What is the quickest way to charge battery?

[dernst]

Do the generator, the truck or shore power charge the battery at the same rate or does one charge faster than another?

[325BH]

Originally Posted by dernst

Do the generator, the truck or shore power charge the battery at the same rate or does one charge faster than another?

Unless you have some bizarre setup, the converter should charge your batteries the fastest. This means plug your rig into shore power or a generator. By generator, I mean plug your camper's shore power plug into your generator... not use the dc power plug to charge the batteries.

[bikendan]

Shore power is fastest.
Generator through the converter, is possibly as fast as shore power.
Truck would be way slower, as most will only provide a trickle charge. Plus it's much more inefficient, fuel-wise,

[Spikedog]

on the Coachman MH forum. I'm going to test the generator (through the converter) in addition to a stand alone plug in charger this weekend when I finally get out in the boondocks.

http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...ne-131778.html

This would probably work on shore power too.

[aeblank]

Originally Posted by bikendan

Truck would be way slower, as most will only provide a trickle charge. ,

Not suggesting it's faster than shore power, but I've seen 15A into my batteries from the truck. Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't call that a trickle.

[waiter21]

I would say that your truck (chassis) alternator would charge the fastest, but you need to rev it up a little.

Depending on what converter you have (single stage or 3 stage), shore power would be second.

You mentioned Generator, ???? The generator supplying 110 volts would be the same as shore power. If you can connect your battery directly to the generator for charging, this depends on the generator. Regardless, unless you have a generator that can deliver 100s of amps at 12 volts, your trucks alternator will still be #1

To test this, connect a voltmeter to your battery, then fire up the truck. You'll see the voltage jump up to around 14.5 - 14.9 volts, then slowly taper off as the battery charges.

Do the same with shore power. If it jumps up to around 14.5, then after a few minutes, drops back to around 13.5. then you probably have a multi stage converter.

Converters - Most converters are single stage and deliver a constant voltage. The voltage is usually set so it will charge a battery slowly, but won't boil it.

The multi stage converters sense the battery and switch voltage settings to accommodate what the battery needs. a BOOST will usually supply 14.5 volts to do a fast charge, a NORM will sit at about 13.5 and accommodate the majority of usage, and a TRIKLE will do about 13.1 to maintain the battery that's not under any loads.

[KyDan]

Originally Posted by waiter21

I would say that your truck (chassis) alternator would charge the fastest, but you need to rev it up a little.

Depending on what converter you have (single stage or 3 stage), shore power would be second.
-- snip--

I must disagree. We don't have enough information (make and model of Truck for example) but as a general rule
the onboard power center charger will be fastest.
Many/most? truck alternators are too far away to get a fast charge to
the RV battery due to voltage drop over the 20 + feet of wire.
The engine alternator voltage regulator typically sees the voltage of
the engine battery as being a charged battery and cuts back so the RV
battery doesn't get as much charge.

Some here report decent charge rates from the engine alternator but my
experience has been it's slow.

[KyDan]

Originally Posted by aeblank

Not suggesting it's faster than shore power, but I've seen 15A into my batteries from the truck. Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't call that a trickle.

That's excellent but the onboard power center charger should double or
triple that rate on initial charge at least.

[waiter21]

KyDan Correct. there are simply to many variables to make a one size fits all statement. I apologize.

To clarify, these are the assumptions I made, based on my MH. I have a 170 amp alternator and the engine RPM of 2000. The wire from my alternator to my coach batteries is a #0 and runs about 10 ft.

My converter is an old single stage 13.5 volt 60 amp converter. It puts out 13.5 volts, period. My coach has two standard marine deep cyclic batteries tied in parallel and a standard starter battery

In my case, the chassis alternator will charge my batteries significantly faster than the converter. It can charge at 14.5 volts, where the old converter only charges at 13.5 volts.

I believe the two big variables would be the wire size and length between the chassis alternator and the battery, and the size and type of converter.

As you pointed out, if its a small wire run a great length, this diminishes the ability of the alternator to do a fast charge

If its a single stage converter, the chassis alternator should win, (unless your running a small wire a long distance). If its a multi stage converter, it would depend on its capacity, i.e. 30 amp, 60 amp, 100 amp, etc.

[Flybob]

Originally Posted by waiter21

KyDan Correct. there are simply to many variables to make a one size fits all statement. I apologize.

To clarify, these are the assumptions I made, based on my MH. I have a 170 amp alternator and the engine RPM of 2000. The wire from my alternator to my coach batteries is a #0 and runs about 10 ft.

My converter is an old single stage 13.5 volt 60 amp converter. It puts out 13.5 volts, period. My coach has two standard marine deep cyclic batteries tied in parallel and a standard starter battery

In my case, the chassis alternator will charge my batteries significantly faster than the converter.

For clarity's sake, this is not a normal factory wiring set up for a TV as this is a MH. The 12V aux wire ( charge line) in most TV factory cable harnesses is #12 at best and is at least as long as the TV just to the Bargman connector. You then add in the drop from the connector contacts and the line to the battery and you have voltage drops. Unless the 12V aux line is upgraded the converter will usually be the best solution.

[Jeff_and_Abby]

Originally Posted by aeblank

Not suggesting it's faster than shore power, but I've seen 15A into my batteries from the truck. Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't call that a trickle.

Agree with your observation, and also noted that there was a 20-amp fuse in our "previous" 7-pin connector install, and there are a pair of 20-amp thermal interrupters (one each, on hot and ground, that is what the dealer-installer did ... ) on the present 7-pin.
So thinking ... there is also a bit of voltage drop across that length of wire ... so we aren't getting as much charge, plenty of it is just making the wire warm.
The "modern" inverters (with a switching supply and some smarts, more than just a brute-force transformer and diode setup) do a really excellent job IMHO.

[aeblank]

I think of the wire as being "self regulating" as far as current draw. Warms up, limiting current draw, when draw is high. I also have a 12v charge controller, which might help.

Anyway, I thought 15A was pretty notable.

[ben31]

On most trucks and connectors, that battery cable going back to the trailer is small. Not much power/current going through that. For almost all configurations, shore power will charge the battery faster.

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by dernst

Do the generator, the truck or shore power charge the battery at the same rate or does one charge faster than another?

Since this is an opinion thread:

1) Fastest charge of your choices is your generator using its 120volt AC outlet connected to a dedicated high amperage multi-stage battery charger.

2) Second would be the camper plugged into your generator (or shore power); using the onboard 3 stage charger.

3) Generator using the generator's 12 volt battery charger (if equipped).

4) Dead last is the tow vehicle alternator since it is a one stage charger and sees the voltage from the cars starting battery in parallel with the camper's battery.

See attached article on why the truck alternator is a "fair" battery maintainer and an awful deep discharge battery "filler".

[ablindmule]

The fastest way to charge your battery, complete and full control, is a good quality dedicated high amp battery charger. If you are on shore power you can simply disconnect your batteries and plug-in a good quality battery charger attached directly to your RV batteries . The RV converter is not as efficient , But the converter is typically much more efficient than charging from the TV.

[Havasu Bill]

Most, if not all, FR products that come with the Progressive Dynamics converters DON'T come with the controlling remote pendant. This pendant enables you to control your charge rate much like a battery charger. So, if you want a quick charge, you can use the pendant to change the charge rate.
PD92201 Remote Pendant
It's well worth the $13 to be able to control your charge rate and cut down on your generator run time and associated noise.

[5picker]

Originally Posted by Herk7769

Since this is an opinion thread:

1) Fastest charge of your choices is your generator using its 120volt AC outlet connected to a dedicated high amperage multi-stage battery charger.

2) Second would be the camper plugged into your generator (or shore power); using the onboard 3 stage charger.

3) Generator using the generator's 12 volt battery charger (if equipped).

4) Dead last is the tow vehicle alternator since it is a one stage charger and sees the voltage from the cars starting battery in parallel with the camper's battery.

See attached article on why the truck alternator is a "fair" battery maintainer and an awful deep discharge battery "filler".

Once again, good info from Lou worth a re-read.
X2

[aeblank]

How does one know if they have a progressive Dynamics converter?

[325BH]

Originally Posted by Havasu Bill

Most, if not all, FR products that come with the Progressive Dynamics converters DON'T come with the controlling remote pendant. This pendant enables you to control your charge rate much like a battery charger. So, if you want a quick charge, you can use the pendant to change the charge rate.

PD92201 Remote Pendant

It's well worth the $13 to be able to control your charge rate and cut down on your generator run time and associated noise.

The remote pendant does allow you to manually move into a certain charge mode, however the converter's internal logic will change back as required. Also, the charging logic is in the converter, not the pendant.

The pendant does give nice visual feedback on the charging mode.

[325BH]

Originally Posted by Herk7769

Since this is an opinion thread:

1) Fastest charge of your choices is your generator using its 120volt AC outlet connected to a dedicated high amperage multi-stage battery charger.

2) Second would be the camper plugged into your generator (or shore power); using the onboard 3 stage charger.

3) Generator using the generator's 12 volt battery charger (if equipped).

4) Dead last is the tow vehicle alternator since it is a one stage charger and sees the voltage from the cars starting battery in parallel with the camper's battery.

See attached article on why the truck alternator is a "fair" battery maintainer and an awful deep discharge battery "filler".

As long as the converter has enough amps to push the max recommend (by battery manufacturer) into the batteries... anything more than that is no good for the batteries.