| Author |
Message |
Austin Davis (Zimtok)
Registered Member
Username: Zimtok
Post Number: 1
Registered: 9-2006
Posted From: 63.94.78.194
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 14, 2006 - 2:32 pm: | |
Is it common that the battery for the Onan Generators are being recharged by the bus electrical system instead of the generator itself? |
Bob Wies (Ncbob)
Registered Member
Username: Ncbob
Post Number: 184
Registered: 2-2006
Posted From: 68.238.126.4
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 14, 2006 - 6:36 pm: | |
Generally speaking, Austin, there is a winding in the generator which allows it to charge its' own battery.
So, much depends upon whether or not you have a link to your 'on board' battery charger, inverter, convertor..or whatever.
If isolated from the bus battery charging system,
it should maintain its' own battery.
My bus, because the previous owner decided to use 12V Halogen headlights, tapped into the generator battery to run the H/L's and added a small engine driven generator to charge that battery...but with no accomodation for it to be charged "at post".
You'll have to have someone, with perhaps more expertise, take a look at the system and see if there's another way to charge the Gen/set battery.
As a general rule...outside charging forces will take precedence over the gen/set's desite to charge its' own battery.
NCbob |
Frank Allen (Frank66)
Registered Member
Username: Frank66
Post Number: 29
Registered: 10-2005
Posted From: 205.188.116.13
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 14, 2006 - 6:38 pm: | |
mine charges itself and is independent from the bus batteries
Frank Allen
4106 |
George M. Todd (George_mc6)
Registered Member
Username: George_mc6
Post Number: 11
Registered: 8-2006
Posted From: 24.127.158.82
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 14, 2006 - 10:47 pm: | |
Can we ask you to look at your "usage pattern?" In other words, how often does the main engine run, and how often do you use the gen set? The common occurrence is a dead gen starting battery. It is also nice to have a backup battery if something happens to the main engine batteries. Running a generator for an hour a month won't keep its starting battery properly charged for optimum service life. So, many people put a diode seperator between their engine batteries and their gen set battery. Then, everything gets fully charged when anything runs! Fully charged batteries really do last years longer.
George |
Brian Brown (Blue_velvet)
Registered Member
Username: Blue_velvet
Post Number: 384
Registered: 6-2005
Posted From: 72.19.152.144
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 2:15 am: | |
I'm going to add a trickle charger to my genset batt, because I'm not using my genset enough to keep it sufficiently charged. NAPA sells a nice automatic charger that can be left on (supposedly) indefinitely.
And my coach is 24v, genset is 12v... so I can't use the coach alt. when running down the road. My house batts/ inverter are 12v, but they use golf cart lead acids and my genset batt is AGM.
Now that my bus has a parking spot with shore power (at my new home), it's always plugged in when not in use, so I'm also going to add a 24v trickle charger for the coach batts to keep them healthy.
Might seem silly to have THREE chargers for the three systems... but I believe it's the best alternative for now.
Brian Brown
4108-216 w/ V730
Longmont, CO |
Austin Davis (Zimtok)
Registered Member
Username: Zimtok
Post Number: 2
Registered: 9-2006
Posted From: 63.94.78.194
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 10:42 am: | |
With summer subsiding the Generator will get used less. It was the power source for the Air Conditioning.
What I discovered was that the bus is positive ground and they installed the generator battery as a negative ground and isolated it from the bus ground. They then ran wires from the bus charging system to the Gen batt connecting them to the correct Pos & Neg. This is OK as long as the bus engine is running keeping the Gen battery charged but often we run the generator without the bus running.
Temporarily I connected a battery charger to the 115vac of the Gen. when the Gen is running the battery charger is charging the battery. (I did disconnect the charging from the bus)
IU just find it weird that the Gen didn't have a battery charging system itself. I'll have to look up the model and see if it does and it is just not working.
. |
Bob greenwood (Bob_greenwood)
Registered Member
Username: Bob_greenwood
Post Number: 145
Registered: 7-2006
Posted From: 4.226.105.88
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 11:33 am: | |
one of the best things you can do for a battery that is not being used ,is to disconnect one of the leads, I leave vehicles for 6 months & come back,hook-up the cable & start it, another thing that most people don't know ,is to keep the top of the battery washed off,it gets a thin layer of dust on it & has enough 'metals'in the dust to drain a battery, if you don't believe me, get a simpson & connect it to positive & put the negative to different places on the top of the battery |
Richard Bowyer (Drivingmisslazy)
Registered Member
Username: Drivingmisslazy
Post Number: 1678
Registered: 1-2001
Posted From: 75.108.82.163
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 1:25 pm: | |
Austin, the 4104, as delivered, was a positive ground system. Most people that I have seen posting have changed it to a negative ground system. I know I changed mine about 25 years ago, but it has been so long I forgot what I did. I suspect there is something in archives that explains how. It was very easy and I did it before the advent of the Internet and the bus boards.
Richard |
James Smith (Tomcat)
Registered Member
Username: Tomcat
Post Number: 27
Registered: 8-2005
Posted From: 207.200.116.133
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 16, 2006 - 12:07 pm: | |
Although my Onan generator model does often come with a battery charging system, on my particular one, it did not.
Here's how I dealt with it.
http://jsbird69.zoto.com/user/image_detail/IMG.23.3756330b626853c91d778d82f5e420dc-_CAT.0/ date_uploaded-desc/0-90
Jay
87 SaftLiner |
Gus Causbie (Gusc)
Registered Member
Username: Gusc
Post Number: 189
Registered: 11-2005
Posted From: 63.97.117.15
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 11:13 pm: | |
My Onan gen instructions specifically say never to run the generator unless it is connected to the starting battery.
When I got the 4104 it was connected to the bus battery. This really confused the engine alternator so I connected a small lawnmower battery to the gen which is isolated from the bus batt. I have a solenoid switch with which I can connect the bus batt to the gen battery if a boost is needed for starting the gen. I don't leave the bus batt connected once the gen is running. |