[Peter]

One charges the house and the other the chassis batteries

[Peter]

hmm, then my two year old house batteries cant hold a charge. From the time we shut down till the time the generator kicked on was about an hour. Lifeline has some explaining to do, or the brand new small alternator isn’t doing it’s thing.

[Peter]

I had a set of Dekas and they lasted on this coach two years and I am either driving or plugged in or gen or batteries only until 24.4 then gen on with those batteries , then I put lifelines in last summer we will see how they do on the same coach , time will tell the story !!!!’mm

Who put the new alternator on ???? Not that it has anything to do with it

[Walter]

To replace parts and not check if it’s working is a dumb ass move if it was not check after the new one was put on to see if it was working ,or it may have failed to soon you know made in China , new parts can be bad out of the box , I have showed that many times over with new parts, from brake cans to R14 valves to airbags

[Archived]

Charles, use a voltage tester and with the coach engine shut down measure the house battery voltage. Probably the easiest place is at the batteries if they are in the compartment behind the tag axle, passenger side, or if not, at a bus bar in the electric bay.

Then start the engine. If the house alternator is working you will see the voltage increase. If it does not, the house alternator (the smaller one) is not putting out power. If it does separate the batteries, charge them individually to float and load test them.

When you are driving you are charging the house batteries from the alternator. However, I believe the typical Liberty Classic house alternator has a 145 amp max output. If you are drawing more than about 14.5 amps on your house circuits the alternator is not keeping up because you are exceeding the output. You can easily exceed that if the refrigerator is running most of the time, and you have other loads drawing power such as a coffee maker, interior lights, anything on the forward and aft outlet circuits, TV, etc.

145 amps at 12 volts is the equivalent of 14.5 at 120 volts so the amp meters at your electric panel will help show the 120 volt loads, with the balance of the loads being 12 volt, not easily measured because of the gauge not showing the current draw real well.

[Archived]

Charles,

Unless you trashed your batteries by repeated discharge well below 12.2 (50%), the Lifelines aren’t the problem. In 7 years and hundreds of batteries, I helped one guy with a warranty on a generator battery.

My 01 Liberty Classic would easily go 8 to 10 hours overnight with normal loads, fridge, fans, lights, etc. with the three 8DA batteries and still be above 12 volts.

[Archived]

I should make this clear. Unless you have shore power or the generator is running your inverters are not charging the batteries, but are pulling power from the batteries to supply any 120V needs. Your only battery charging when driving is coming from the alternator and at 145 amps of 12V output any substantial 120V loads are going to result in the depletion of the battery charge.

[Peter]

Couple things… Over the couple years of the batteries life, the only time that I have run on the invertors and had issues was recently (as in this past month when the batteries would run down with minumal use over night). Outside that they have been either on 50amp or on generator with 6 or so hours of invertor time between generator running. Not something that I think is out of the norm or reasonable usage.

As for the alternator being new and not charging the house batteries. Nope, not the problem. How do I know? Because if the alternator wasn’t charging the batteries then the generator should be. But last month when I noticed the issue the batteries were charged (generator went to float when monitoring the output of the invertors) and then shut down generator and 6 hours later the batteries are dead and entire panel shut down. THat means that something else is wrong since the generator isn’t even charging the batteries.

So now I am thinking it’s either the batteries or invertors?

So how can the invertors be contributing to the problem? I am thinking the invertors are simple a gateway between the batteries and an appliance needing power (and coverting it to proper amp/volt). But then I could be wrong and maybe it draws power all the time and is simple a big power sink that keeps it’s own charge and sends power out as needed?

Last night we ran the generator for about 4 hours with the battery chargers being the primary draw. Shut down the generator at 10:00 PM, set it to autostart and at 1:40 AM the generator started. So last month it was 6-8 hours not it’s 3-4?

I will check batteries with a volt meter this week since I am parked and on 50 amp and not needing them. But I know something is wrong, just not sure. Only so many components to select from here and I think by using basic logic the alternator is not one of them (if it was then then generator should have provided me with the charge that should have gotten me to get more then 3-4 hours out of the batteries). So that leave invertors and/or batteries.

[Archived]

Charles, don’t let your thinking bounce around. Start with the basics, which is to confirm the alternator is charging, then confirm the inverters are charging. A couple of steps with a multi-tester and you can rule out both of them as an issue.

Then look hard at the batteries. regardless of age, up to a point Tom told you the performance to expect. As they age you lose some performance, but if the batteries are not old, test them because it is entirely possible you may have a bad one or more. It sounds as if your batteries are treated correctly with minimal or no deep discharges, so if the batteries are being charged from the alternator or the inverters then the only other possibility is the batteries may be going bad or one has an internal issue affecting them all.

[Bill]

Charles the last lifelines I had lasted 7 years and where still good held charge good I put new ones in because of age

[Archived]

So bringing this back up as I have done some testing over the summer.

Jeff had me shut down each battery charger one at a time for a couple hours and then bring them back up then repeat on the other charger to make sure the chargers where working.

All chargers working and house batteries get to 13.59 volts (which is what is expected).

Alternator is also working (checked voltage off that and checked voltage of batteries after running engine after use). All good, batteries at 13.59 when pulling off the road.

So getting ready for another long trip where I may end up dry camping over night. Almost wondering if my refriderator going out is causing the fridge to run and pull extra amps on the invertor and draining the batteries down quicker then normal. I can turn off the fridge and test that so will do that and determine if that’s the problem.

If that’s not the problem then I guess will be added to the list for things to look at when I get back east.

On a side not, the items on my ToDo list for the mothership seems to get smaller and smaller each pass through Vonore. Give it another year and maybe I can start adding “nice to have” items to my list of things to fix rather then “need to have” items 😉

[Jerry]

Charles, you have a Classic which means you have three 8D batteries. With phantom loads, the refrigerator running, the TV circuit on, using some lights after the generator shuts down for the night new batteries might get you 8 hours, but as they age you will not get that performance.

The Amana refrigerators were energy hogs. I don’t know if you have upgraded but every little current draw adds to the load and even an Elegant lady with its 4 batteries sometimes is lucky to go 8 hours unless you really cut down on every load possible.

[Larry & Diane]

This may not be related to a Liberty, but your original question as to what’s getting charged while going down the road…….

I had a similar problem with my house batteries not being charged going down the road. Turned out, SOMEBODY had turned of the master switch that controls current from the alternator to the house batteries!

Does a Liberty have a cutoff switch like that?

[Tim]

No, a Liberty does not provide for a way to shut off charging current for house batteries from the engine driven alternator. The only way to do that is to shut down the entire house DC electrical system.

[Will]

After installing a new refer, I decided to test the capabilities of our 2 year old batteries.

Now mind you, when we first got the batteries, they worked great. We could go all day or all night without needing to run the generator. On our drive out west this spring, I noticed we were getting a couple hours at best out of a charge before the autostart would kick in.

Tested batteries and they are charged to 13.5 which matches what is showing on the panel.

So last night i unplugged, set the autostart and didnt have much on (refer and microwave clock). Wasnt watching TV, had no lights on, etc.

So the test started at 4:30 PM. Sitting outside enjoying the warm summer evening with a southern touch of humidity, at 8:00 PM the generator kicked in.

So 3.5 hours. Not the fridge running constantly.

Readings on the panel showed the following:

Heart Interface left:

12.5v, 10 amp

Heart Interface right:

12.5v 10 amp

Line Voltage left

120

Line Current left

00.8

Line Voltage right

122

Live Current right

00.3

The Line Voltage and current held pretty steady for the entire time until the compressor kicked in and of course that caused a spike. But still shouldn’t be so much that it would drain the batteries that quick, forcing the generator to auto start.

So since I did this test at East Tennesse Luxury Resort, I’ll talk to jeff about it this morning. Hopefully he doesn’t tell me to upgrade to Crestron/iPads so I can monitor everything from outside the coach while I enjoy the evening 🙂