Ping Neon John Agai

Q: Remember that Ginger has solar panels. Many times when the sun is at optimum charging position, my battery charging exceeds my battery usage. This is one of the benefits of solar panels in that the coach batteries are never discharged more then 50%. My coach batteries are now 7 years old and still show good SG(specific gravity).

A: Frank, your ability to charge faster than you can use the energy is simply an indication that you don't have enough toys. Ever hear of ham radio? Get into that and the forty foot solar panels that unfold as you set up camp won't be enough. You'll look like the space station. I'm in Canada so US suppliers can be a problem. When I can get to the rig I'll find out what flavour charging system it has and then I'll be back to find out if it should be replaced or not. Since most of my battery charging will be from the solar panels do I need a "smart" converter? I'm assuming the panels are gentler on the batteries than the generator would be. It so happens that everything I want to use the inverter for is in that area, except for the freezer which is in a rear closet. For the freezer I ran a heavy duty (10 ga wire) under the coach with a receptacle in the closet. Everything else runs off a power strip plugged into the inverter. The inverter is on the floor under the fold down table behind the passenger seat. Close to the batteries and handy to an AC outlet. It's not that big and is totally silent. On the top I have an ammeter which tells me how much current is being charged or discharged. The inverter strip can be used when on shore/generator power or off it. While on shore power the inverter just passes AC to the strip. Now that I've reverted to just the original 2 batteries I do make certain I have the MH engine running or the power strip off before I disconnect from shore power. The initial surge of the freezer pegs out the 60 amp meter for a second or two before it settles back to 16-18 amps. At one time I had 5 batteries, 6 solar panels and a controller. The 3 extra batteries and controller were under the engine hood. We used to boondock more but now usually have power where we stop. IF we need the AC or microwave I can crank up the generator. I didn't have to run wires to the TV/VCR since standard equipment was a 200 watt inverter in the overhead cabinet next to the TV. I needed the additional inverter for the freezer but it came in handy for the

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