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redwell

we are going away for 6 days over new year on a rally with no hook up we will be limited how much we can use the generator we are thinking of getting a marine charger possible 50 amps. anybody know where i could get one. and also do you think this will keep us going as we will need the heating on.

DABurleigh

50 Amps is a nice figure because with the norm of a couple of leisure batteries you are not overgunned, but with an hour's genny time you can put a very useable amount of power into the batteries.

I'd recommend Victron (I have a 70Amps integrated inverter-charger) or Sterling (in my case a 50 Amp battery-to-battery charger).

Dave

damondunc

Try snelly he does sterling chargers.
Dunc.

olley · Campsite DB Admin

Hi Redwell, the heating on most RV's is very power hungry, the 12v fan and electronics takes up to 20amps to run, if you have it thermostatically controlled, a single fully charged 100amp battery might make it through the night.

But; and maybe dab can confirm this, it will take up to five+ hours to fully recharge it, my experience is that you can't pump in more than about 20% of a batteries capacity no matter how big the charger. And as its internal voltage rises, it accepts less charge so taking longer to fully charge.

Olley

ScotJimland

I agree with the previous posts.. in addition I would also consider a buying a 1kw suitcase genny which will cause minimal disturbance and provide adequate power to re charge and run the critical equipment.

Linda (LC1962) of Stateside Tuning also stocks decent RV chargers.

DABurleigh

"maybe dab can confirm this, it will take up to five+ hours to fully recharge it, my experience is that you can't pump in more than about 20% of a batteries capacity no matter how big the charger. "

Well physically and technically one can, but charging at a rate of 1/5th capacity is optimum in the sense of charging as fast as you can without sacrificing battery life. So the 20% rule is good to aim at.

Dave