Parkliner Electrical System & AGM Battery Charging-Maintaining

[accrete]

Greetings,
I have a 2013 Parkliner and the specs state under systems:

"45 Amp power converter w/120VAC/12VDC, breakers & fuses respectively"

What i'm wondering, from any who've dabbled in the electronic & battery systems is if i should look into getting a battery maintainer/optimizer that may be better suited to care for the 2 12v Optima Blue Top 120 AH AGM batteries inside the rig.

Here is how i see us utilizing our rig for the foreseeable future:
Five day trips away from shore power with the battery bank powering the LED lights and charging items such as our tablet/smart phones/RC battery packs/etc and typical water pump usage. No other items needing power from the 240AH battery bank at this time. I don't really need to do much math to determine that we will be fine for the typical 4 to 5 days max we find ourselves unplugged...So my question...

Once back at home we have 30 amp service to the rig and keep it plugged in and a small heater going inside during damp times and the front shower window open for circulation. I am wondering if the built in 45 amp system is proper for maintaining the Blue Top optimas or if i should spring for something like the Optima charger/maintainer? The small cost is not a big deal, i'm more concerned with what is proper to do for the life of the AGM batteries. When i had my HAM radio shack in the Stick-Built home i had a charger specifically designed to maintain AGM batteries and i got several years use out of them.

Thanks for sharing any insights.
Thom

[David B.]

Since Park Liner uses the AGM tech , did they use a converter/charger that has the proper charging capability? If not, I don't know if there is a circuit breaker that would only turn off the charger part of the converter, or if more extensive disconnecting of the charge circuit would need to be preformed, but I would rely on a proper AGM maintainer in order to get my monies worth out of those expensive batteries.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by accrete

Greetings,
I have a 2013 Parkliner and the specs state under systems:

"45 Amp power converter w/120VAC/12VDC, breakers & fuses respectively"

What i'm wondering, from any who've dabbled in the electronic & battery systems is if i should look into getting a battery maintainer/optimizer that may be better suited to care for the 2 12v Optima Blue Top 120 AH AGM batteries inside the rig.

Here is how i see us utilizing our rig for the foreseeable future:
Five day trips away from shore power with the battery bank powering the LED lights and charging items such as our tablet/smart phones/RC battery packs/etc and typical water pump usage. No other items needing power from the 240AH battery bank at this time. I don't really need to do much math to determine that we will be fine for the typical 4 to 5 days max we find ourselves unplugged...So my question...

Once back at home we have 30 amp service to the rig and keep it plugged in and a small heater going inside during damp times and the front shower window open for circulation. I am wondering if the built in 45 amp system is proper for maintaining the Blue Top optimas or if i should spring for something like the Optima charger/maintainer? The small cost is not a big deal, i'm more concerned with what is proper to do for the life of the AGM batteries. When i had my HAM radio shack in the Stick-Built home i had a charger specifically designed to maintain AGM batteries and i got several years use out of them.

Thanks for sharing any insights.
Thom

I think you might want to check with converter manual to see how it handles maintaining your battery. If you decide that the battery life would be improved with an external battery maintainer, then find the circuit breaker that turns for the converter. Just turn it off, the maintainer will maintain the battery or batteries at full charge. The batteries will still power the 12 volt system.
This is exactly what I do. I have a different converter, mine is "American" when a poor charging algorithm for charging and maintaining batteries.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by accrete

I have a 2013 Parkliner and the specs state under systems:

"45 Amp power converter w/120VAC/12VDC, breakers & fuses respectively"

Unfortunately that doesn't say anything at all about the type of converter, so there is no indication of how well it works as a charger. I would read the manufacturer's documentation which should have been included with the trailer; if not included, I would look at the brand and model and look it up online.

[Jeff in OC]

Thom if I remember correctly you have a progressive dynamic 4045 in your trailer which is what I have as well and I have AGM battries to. There should be a jumper plug in the upper left hand corner that is for gel and AGM battries to regulate the voltage to charge them because it is different than a wet battery. Twist the wires together and plug it in. That will keep them from overcharging them.

[accrete]

thx for the tip Jeff, i'll take a look.
...and it was nice chatting with you at the NOG ( : if U R that Jeff! : )

[Ed Harris]

Thom

If you are a Ham and have already dealt with this issue in the shack then you certainly already know the answer to your own question?

I would not trust any standard converter that is tasked with both battery maintenance and power conversion and distribution to do the same job with my battery bank that a High End dedicated intelligent battery charging system would do.

I like the Xantrex line in the mainstream but a friend of mine whose company installs and maintains HF rigs in Navy vessels uses and swears by the Newmar supplies for Marine use and shore powered charging almost exclusively.

I have found several of them on Ebay for reasonable prices and that is what I power/Charge my shacks and portable field stations with and would use in the Casita if I was concerned about the bank performance overall.

As it is I use a Xantrex 20 amp charger when I charge large banks in the field and according to Xantrex they are usable as a Power Supply to run the other trailer loads at the same time especially when buffered by the battery bank they are charging.

I don't know any details of your converter but I have not seen any that I would trust expensive batteries to.

Ed

[Brian M. in NY]

Thom,
I just found this thread and pulled out the manual for the Progressive Dynamics controller that came with our PL. I assume you have the same. It states that there are three charging modes. If the battery voltage falls below a preset level, the controller will put out 14.4 v for rapid charging. When fully charged, the output drops to "Normal" mode at 13.6v. If no battery drain is sensed for ~30 hours, the controller goes into "Storage mode" at 13.2 v. Then every 21 hours, the voltage goes up to 14.4 for 15 minutes to prevent plate sulfation.

I was going to put on my Schumacher battery maintainer, but based on the above, I'm just going to hook back up to the 30 amp plug on the side of the house and let the controller do its thing. Have you discovered anything that would run contrary to this thinking?

[accrete]

i too would assume we have the same units inside...i need to spend some time reading. . . today was my _repair_ the _rub_ day. We are in the midst of several unusually warm and dry days here on the Oregon coast so it was perfect for the fiberglass/epoxy painting project.

[LindaK]

You may also want to check out this link: Battery Vent? - evolutionm.net Scroll down on this forum to 'Optima Jim.' He is a tech for Optima battery.
Linda

[accrete]

Hi Linda, that was such good info in the link you shared i'm quoting it for any of our eggFamily visitors here: (also, _this link_ will take you to the original post)

QUOTE:

Hello, I noticed your conversation and wanted to offer some assistance. Even though our batteries have a “sealed” design, all lead-acid batteries can vent gas. Under normal operating conditions, an AGM battery will not vent gas. Since alternators or chargers can fail, the safest and correct mounting method for trunks and passenger compartments is to make sure that any possible gas venting will escape to the outside of the vehicle. All vehicles with original equipment battery locations in the trunks or passenger compartments will have a vent provision that should be used.

Our group 27, 51, 34C, and 31 batteries all have ports for connecting a vent hose. Although people do it anyway, we would never recommend installing an unvented battery in any enclosed space, because there's a legitimate, albeit unlikely, safety risk involved.

For example, IF there is a voltage regulator failure, and IF the battery is severely overcharged, and IF this goes unnoticed, and IF the battery vents because the internal pressure exceeds the release pressure of the vents, the gasses are both flammable and toxic. This may sound like a lot of “ifs,” but attorneys and engineers get paid to plan for every worst-case scenario. If anyone has any questions about our batteries, I'll do my best to answer them.


Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
www.facebook.com/optimabatteries

[Carol H]

Thom you may want to check out the current thread Battery Problem in Parkliner if you havent already.

[gmw photos]

One method I have found works well for my motorcycle battery is to use a Battery Tender. They claim "you can" leave it plugged in all the time, but I have also seen some comments that it should be unplugged every few weeks or so. My solution has been to put the charger on a digital timer that plugs into the 120V outlet, and set it to give one hour of charge time per day. This has worked well for several years for me.
I do the same method with a small battery powered inverter that I use for location photography to power my studio strobes. Again, this has maintained the small 12V AGM battery perfectly.

[accrete]

Greetings

Carol...thx for the link, yes, i've been following the thread. Interesting info.

George, thx for the battery-health tips.
Related...i regularly _unplug_ (it is actually a quick disconnect switch) our two 6volt house batteries in our 38ft Mobile Suite just to run them down a bit so i'm familiar with the principle. I've also chosen to not have our Parkliner plugged into shore power all the time.

I'm still digesting the info shared by others in this thread, and now, over at the other thread mentioned by Carol. I've made no decisions as to how i'm going to proceed on our #35. Our unit is probably a bit unique in that since i requested the 15 gallon fresh tank to be relocated on the curb side, Chandler had a battery box created under the street side bench since there was so much room available. There isn't much room for movement inside.

[mrscottyg]

From the Optima battery User's Guide:

An Optima is an AGM battery, not a gel battery or regular flooded acid battery.
Most modern battery chargers, including OPTIMA Chargers, have a built-in AGM charge setting, which should be used for your Optima. If purchasing a new battery charger, make sure it has AGM compatibility or a separate AGM setting. Do not use gel or gel/AGM settings, as this will not fully charge an Optima and can damage it over time.

Based on this, Thom, I would recommend NOT putting the converter into gel mode.

[accrete]

Yuppers...& thx for the info... I had no intention to switch as I had previously stated... I know the difference between Gel @ AGM from my Ham shack builds.