[al]

Not sure what you mean by testing Al. If testing batteries, fully charge, remove cables and load test, but at 5 years old, they’re approaching end of service life. If testing AGS, set voltage start at 24v and it will take at least 3 hrs to fully charge.

All my battery companies have taken increases even though supply is short. Crown and Relion increased in December and Lifeline is set for an increase on March 1st.

[Archived]

Al, I have never used auto-start except to verify it worked. With my AGM batteries my practice was to either be on shore power or generator after a day of driving. That enabled the inverters to top off the partially charged batteries. At night I shut down the generator and in the morning would restart the generator or begin driving right away.

Because of how I used my generator my batteries were usually at or above 50% SOC.

Every five years I replaced my batteries regardless of condition and a vintage bus owner near me would take my five year old batteries. He used them for another 5 years until he got my next set. I firmly believe manually starting the generator and never allowing the batteries fall below 50% SOC kept them healthy and reliable for 5 years.

[al]

Thanks Guys , the advise is defiantly Preventative for sure , however the Vantare design is such that dry camping is advertised as the best of the converters . So my worry is departing for lets say 3 days and assuming if the batteries go 50% the Genny would recharge them then shut down . If the genny does not start then the batts are toast .

[Jon]

Tom, to be clear , if I run the aircondition on battery only very soon i would think the genny should start . My question is if it does not start I would kill the brand new batteries or is there a safety which would kick in and shut down the system prior to killing the batteries ?

[Roy]

If an autostart fails the batteries will eventually be depleted. If I had 3 days of dry camping my generator would be started the moment I shut the bus down. That way we had all kinds of power available and did not have to live like it was a tin tent to conserve battery power.

We bought a luxury coach and view compromising to minimize generator use or to try not to deep discharge batteries as something we are not prepared to do.

[Art]

Thanks Jon , I’m sounding like the guy who wanted to pull a 20k trailer with a XL . It wasn’t until the Prevost Engineer step in to say if you want to pull that trailer buy a Tractor 🙂 O that guy was me hahaha

PS; I would never leave her unplugged for 3 days . Maybe 1 🙂

[terry]

With the age of a typical generator (if used and serviced) somewhere around 30,000 to 40,000 hours we all should run the hell out of them. We are dragging them around with us and even when on shore power we know they are the best power available. I have never used more than 4/10 of a gallon per hour so they are cheap to run and provide us with enought power to live like royalty.

Run the hell out of them and enjoy their ample power to enjoy all our bus systems.

[Jerry]

Jon, let me add using the genny as you say is best . The adage use it or loose it is true . When we purchased our 98 XL she had 62k on the odometer and 630 hrs on the Genny . In hind sight I wish I would have pulled the generator and replace every item related to safety .

water pump , this was source of the generator blowing up . Anti freeze junked up clogging a port . small leak burned off fluid loss . I did add a pint every month or so and should have picked up on this as a sign something was wrong .

high temp sensor disconnected thus failure to shut down on over heat . So as you say use it 🙂 Thanks again for all you do for the community .

[frank]

Al reading your post caught my eye you stated antifreeze junked up plugging a port it is extremely important not to mix antifreeze colors ,they will gel or turn to a googie substance, loosing all cooling effects.

[Tom]

Few subjects create so many wrong opinions than anti freeze.

True, there was a time when color had a meaning. Those days are long gone and a lot of anti freezes now use color as a means to identify the manufacturer and not the type. Getting the right anti freeze on sleeved engines is critical because without the correct chemistry anti freeze will not prevent cavitation and the erosion on the outside of the sleeves will result in cylinder porosity.

Today there are two types of anti freezes with OAT (organic acid technology) providing long life protection of up to 6 years and 600,000 miles.

A failure to use an anti freeze specification as called for by the engine manufacturer can result in an engine failing prematurely.

[al]

Al,

What you could do is set your LBCO (low battery cut off) to a slightly lower voltage than your auto start, like 23.5 volts, then if your auto start failed to work it would shut down your batteries.

[Corey]

Thank you Tom . Here is the situation that always worried me . You are at a campground plugged in .

It is summer and the air conditioners are on and your dog is in the coach .

a storm comes while we are out exploring and power is lost .

the batteries start doing the job they were designed to do .

Will the Generator start as designed ? This scenario is my concern .

[Bill]

We have experienced that scenario twice in 32 years. One was an RV park power loss due to the entire park losing its transformer and the second when the lawn mowers disconnected the power cord to mow and did not plug it back in.

Both times I Cruisairs did not re-start when power was restored so not only check and verify your auto-start works, but also see if the A/Cs will restart. If not get your smart phone set up to receive voltage or temperature warnings.

[AL]

Al,

As long as you have Internet/WiFi in your bus, there are a bunch of devices with app’s that you can monitor your coach remotely. They are made specifically for real time temps and power, some have alerts via your smart phone, just what you need for pets. The AGS systems are usually pretty good if set up properly. I check mine at home in the driveway to make sure it works. Load it up and see what happens.

I assume your Featherlite runs everything through the inverters, so if A/C’s are running and power is lost, it won’t take long to get to the AGS start voltage. If they’re roof airs and temporarily lost during the transfer switch change, they’ll probably start back up with no problem.

[Tim]

Thank you Tom . I have been away for a while and just picked this up and did not know 🙂