Battery charger electrical advice and help needed - please.

[Gregory OConnor]

John, Adria the largest drain on your batteries is probably your word
processor. If you're selling, keep the chargers and just disconnect
them. Pick up a 40.00 charger at Sams Club that has 6V and is
automatic. Use the cheepo charger for storage charging. If you do
not have electric where you store it, pick up several solar chargers
from Harborfreight or the like. ( you may have to learn how to
disconnect the ground on both banks if the phantom battey drail
output while docked is more than the 2 amp charge input) When you
want to drive the rig, first start the genset for an hour or two
(they need the work out). The genset will charge all the batteries,
both house and engine. Starting the cat on weak batteries is bad
for the starter. You can tell the buyers why you use this method.

I think your bus is worth what it will always be worth. The FC's
have little depreciation, they are the best value and if you sell at
a loss ( less that what you paid), you could replace it for the same
amount. (= no actual loss)

I'm a product of public schoolin'. I hope that helps you in your
private/public school decision.

Gregory O'Connor
94ptRomolandCa
ditch digger


--- In WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com, "Adria Haynes"
<mrbeebody@...> wrote:
>
> Gang. Please know going into this thing that I'm well aware that
> I'm wordy - but I do so in an effort to be thorough. So please,
grab
> a soda and get comfy.
>
> I lurk here often and post very little. We are in our 3rd summer
> with our 80 BB 35FC and it has been bitter sweet. The payments are
> bitter for 12 months a year, and the bus is sweet when we use it
for
> about 12 days a year.
>
> Anyways, it's getting harder to justify and we have toyed with the
> idea of selling it after this past Labor Day weekend, but it gave
us
> a little "gotcha" when it came time to go home. I don't know if
it
> was "quitting before we could fire it" or what, but I could use
some
> help on the problem if/before we put it on the market.
>
> The problem: I think my battery chargers are hosed.
>
> When we bought the bus, the Trojan batteries had been killed by the
> PO leaving the fridge set to electrical. We dealt with them not
> holding a charge until last summer when I bought 4 new batteries.
> Even then, it seemed that even though I'd make sure I had
> everythign off - something drained them. I got tired of them being
> drained when I'd go out for the monthly "start up and run for
awile"
> so I decided to just leave the bus plugged in to my garage. That
> was fine until my new batteries blew up. I replaced those
batteries
> with 4 new ones in June and all seemed well through our trip in
> July. I was told that my 1980 chargers wouldn't trickle charge,
but
> were steady pumpers that over charged the batteries. Lesson learned.
>
> When we got home from the July trip, I plugged the bus into the
> house again. It took me about 3 weeks to remember, but I unplugged
> the chargers too. On this past Friday I went out to fire the old
> girl up and she was dead. I plugged in the chargers and Saturday
> morning it fired right up. After work on saturday, I went to start
> it again and it cranked very slowly, then on the last possible
> revolution - she took off and purred like I knew she would and I
> took the bus to the campground where my family already was waiting
> for me with other family members. I plugged into 30 amp shore
power
> with the chargers on until Monday afternoon. When I went to start
> it to leave, it wouldn't even click. I think I had an anurism.
>
> I found that with the chargers plugged in, the volts meter would
> wiggle at 12 until I tried to start it, then it would shake from
pin
> to pin. It was wierd and I couldn't make any sense of it, but that
> isn't saying much either. About all I have ever learned about
> electricity is that it hurts when I touch it.
>
> I unplugged the charger and removed the 2 batteries that start the
> bus and put each one on an external 6V charger. They both took 4
> amps for over 2 hours with no improvement. When I removed the
other
> 2 RV batteries so that I could take all 4 in for testing, the
ground
> posts on those two had some deformation and melting, which I knew
> was bad.
>
> I got ANOTHER 4 new batteries, hooked up the 2 that I needed to
make
> it run and it fired right up. We got it home and I un hooked those
> parallel batteries from one another, the RV ones never did get
> hooked up, and the chargers are also unplugged for now.
>
> It seemed to me and everybody else that the charger that was
> supposed to be charging the batteries was the very thing that was
> screwing everything up. It's the only thing that makes sense to
me,
> but like I said - I don't know much about these things and my pool
> of experience is growing, but still VERY shallow.
>
> Thank you for your time and patience with me thus far. Now that
you
> have that little bit of history, my questions are as follows:
>
> Does this make sense to anybody else or am I on something that the
> chargers are hosed?
>
> Is there a way to check the charging unit that is hard wired into
> the bus without unhooking it all?
>
> If it only makes sense to replace this unit, what are my "best
> value" options?
>
> Does anybody have a used one that's still good that they'd sell?
>
> Thank you very much for your help,
>
> John, Adria, Blase, Kaleigh, Jade, and Gage.
>