Question New Newmar Owner

[DarenH]

My wife and I purchased a 2000 Dutch Star 3851. It was well taken care of and looks like it was never used.

I have a few easy questions.

I plugged in 120VAC from my house.
- How do I know if it is charging the batteries?
- Will it power one A/C?

I will be away for a few weeks, I would like to keep the engine and camper batteries charged. I have two Battery Tenders. What is my best method?

 

[Chargerman]

Daren

Congrats on you purchase!

110 won’t be enough to power one A/C unfortunately. I’m not sure if your model will charge the chassis batteries along with the house batteries. I would suggest plugging it in and then check the voltage at the batteries. Should be above 13 volts if being charged. Hopefully someone will chime in that knows more specifics about your coach

best of luck with it!

 

[FL-JOE]

Does your unit have an AGS system? It may be easier to set things up to charge your house batteries by having the generator come on every 5 or 6 days.

 

[RKins]

One thing you should make sure is that the battery disconnect is in the "Use" position position or your battery banks won't charge. If you by-pass the disconnect with the tenders, that is a different story.

 

[DarenH]

FL-Joe, I don't know what an AGS system is.

RKins, I got it. Keep the switch in "use" so the batteries will be charged with the 120vac from my home

Will the 120vac from the house also charge the engine batteries?
Or should I connect a battery tender on the engine batteries?

 

[RKins]

I am assuming you have a diesel pusher. You should have a B.I.R.D. (Bi-Directional Isolator Relay Delay) system in your rig and it controls a heavy "Big Boy" relay/solenoid that combines both battery banks for charging as long as it sees 13.3V (normal charging voltage) on the house bank for a minute. This is in my Electrical bay. If you read the same voltage on each of the heavy lugs on the Big Boy, then you know that both banks are being charged.

 

[FL-JOE]

FL-Joe, I don't know what an AGS system is.

RKins, I got it. Keep the switch in "use" so the batteries will be charged with the 120vac from my home

Will the 120vac from the house also charge the engine batteries?
Or should I connect a battery tender on the engine batteries?

AGS (automatic generator start) system. When I had my Newmar I set mine up for automatically starting my generator if my batteries dropped to a certain level. I know other owners have set them up differently if they had pets so the generator would come on as soon as the shore power went out. This would ensure that if you left your fur baby locked in your motorhome all day while you were away and lost power, he/she would still have climate control if the power was lost.

 

[Neal]

Coaches are obviously different but for my coach to connect to 120V 15A outlet I need to change my settings first on the EMS that's in my coach to tell it that the connection is 15A not 30 or 50 it defaults to. I also need to change my inverter setting for the charge options to also tell it 15A instead of 30. You could then just try it for a few days then go in your coach and see what your battery level is. If you're showing fully charged then you know it's working.

 

[DHudson]

I got a 2000 Dutch Star DP 3858. I plugged mine into 120 AC and it charges my house batteries for sure. Didn't have to have the "Use" switch on. How ever, it turns on anytime I plug into 120.
As far as running a AC, no, mine won't even power a vacuum cleaner.

 

[RKins]

@DHudson do you have a BIRD system in your coach (see above). What do you have for battery banks? Do you have an inverter in your Electrical Bay? (Some have 2 750W inverters there.