Stupid Battery question

[Pete Masterson]

Not a stupid question at all. For a grand discussion see the Poop Sheets by Phred at:

<http://www.phrannie.org/phredex.html> and look at #5. Batteries and Other Electrical Stuff.

The house electrical system is 12 volts. If you have four 6-volt batteries you have 2 pairs wired in series and the pairs wired in parallel so you have the equivalent of two 12-volt battery equivalents.

If you carefully study the way they're wired together, you'll see the set up.

You can disconnect the positive wire from the set, then attach a 12-volt charger to the main positive/negative cables and charge all at once (if the charger can handle the load). Or, you can isolate each battery and charge then one at a time at 6 volts. Or, you can separate the pairs and charge them as pairs at 12 volts.

The older 'birds have notorious 'battery boiler' chargers, so you may wish to look into a modern "3 -stage" charger. Iota is a good brand.

Since you're trying to trouble shoot an electrical problem, you may have one or more bad batteries. A single 'shorted' cell in this set up could bring all the batteries down or keep them from charging correctly. In view of that possiblity, I'd first check the status of the batteries with a hydrometer and use a multi-tester to check the individual voltage of each battery.

Pete Masterson

'95 Blue Bird Wanderlodge WBDA 42

El Sobrante CA

"aeonix1@mac.com"

On Mar 20, 2008, at 5:40 PM, bubblerboy64 wrote:

I guess the battery isn't stupid but rather its owner but I am a 

little turned around on this. I have four batteries in my system 

hooked in series. They are 6 volts batteries producing 12 volts 

(right?) Now if I want to charge them directly (not by plugging in 

the shore line of the bus) Can I disconnect the positive lead and 

connect my battery charger to the bank of batteries, positive lead to 

the positive terminal on the first battery and negative lead to the 

negative terminal on the last battery in series?  And then what do I 

set the charger on 6 volts or 12 volts?  Why am I doing this you 

ask?  I am not certain if my house charging system is working and I 

want to work around it so that I know that I have a fully charged 

battery bank and then drive the bus tomorrow.  If the batteries stay 

charged I know the bus is charging the batteries on the road. I am 

trying to separate out systems so I can start to figure out my 

problem.  I assume the batteries are done for but if they would take 

a charge directly off the charger perhaps not. And if I get new 

batteries I'd like to know that the rest of the system is in order.  

Any information or direction towards information would be 

appreciated. Much to learn.  

John Heckman

central Pa

1973 FC 

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