Recent content by Van Go

Thanks again for your input.

Thank you all for your input. I think I will look for campgrounds with power. But, I will take the battery, inverter, and shore charger with me. I have made it 2 nights with a full battery before. So, I am not sure if the CPAP pulls as much amperage as listed. I can survive one night without it...

Thanks HDR. I can see that this will not work with what I've got. I guess I need to look for campgrounds with 120v hook-ups. Thanks for your help.

I use the 80% figure because I have read that you can get there pretty quickly, but the last 20% takes time.

The battery will be in the bed of the truck. So it sounds like you're talking several hours a day driving to get the battery to full charge. Would it hurt the battery to get to say 80% charge daily for a few weeks? I don't have much $ to spend. This is just a 3 week trip. And may be the last one...

I think the stock alternator is 70 amp.

yes, I understand. it is a 55 amp hour battery. I'm estimating I will run it down 20 % each night. (I don't know how to convert 1.25 amps at 24 volts to x-amps at 12 volts.) If I drive an hour or two a day could I at least keep it at 80% charge for 3 weeks. I don't think that would kill this...

I have a 2002 Toyota Tacoma 4-banger that I'm going to camp in for about 3 weeks. I need to charge an Optima house battery (blue top) from my stock alternator. I need the battery to run my CPAP machine (off a pure sine inverter). I need the simplest, cheapest way to do this. Would like to use...

Thanks for the link Mike. I have read the post before, but it is worth another read. My memory isn't what it used to be.

I want to thank everyone for their input. With my limited equipment and tools I feel much better about my battery charging. As Bob pointed out, a rested 12.8 voltage reading is acceptable. I'll just do the best I can with what I have and if I don't get as many cycles as I could in an ideal...

@Sternwake. Great info. Thanks. you wrote: The only way to really know if the AGM battery is fully charged is the by the amps flowing at absorption voltage. For this 55 AH capacity AGM battery, when amps taper to 0.275 at 14.7v at 77f then consider it fully charged. I'm going to get a clamp on...

My cheap 20-amp Schumaker battery charger has a magic green light. When the light comes on, the charger will not pump any more amps into the battery. After resting the battery, an Optima AGM 55 amp hour, I show 12.85 volts....one time 12.89 volts. Am I consistentlly undercharging this battery?

@sternwake, thanks for that very expansive reply. a lot of information there. I'm really just concerned that I might harm the converter by connecting a charger to the battery. you indicate that multiple charging sources are not a danger. i think that is the answer to my question. just don't want...

just to clarify things. I'm talking about the device that plugs into shore power and then provides 120vac and 12vdc

@op, thanks for pointing out the in vs. con thing. My original thought was like yours. If you charge your battery with your alternator, solar system, etc. you don't see people disconnecting the converter.