How do you charge your battery

jjr · 05-13-2010, 05:47 PM

Hello out there,

New to the forum and I recently purchased a 2010 Keystone Passport Express 235exp. I am planning on doing some boondocking towards the end of this month and was wondering how to best recharge the battery with my Kippor 2000p generator. I have read that some units have a three stage charger built into the converter. Do Keystone units have a converter like this or would it be better to buy a three stage smart charger and hook it directly to the battery's. I am planning on adding another group 24 battery to the trailer. Do I need to disconnect the batteries from the trailer during charging if I use a charger and will I need to charge them seperately or, with them wired in parallel, can I leave then hooked together. Thanks in advance because I am pretty clueless when it comes to how to accomplish this.

P.S. I have already read the 12Volt side of Life

James

Festus2 · 05-13-2010, 07:22 PM

If you are planning to add another 12v battery, be sure to hook them up in parallel. When charging them with the generator, you can hook it up directly to the batteries. You do not need to charge them separately - you can leave them hooked together. And you do not need to disconnect the battery leads to the trailer. Once you have the 2 12v batteries hooked up in parallel, take one lead (+) from the battery charger and hook it up to the (+) terminal of one of the batteries. Then take the (-) lead from the charger and hook it up to the (-) terminal of the same battery. You will have 2 charger leads coming off 1 battery.
Some people add, as you have mentioned, a separate 3 stage battery charger which is wired between the batteries and the generator. You have more control over the charging process this way and it is a better way to charge batteries. (IMHO).
If your batteries get run down from use during boon docking, I would not use the TT converter to bring the batteries up to charge. Instead, I would bypass it and use the generator to give them a boost. Not sure how many charging amps your generator puts out but I am guessing around 6 to 8.
Have you considered using 2 6v golf cart-type batteries instead of 2 12 volts? Personally, I think this is a better setup-especially if you are dry camping a lot.
These batteries are heavier and more costly but well worth the investment. To get roughly the equivalent amp hours, you would probably have to get Group27 12v batteries as opposed to Group24.
Hope this helps.

jjr · 05-14-2010, 09:39 AM

Festus,

Thanks a lot for the info. You put the answers very strait forward. Just what I needed. I was planning on buying a three stage charger for around 50 bucks and plug it into the generator. I think charger has a self adjusting variable charge rate between 10-25 Amps and a 2 Amp trickle charge. I'm sure that the 6V battery system would be better as would the group 27 batteries but I am not looking to spend any more money on this project than I have to right now. New Trailer and new generator pretty much emptied my wallet. I will probably look further into these when the current battery system is shot. By the way are you from Festus, MO. Small world if you are.

Thanks again for the help.

James

Festus2 · 05-14-2010, 10:17 AM

James ....
No-- not from Festus, MO. Check out my location to the right of my user name. When time comes to replace your batteries, have a look at the 6v ones. Trojans are worth considering. Good luck on your dry camping at the end of the month and hope all goes well in the battery department.

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