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Bertram31.com General Bulletin Board
Re: Battery Chargers
Posted By: Vic Roy In Response To: Re: Battery Chargers (bruce)
Date: Thursday, 21 October 2004, at 4:10 p.m.
Think I have a Guest on AJ, two bank since I only have two 8D's. Been on board for 10 years and is mounted under the counter in the head. Has worked flawlessly, think it's a 15 amp. Remember that many low amp. chargers will overload trying to charge a dead or near dead battery. The Guest uses a fuze in the 120 vac side to protect it from overloads. I don't need a bigger one as have a genset and reliable shore power.
A good digital voltmeter is essential for maintaining batteries and the charging system. Those of you with Garmin color plotters can select the 'volts' setting and it becomes a super accurate digital voltmeter, eliminating the need to take your digital VOM to the batteries. My Cummins dash analog voltmeters are fine for telling if there is a charge, but for fine tuning you need the digital, so you can easily i.d. a bad alternator regulator or an on board chargers out of whack. I leave the two 8D's paralleled all the time, so the one reading takes care of everything. Now and then I check each battery separately, each alternator by itself, and the genset alternator (which is no putting out, but screw it). Anytime you are trying to trouble shoot alternators, remember to shut off the onboard charger or it will drive you nuts.
The anti-sulfation pink potion does work and pays for itself quick in batteries and chiropractor bills. About $24 for a quart and it will do two 8D's.
UV
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