FR 373 - Wll it over Charge the Batteries

[Gene Ross]

HELP - Maybe someone and help me wiht this questions.
I have a 2008 FR Georgetown 373. I have a 20 amp service at my home. Should the MH be plugged in all the time? Will it hurt anything?
Does the Georgetown 373 have a system that will keep the batteries from over charging? Thanks GR

[cfsoistman]

It doesn't hurt to have the motorhome plugged in as long as you keep an eye on your batteries. Make sure they are topped off with distilled water. You don't want to have them boil off.

[NWJeeper]

Welcome to the forum Gene,

Your converter/charger will not over charge but more than likely will under charge and boil your batteries dry. Our 2009 GT had a Parallax converter/charger which was only 2 stage which will never maintain the batteries correctly. If you don't dry camp much it isn't an issue but we mostly dry camp so our battery life is very important to us. I changed out the converter/charger for a PDI 3-stage and life is good now and I notice that I loose a lot less fluid from the batteries too.

[Gator_38]

Have similar problem with 341ds. How difficult is it to change out the charger/converter from Parallax to a 3-stage? What charger/converter do you recommend? I'm a fair "shadetree" mechanic but too old to be crawling around under the rig.

[NWJeeper]

Originally Posted by Gator_38

Have similar problem with 341ds. How difficult is it to change out the charger/converter from Parallax to a 3-stage? What charger/converter do you recommend? I'm a fair "shadetree" mechanic but too old to be crawling around under the rig.

Gator, I narrowed my search down to two units and in the end I went with the PDI9200 series Converter/Charger. I believe my stock converter was a 65 amp so I went with the 70amp unit. The changeout is very easy. In the electrical compartment the converter should be mounted to the wall and may have a plastic cover around it to protect it a bit. It is simply plugged into an outlet there. Unplug the old, remove the screws that mount it, remove, install new one and plug in. There will be two heavy wires to attach to the output terminals which supply the 12volts to the rig and batteries. Easy install. I mounted the "charge wizard" control pendant right there in the bay by sticking it to the wall with the supplied double back tape.

I am VERY happy with this unit and by watching it's performance with the Trimetric monitoring system I installed I can see that it is working correctly and providing the needed 14.4 volt equalization charge as it should. If you care about your batteries I highly recommend it. And they aren't all that expensive either. I was kinda surprised.

[Gator_38]

Thanks for the reply. I'll see if I can dig up installation instructions just to make sure. Is the converter/charger you selected a 3-stage charger and why did you select 70A, I see some that are rated as high as 100A.

[NWJeeper]

Originally Posted by Gator_38

Thanks for the reply. I'll see if I can dig up installation instructions just to make sure. Is the converter/charger you selected a 3-stage charger and why did you select 70A, I see some that are rated as high as 100A.

The PDI is a 3-stage charger. I chose the amperage based on what I currently had. Since PDI does not do their's by "5s" and I had a 65amp I went for the next higher. Buying a 100amp when you only require 65 is not doing you any better. The charger will only put "x" amount of amps and you shouldn't exceed a charge rate of C*10 or 1/10th of the battery bank amp/hour rating. In my case I have 6-6volt batteries with an amp/hour rating of 720 amps. Therefore I should not charge the bank at over 72 amps. If you have the typical dual 12volt batteries that come in a Georgetown you have about 210 amp hours max, therefore the converter/charger only needs to be able to supply power for the 12 volt systems and provide 21 amps to the batteries for charge. Therfore buying a 100amp converter is like buying a car that is capable of doing 1000mph when the speed limit is 70. Just not necessary. Clear as mud?