I've had the Coaster about a month now so I decided to switch on the Battery Charger this morning. 240 AC is all hooked up ok and working so I plugged in the Charger and it went to 5.5 volts or thereabouts straight away. Since then 10 minutes have passed the amount of charge going to Batteries is reducing.
Does this mean that the batteries are near full charge???
Also the Battery Charger is wired into the battery terminals.
-- Edited by Baldbug on Sunday 15th of April 2018 10:26:11 AM
HI The charger u are using has no minimum volts compared to a multistage unit . Charger should work in a normal situation . Have batteries independently charged . This will be telling. Battery protection . are u familiar with the safety voltage cut outs and what they are set to if fitted Either in your invertor or stand alone unit . Many are set to around 10volts. TO low . 11--12 volts .
Whats the batt bank size and invertor size[if fitted ] and the loads that are being applied to the batts?? What are u recharging the batts with solar /DC,DC/ 240volt ???
solar 160---200watts per 100-120ah dc-dc 40amps for 2 batts 240 v charger 25--40 amps for 2 batts
Only light loads for a 2 battery system 200-240ah light to moderate for a 3 batt system 300--360ah Use high quality high amp discharge if available AGM
-- Edited by swamp on Sunday 15th of April 2018 11:07:16 AM
I've had the Coaster about a month now so I decided to switch on the Battery Charger this morning. 240 AC is all hooked up ok and working so I plugged in the Charger and it went to 5.5 volts or thereabouts straight away. Since then 10 minutes have passed the amount of charge going to Batteries is reducing.
Does this mean that the batteries are near full charge???
Also the Battery Charger is wired into the battery terminals.
-- Edited by Baldbug on Sunday 15th of April 2018 10:26:11 AM
Hello Baldbug
I am not an Electrician, I can only go by my own 12 volt experience
Your attachment shows that the battery charger is showing Amps, and not Volts
It is normal for the amps to drop when the battery is getting full, so yes your batteries are nearly full
Note that although it looks like a 10 Amp charger, reading the sticker attached, it does say 6 Amp continuous
Not knowing what size deep cycle batteries you have, I am led to believe that your battery charger, (Arlec BC10), in only suitable for charging 25 to 80 Amp Hour battery overnight
Unless you have what some people call an intelligent battery charger, you must never leave your type of charger running for more than about 12 hours, otherwise you may destroy your batterie/s
Before I knew about this forum, and learned a bit about 12 volt systems, I destroyed a car battery with your type of charger, by leaving it charged for two days
I've had the Coaster about a month now so I decided to switch on the Battery Charger this morning. 240 AC is all hooked up ok and working so I plugged in the Charger and it went to 5.5 volts or thereabouts straight away. Since then 10 minutes have passed the amount of charge going to Batteries is reducing.
Does this mean that the batteries are near full charge???
Also the Battery Charger is wired into the battery terminals.
-- Edited by Baldbug on Sunday 15th of April 2018 10:26:11 AM
HI The charger u are using has no minimum volts compared to a multistage unit . Charger should work in a normal situation . Have batteries independently charged . This will be telling. Battery protection . are u familiar with the safety voltage cut outs and what they are set to if fitted Either in your invertor or stand alone unit . Many are set to around 10volts. TO low . 11--12 volts .
Whats the batt bank size and invertor size[if fitted ] and the loads that are being applied to the batts?? What are u recharging the batts with solar /DC,DC/ 240volt ???
solar 160---200watts per 100-120ah dc-dc 40amps for 2 batts 240 v charger 25--40 amps for 2 batts
Only light loads for a 2 battery system 200-240ah light to moderate for a 3 batt system 300--360ah Use high quality high amp discharge if available AGM
-- Edited by swamp on Sunday 15th of April 2018 11:07:16 AM
There is no info for the electric system on the Coaster. The Coaster comes from a Deceased Estate. All the info went with the owner of the van. I had the electrics 240 and 12 volt systems checked by an electrician and everything is ok. There are now labels on the switches near the fuses telling what each switch turns on. All I can find is 2 batteries which are wired in directly to the charger. There are also 4 240 double power points with a circuit breaker wired in on the Coaster. There is no Inverter that I can find, and there are no solar panels. There are about four 12 volts lights, 2 water pumps one for the main cold water/ hot water and one for the other tank which is connected via a filter for filtered water. And there is small water pump in the Thetford Toilet unit. I think we will be only putting light loads on the battery system until we can upgrade it. From what we can gather the Coaster was used very little and mainly used at Powered Sites.
I've had the Coaster about a month now so I decided to switch on the Battery Charger this morning. 240 AC is all hooked up ok and working so I plugged in the Charger and it went to 5.5 volts or thereabouts straight away. Since then 10 minutes have passed the amount of charge going to Batteries is reducing.
Does this mean that the batteries are near full charge???
Also the Battery Charger is wired into the battery terminals.
-- Edited by Baldbug on Sunday 15th of April 2018 10:26:11 AM
Hello Baldbug
I am not an Electrician, I can only go by my own 12 volt experience
Your attachment shows that the battery charger is showing Amps, and not Volts
It is normal for the amps to drop when the battery is getting full, so yes your batteries are nearly full
Note that although it looks like a 10 Amp charger, reading the sticker attached, it does say 6 Amp continuous
Not knowing what size deep cycle batteries you have, I am led to believe that your battery charger, (Arlec BC10), in only suitable for charging 25 to 80 Amp Hour battery overnight
Unless you have what some people call an intelligent battery charger, you must never leave your type of charger running for more than about 12 hours, otherwise you may destroy your batterie/s
Before I knew about this forum, and learned a bit about 12 volt systems, I destroyed a car battery with your type of charger, by leaving it charged for two days
Hope that this info is helpful to you
Thanks for the info regarding Charging Time with current Battery Charger. Much appreciated.
Yeah I was working on the charging and it was decided we would go out for the day so I rushed the post and Volts instead of Amps even though there is a big A there.
Yeah I was working on the charging and it was decided we would go out for the day so I rushed the post and Volts instead of Amps even though there is a big A there.
Ha ha Baldbug, I thought I was the only one that did rather silly things Welcome
Now your initial question has been answered I might propose a few more to help you sort out your system.
Does your Coaster have a 12V system for the vehicle starting and running. Later diesel models had a 24V system.
If the bus has 12V and the house batteries are 12V also then they can be charged by the motor when it is running. This may be enough to keep them charged depending on how you use it. Best charger you will get is already fitted and may already be working or perhaps just needs wiring in
You can buy a VSR that will handle this job cheaply and wire it in, if they are not yet being charged by the alternator .
Now your initial question has been answered I might propose a few more to help you sort out your system.
Does your Coaster have a 12V system for the vehicle starting and running. Later diesel models had a 24V system.
If the bus has 12V and the house batteries are 12V also then they can be charged by the motor when it is running. This may be enough to keep them charged depending on how you use it. Best charger you will get is already fitted and may already be working or perhaps just needs wiring in
You can buy a VSR that will handle this job cheaply and wire it in, if they are not yet being charged by the alternator .
Cheers Jaahn
Hi Jaahn,
There was a Load Test done when we had the Coaster serviced a few weeks and the mechanic said the result was good. I'm pretty sure it is a 12 volt system to start the vehicle which uses the alternator to charge the batteries. We have only lightly used the batteries so far when the diesel engine is not running.
HI
A VSR inline protects the Coaster batt from being discharged when stopped . But charges when driving Isolates main battery at around 12.7 volts
A LVD Low volt disconnect goes on aux batt positive post . Positive wiring cables connect to this unit . Projecta make a good one . time delay for surge loads . Selectable eg 12.oo volts
Battery Isolater ON/OfF type
Install inline between battery negative post and cables . When not using Coaster this prevents even the smallest electrical loads from slowly discharging batteries .
HI A VSR inline protects the Coaster batt from being discharged when stopped . But charges when driving Isolates main battery at around 12.7 volts
A LVD Low volt disconnect goes on aux batt positive post . Positive wiring cables connect to this unit . Projecta make a good one . time delay for surge loads . Selectable eg 12.oo volts
Battery Isolater ON/OfF type Install inline between battery negative post and cables . When not using Coaster this prevents even the smallest electrical loads from slowly discharging batteries .
A very simple question and simple answer required.
It is charging about 5 amps and will reduce to about 1 and when it is fully charged. This is normal. Same as charging a car battery. If the battery was more or less flat it would take 8 or so hours for it to charge. Don't get confused with periferals.
