar panels have enough charging current to cause over charging of the coach batteries and the resultant lost of battery water?

[Mike Jean Bandfield]

Mike,

I stand corrected. I did not know that the Born Free factory wired the solar panels directly to the coach batteries and not thru the rotary battery cutoff switch. I guess if I had solar panels on my born Free I would not like it that way necessarily.

You had no way of knowing. And, it could easily be different depending on where the panels were purchased and installed. It's actually OK having them on the battery side of the cut-off switch since the solar controller is well behaved and you can still pull the inline fuse if you want to disconnect it. It allows you to continue to maintain the batteries in storage with the battery switch off. However...

Question? If you were to store your Born Free outside in the sunlight for an extended period of time, will the solar panels have enough charging current to cause over charging of the coach batteries and the resultant lost of battery water?

No problem. The basic solar controller from BF prevents over charging. Nothing fancy like temperature compensation or desulfation pulsing. It's semi-smart and tapers the voltage off to about 13.44VDC float. That's a little high but the water loss is very gradual. I think it is set up for AGMs from the factory however it is adjustable. One of these days when we get a nice clear day I'll clean the panels and position the rig for max sun and adjust the float for 13.2vdc.

My complaint about this controller is the set of 3 LEDs showing relative voltage on the battery terminals. In the summer, their affect is negligible. This past winter with snow on the roof off and on for 2 months the panels weren't very efficient but those little LEDs were burning day and night - enough to defeat any solar strategy for safely maintaining the batteries in storage. Every couple of weeks the snow would melt off and normally that would allow enough sun to top off the batteries but it wasn't enough to keep up with the constant drain from those LEDs. I pulled the inline fuse before any serious discharge occurred but I am very disapointed in the design of this thing. Beside the fact that the idiot lights are virtually useless they can be quite harmful under the right set of circumstances.

I'm looking for a new controller.

Mike