Solar charger and 4.3a battery charger at the same time?

[hammick]

I have upgraded my TT to deep cycle 6v golf cart batteries (two in series). Our converted is low end and doesn't have a smart charger. Just puts out a constant 13.6v. That won't fully charge the GC2 batteries.

Our solar charger is much better but only puts out 14.4v absorption and 14.8v equalization. The Interstate CG2 batteries want 15.3v absorption and 15.5v equalization.

Can I charge these batteries using my Cytek 4.3a smart charger while the solar charger is attached? I plan to hook up my charger wire to the battery side of my disconnect switch which is inside the TT. I will disable the converter when doing a manual charge like this.

Thanks for any advice.

[hammick]

Put in more simple terms will my solar charger voltage make my Cytek charger think the battery is fully charged and put the Cytek in float mode?

[camaraderie]

4.3 amps is way to low for a 200 amp battery bank. You need a modern charger of at least 20 amps. While the interstates IDEAL charging voltage is different and significantly higher than other batteries of virtually the same design... it is a FACT that they WILL take a 100% charge at standard absorbtion and float voltages...just not as quickly.
Suggest an IOTA DLS30 amp charger WITH their IQ4 smart charge module for around $170. The Progressive PD9130 with their charge wiz plug in performs and costs about the same.

[hammick]

Camaraderie that is great to know that the interstates will get fully charged from standard charging rates. Have you personally experienced this? I've had other people say that they will never get fully charged using 14.4v absorption.

I wasn't planning on charging with the 4.3a charger. Just periodic equalization on charged batteries. Sounds like I won't have to.

My Go Power charger does 14.4v absorption, 13.7v float and 14.8v equalizaiton (every 28 days). It applies a 1 hour 14.4v absorption charge every morning even if the batteries are showing full volts. If the voltage drops below 12.3v it automatically applies a 2 hour absorption charge.

I bough a nice hydrometer and am going to pay close attention to see if my current solar setup will fully charge the batteries.

If my current controller won't fully charge them I will get a Blue Star Energy SC30 which has fully programmable absorption, float and equalization in .1v increments. It also allows the absorption and equalization time to be set. I'll get the MTTP version if I'm having a hard time getting the batteries back up during the day with my current setup. My panel is 160w.

[camaraderie]

arrgghhh...lost a long return post! In short....you will eventually charge any battery if you are providing more than 13V....electrons run downhill! If you want to do it in a timely manner...get close to charging parameters as you can without exceeding...and have 20% of rated amps charging current available. Minimum 10%. In your case....minimum 20...ideal 40.
In a sunny climate you will average around 40 amphours of output into your batteries daily from solar (160/4)...a bit better with an MPPT controller. Less with higher lattitudes, cloudy weather or any shading.
That should be plenty to get you to 100% if you are not using the batts. (i.e storage)... but unless you are a real camper...it ain't gonna keep up with daily needs.
A more advanced controller will help by 10-15%...but more panels help a lot more.
I had a pair of 80W panels on my boat in the Bahamas...and they supplied about 1/3 of my daily 12V needs so don't expect too much from yours outside of the ability to keep you topped up IN STORAGE mode and running some basic stuff on a daily basis.
I think you meant the BlueSKY SC30 as a controller choice which is excellent but only needed if you are gonna be adding more panels and looking to daily use approaching 100amp hours IMO.
Oh yeah...BTW, I wouldn't worry about the Go Power...the EQ ain't gonna hurt anything and if your batts are close to 100% you aren't gonna see more than around 2 amps at the absorbtion voltage. Sounds more suited to a motorcycle batt.

Good luck...I'll be looking forward to your hydrometer results. Best way to check would be to disconnect the battery negative and attach the controller wires to the positive of one battery and the negative of the other...and pick a sunny day and a nearly charged batt!

[hammick]

Yeah I meant Blue Sky (not Gordon Gekko's company). I guess if I need more power into the batteries I'll spring for the MPPT version.

I have converted all lights to led and we have the Onan 4k built in if we need to charge via the generator (our converted is crappy constant voltage but it should be fine for bulk charging). If we can get the batteries charged every couple days we should have plenty of power. We made due with the stock group 24 unless we had to run the heater. However it got taken down to complete discharge a couple times.

During the day we are usually out hiking or on the ATV so our main loads are at night.

I'll report back with SG finding in the next couple weeks. Probably won't mean much until we get some cycles in the batteries. Though Costco doesn't list the spec I'm certain these are the 208mah model. They weight just under 63lbs each.

[mud yapster]

Not wanting to high jack your thread but I have a 435ah 12 volt battery bank being charged with a Morningstar MPPT TS-60 charge controller with 320 watts of mono solar panels and a 1500 watt TSW Cotek inverter setup. I think I need to add another 160 watt panel to my array just in case. On a sunny day the 320watt array keeps up just fine but when the clouds roll in that's another story and production falls in half or more depending on cloud darkness. Actually I just came across some refurbished 250 watt grid tie panels for $75 bucks so now thinking of just adding one of those to my array and wiring them in series to my Morningstar controller which will accept up to 150v's.
Which ever direction you take a good charging system is a must for good battery life for these high dollar batteries. You really don't want to discharge your batteries more than 50% or you will be shortening their life span dramatically. I also have a back up battery bank of 185ah's for emergency use and a 5500 watt Cummins Onan on standby also with 30 gallons of fuel.
Keep us informed on the direction you take with your system. Good luck with it from the sunny state of Texas.

[hammick]

Mud Yapster quite the system. I assume you are full timing?

I have a measly 160w panel with 208ah bank. We have a 4k Onan built in.

[mud yapster]

Originally Posted by hammick

Mud Yapster quite the system. I assume you are full timing?

I have a measly 160w panel with 208ah bank. We have a 4k Onan built in.

No we don't full time in it I just don't like paying for electricity where we go camping. In the summer from June thru Sept we pay for a hook up but from Oct. thru May we can usually get by boondocking with our own electrical system. We travel around to different ATV parks camping and riding our side by side.
Nothing wrong with a smaller solar set up. A good thing about solar and a battery bank is that you can always add to your array or battery bank when you want to so as to increase your capacity in an instant.

[bjlyons]

Just for info, I just traded my 2003 Montana for this 2013 Silverback. At this point I have not (and not sure I will) setup another solar system as I'm getting away from dry camping. The one I had on the Monte was 5 35watt panels mounted on aluminum railings. From here I bought two end pieces of aluminum (custom cut) and mounted them to the side of the roof at the point where water drains (or where the seam connects to the trailer. I also put rubber underneath where the railings touched the roof. By doing this I never had to puncture my roof in any way. I also used a Morningstar controller (20amp). Great controller. At peak, I had six 6v batts in front compartment, but eventually cut to 4. The 5 solar panels equaled 175 watts and kept my batts charged. The only reason I did this was because I was at the right place at the right time and the cost was just right. You can buy one panel in todays world and do the same thing. I'm not an expert. I just did my homework like you will have to do, or have a professional do it at great cost.