Re: [A/S] Re: Inteli-Power and Charge Wizard

["Jim Dunmyer" <jdunmyer@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Arnie,
 I know that you're not using the converter when boondocking. My comment was
based on the fact that your batteries will be FULLY charged from the last
time you were "plugged in", and because of their kind treatment, will give
you everything they're capable of. A half-charged battery will not only give
you far less power (Amp-Hours) than it should, if it's never really fully
charged, it'll deteriorate over time.

Charging from your tow vehicle takes place at a very low rate. It might be
10 amps or a bit more when the batteries are low, but will quickly fall to 5
amps or less. If your battery bank is down 60 AH or more, you can see that
it isn't going to be recharged any time soon.

My statement about the tow vehicle's charging above is based on reading my
e-Meter on our trailer, so it's not a guess. This is with a heavy-duty relay
(looks like a starter solenoid) feeding the trailer cable direct from the
truck's batteries, not one of those diode isolators. The latter causes a
slight voltage drop that will make it even worse. The only really effective
way to charge from the tow vehicle is to run a totally seperate circuit from
the vehicle's battery, through a relay, to the trailer batteries. You must
use #4 welding cable or equivilant and a forklift-type of connector; the #10
or #12 wire that's in the umbilical cable will NOT do the job.

Although batteries aren't intuitive to everyone, they're not all that
difficult to understand, either. Remember that to charge a battery, it must
be pushed to a much higher voltage than the resting value. The higher the
voltage difference, the faster the charge. A simple fixed voltage converter
will provide a slow charge because the rate tapers off as the battery
approaches the converter's setting. A higher voltage from a 3-stage charger
will cause a higher charge rate, BUT you dare not maintain that voltage when
the battery approaches full charge, that's why they drop the voltage output
when the battery is about 80% charged.

                                                          <<Jim>>