Question Novice, rookie, wet behind the ears...trying so hard to keep up.

[Tproepper1]

Novice, rookie, wet behind the ears...trying so hard to keep up. Can I plug my 50amp into a standard 110 outlet and get batteries charged?

 

[SteveMA]

some and some
what type of rv and what type of inverter/charger?

The simple answer is yes with a “dogbone” 15a to 50a adaptor the hard part is it is always more complicated. Go to the IRV2 forums (sign up) and search in the newmar section for your question.

I think the one note I would add as you still should really try to monitor your battery condition on a very regular basis ‘cause it only takes a few days for them to drain all the way down if not being charged. I have a 10 amp Smart NOCO genius charger from Amazon i connect to house bTteries when i cant get 50a and a 5a same for chassis batteries. Will keep them topped off and will not overcharge

 

[Richpatty]

As mentioned, a dog bone is the way to go. No need to go to IRV2.

 

[Tproepper1]

some and some
what type of rv and what type of inverter/charger?

The simple answer is yes with a “dogbone” 15a to 50a adaptor the hard part is it is always more complicated. Go to the IRV2 forums (sign up) and search in the newmar section for your question.

I think the one note I would add as you still should really try to monitor your battery condition on a very regular basis ‘cause it only takes a few days for them to drain all the way down if not being charged. I have a 10 amp Smart NOCO genius charger from Amazon i connect to house bTteries when i cant get 50a and a 5a same for chassis batteries. Will keep them topped off and will not overcharge

2020 New Aire 3543, Xantrex Freedom inverter/charger. Ran up from Dallas to St Paul, parked for four days unplugged and had no juice on day 4.

 

[Kevin D Pem]

The answer? Yes/no
If they make them a 20amp dog bone would be best.

Some rigs monitor what you are plugged into and adjust the draw of the converter, others don't.

Remember ohms law! Your converter amps × 13 = watts. Watts ÷ 115v = amps draw on the home circuit. Then make sure everything is shut down!

 

[SteveMA]

Agree with kevin. Shut as much down as you can. 20a 120v plug (NEMA 5-20) has a Turned blade. It will only fit in a 20a (5-20R) receptacle which not all domestic plugs are ( most are 15a - 5-15R)

The zantrex is only only on 1 leg so only certain loads will be powered. Refrigerator microwave and some receptacles in our MA)

One of the big dangers is that many 120 V 15 amp receptacles have a GFCI on them and they will trip more often with the coach so you just have to be careful about that

Honestly, once I switched over to having the NOCO chargers, it’s gone flawlessly. I plug them in whenever I don’t have 50 amp and they just do qtheir job. In full disclosure, I did replace my Xantrex 3012 with a complete 2 Victron multiplus throughout and 1840AH of lithium and solar and it’s night and day, but it’s a much bigger system.

 

[Rich W.]

Yes you can adapt down to a 20amp plug and yes it will (should) keep your batteries up but make sure you don’t have any other loads running. You should have load shedding but I don’t know about the capability and limitations of your coach systems and current xantrex inverter/chargers so my advice would be to manage it manually and shut off everything else.

 

[rvkev]

The cord, (dog bone) I use is similar to this one.

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I purchased my cord from Amp Up Cords. Call Vince at 216-218-1762, a few years back.

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My coach is always plugged in at home. Remember as stated above most home outlets are 15 amp. Your extension cord may be only 15 amp also.

 

[Neal]

Novice, rookie, wet behind the ears...trying so hard to keep up. Can I plug my 50amp into a standard 110 outlet and get batteries charged?

Welcome to RVForums, great to have you with us. Let me offer my simple solution - yes, I have this adapter and you can use 15A if needed to keep batteries charged. I also keep a 50 to 30 adapter on board so I can plug in to 30A outlets if 50A is not available.

You simply need to make sure your inverter's charge settings are set accordingly. For example if plugged in to a 15A circuit you need to bring your charge rate down to 15A and if your EMS doesn't automatically change to reflect what you're plugged into you need to change that too so your coach doesn't try to pull more amps than what your source can provide. Minimize loads in your coach but your EMS should handle this once these two items are configured based on what you're plugged into.

Amazon.com

Amazon.com

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[Tproepper1]

Morning all, and thanks for all your comments and information. Very helpful! So I had both chassis' batteries charged with trickle charger (external) to 100%, plugged in the 50 amp plug, by way of converter overnight. This morning, she is dead as a doornail again. Not even enough chassis power to "click" even the generator, let alone turn over the engine.
These also look like original batteries, which would make them at least 4 years old, and I have no record of how they were maintained. Silverleaf also has no power, so there is no way to "see" what's happening with the power distribution.
I am now looking for two replacement batteries, at least then I will have a known starting point.

Wet behind the ears in St Paul!!

 

[Rich W.]

I think what you are experiencing is that the system won’t do anything under a certain battery voltage because it needs “x” volts to wake up and operate. So the solution that has worked for others with New Aire and other complex coaches is to attach an external battery charger (a real one, not a trickle or maintenance charger) to bring the batteries up to the minimum and then the system will resume. And while four years old is aging for house batteries, if they have been well cared for (or maintenance free) they should still be good enough.

This is all anecdotal since I don’t have personal experience with this and I don’t know the minimum voltage below which this occurs, but that’s what your problem sounds like to me. Also I’m surprised that a New Aire would come with Xantrex equipment and that could be part of the problem. Someone else here can either confirm or offer other ideas. You should also turn off the salesman switch to isolate the house batteries and turn off the chassis battery disconnect while doing the recovery charging, charging each separately of course.

 

[Richpatty]

Can you measure voltage at the battery while the rv is plugged in? Maybe it’s not getting juice from the charger?

 

[Neal]

Are we talking about house or chassis batteries?

 

[Neal]

Morning all, and thanks for all your comments and information. Very helpful! So I had both chassis' batteries charged with trickle charger (external) to 100%, plugged in the 50 amp plug, by way of converter overnight. This morning, she is dead as a doornail again. Not even enough chassis power to "click" even the generator, let alone turn over the engine.
These also look like original batteries, which would make them at least 4 years old, and I have no record of how they were maintained. Silverleaf also has no power, so there is no way to "see" what's happening with the power distribution.
I am now looking for two replacement batteries, at least then I will have a known starting point.

Wet behind the ears in St Paul!!

Yes, it sounds like it's time to replace the two chassis batteries, shouldn't be hard to find or do. From there hopefully things will start working for you again and making some sense. I replace my chassis batteries every 5 years need it or not. Keep in mind those batteries are in your chassis I believe 6 months prior to the coach being built by Newmar, so they could be older than you think.

 

[Richpatty]

Ha. I will be replacing my chassis batteries in December… they are originals, so at nearly 8 years old, they don’t owe me anything.
I do leave them on a trickle charger at all times at home… so maybe that helped.

 

[Neal]

Ha. I will be replacing my chassis batteries in December… they are originals, so at nearly 8 years old, they don’t owe me anything.
I do leave them on a trickle charger at all times at home… so maybe that helped.

I just don't ever want to find myself someplace in a no start condition. They are cheap to replace, in fact I had FL Gaffney replace mine, very affordable to have them do it.

 

[Richpatty]

I just don't ever want to find myself someplace in a no start condition. They are cheap to replace, in fact I had FL Gaffney replace mine, very affordable to have them do it.

Yea… maybe I pushed it a bit, but it starts great… and I could bridge the house batteries if it failed. But they will be replaced at Gafney in Dec.

 

[Tproepper1]

Replaced both chassis batteries yesterday, not too bad a job for a barley mechanical guy. Thankfully, engine stared right away, generator started as well. To my surprise the ac unit turned on, the Silverleaf screen was all lit up and everything seemed normal.
Just as I was looking at the Silverleaf, I noticed it said "inverter fault" on the display. I went to look at the DC Power Screen, and it went blank. Bang
Still blank a day later..."killing me smalls."

 

[Neal]

If your batteries drained to where the low battery cutoff (LBCO) was reached to cut off the batteries to prevent further drain, that will trigger an inverter fault. Not sure how to clear it in Silverleaf but was simple in the Magnum control head.

 

[rvkev]

This might be a little late, but, other members can take advantage of on line at NAPA.

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I purchased 2 D8 Batteries at NAPA. Went to the local store and the manager, told me order them on line and take advantage of 20% off. I exchanged my batteries the next day. I saved over $100.