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Old 08-20-2017, 10:32 PM   #21
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Here's a couple of tidbits that may help. I also purchased a used (2015) GT just a few months ago. I figured out the batteries would not hold a charge, similar to you. I found out just recently that I was not getting a charge from the alternator... the dealer found there was a blown 125A (150A ?) fuse that prevented this from happening. Now I have two new Lifeline GPL-4CT 220Ah 6V batteries and I also get a charge from driving that I never had before so life is good. (had to pay to enlarge my battery boxes to house the larger batteries, so watch out)

So I recommend you change those batteries to whatever you like, but also have the dealer check that darn fuse.

Here's an insight to interpreting those battery voltage readouts... during a charge, extra voltage (with amperage) is being poured into the batteries to boost their level... imagine pouring too much water into a sponge to fully saturate it... then, when you stop pouring energy into them, they soon report their true voltage level. So, a 13.2V readout during charging is not what your batteries are able to generate on their own... 12.8 or 12.9 is full charge. Try not to let them get below 12.2 (50% charge) in order to preserve their life.

Of course, if someone wiser has comment to correct me on this, feel free.
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Old 08-24-2017, 06:55 AM   #22
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Any idea where that fuse was located?
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Old 08-24-2017, 11:39 AM   #23
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Inverter settings to preserve battery ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by DougWV View Post
Any idea where that fuse was located?

Fuse is located on Sprinter battery under drives feet. Photos of fuse block attached. Fuse is the one missing from second photo attached.
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Old 08-24-2017, 05:42 PM   #24
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I want to share the little gadget that monitor battery voltage and sends the data via Bluetooth to your phone, has a sleek app, can display historical graphs of voltage during charging and overnight consumption, saves me a bunch of trips to the back of my 2014.5 AI to look at the display panel, especially at nights worrying if there's enough juice left to run the water pump to brush my teeth next morning. Using the info from the app, I found that 2 of the 4 Group 24 80Ah were marginal in holding charges, I replaced them at Costco midway through our 2 months cross county trip, right in the parking lot! I bought it from Amazon for $36 and mounted it on the fourth battery wired in parallel. The fridge uses the most power, on one of the attached screenshots where the voltage flat lined is when we turn it off to defrost, then jumped when we drove and tapering when we parked.
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Old 08-24-2017, 07:12 PM   #25
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Air99 View Post
I want to share the little gadget that monitor battery voltage and sends the data via Bluetooth to your phone, has a sleek app, can display historical graphs of voltage during charging and overnight consumption, saves me a bunch of trips to the back of my 2014.5 ....
I bought it from Amazon for $36 and mounted it on the fourth battery wired in parallel. ....

It would help if you could give us a link to product on Amazon. Or at least the name of the product so we could find it on Amazon.
Thanks,
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Old 08-24-2017, 07:22 PM   #26
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Sorry my bad its called Battery Monitor from Quicklink
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Old 08-24-2017, 07:42 PM   #27
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We're still on the road so here's additional info...Bluetooth connection is good up to 20 feet outside the vehicle, has about <0.03 volts differential vs my digital handheld meter, when it reads 12.0 volt and 0% battery left, the solar panel in the rig reads 60% so I think on my previous trip with only 2 batteries and it frequently read 10%, the batteries must be down to 10 volt range and that just ruined them.
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Old 08-25-2017, 06:23 AM   #28
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Regarding the fuse block connected to the positive post of the chassis battery under the drivers floorboard:
I ordered a spare of each fuse to have 'just in case'. Upon getting them I found that the bolt hole in each end of the fuse was a bit smaller than the post on the fuse block. I reamed them out to fit - easy while at home but not so easy if not discovered until I needed one on the road.

Air99:
How did the Battery Monitor inform you that 2 batteries were marginal (versus all four being semi-marginal), and which two were the culprit? I only see two terminals in the picture, and with all four in parallel, how can it distinguish which one(s)?

Probably a mechanical engineer showing my electrical ignorance, but what does a large voltage drop associated with the refrigerator tell you that the current meter on the Magnum battery monitor doesn't? Does a bad battery somehow exhibit different voltage drop associated with a given power consumption? I thought that the bad batteries that we hear so much about on this forum simply would not get to, or not hold, the high stabilized voltage associated with 100% charge. How is a battery deemed OK at 12.55 V per one of your pictures? Per Lifeline specs 12.55 V ~= 20% discharge. (Not 100-93 = 7% discharge.) So 12.55 is not OK if the battery was just connected to the charger and thought to be fully charged. Plus there is the battery temperature to consider, and battery type, etc. What am I missing?
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Old 08-25-2017, 02:29 PM   #29
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Air99 - thanks for info on the Quicklink Battery Monitor.
https://www.amazon.com/QUICKLYNKS-Ba.../dp/B01MT4583U
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Old 08-25-2017, 09:11 PM   #30
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Titus View Post

Air99:
How did the Battery Monitor inform you that 2 batteries were marginal (versus all four being semi-marginal), and which two were the culprit? I only see two terminals in the picture, and with all four in parallel, how can it distinguish which one(s)?

Probably a mechanical engineer showing my electrical ignorance, but what does a large voltage drop associated with the refrigerator tell you that the current meter on the Magnum battery monitor doesn't? Does a bad battery somehow exhibit different voltage drop associated with a given power consumption? I thought that the bad batteries that we hear so much about on this forum simply would not get to, or not hold, the high stabilized voltage associated with 100% charge. How is a battery deemed OK at 12.55 V per one of your pictures? Per Lifeline specs 12.55 V ~= 20% discharge. (Not 100-93 = 7% discharge.) So 12.55 is not OK if the battery was just connected to the charger and thought to be fully charged. Plus there is the battery temperature to consider, and battery type, etc. What am I missing?

Sorry for the confusion, I have been using the BT battery monitor over several months now, first on 2 newer batteries then added 2 older batteries for this long trip, after trying to revive them (using separate charger in my garage), thinking 2 good plus 2 so so batteries setup still give me some margin for couple nights of boondocks. With historical graphs of actual overnights voltage drawdown, I can clearly see that the 2 older batteries dragged the system voltage down steeper hour by hour than the 2 good ones by themselves. By replacing them I now have 4 new batteries that can hold a charge quite a bit longer and the voltage drop is much more gradual overnight. They are Interstate branded RV deep cycle group 24 from Costco. The graphs are screenshots of system in use with all parasitic draws minus the fridge, not bench tests. We are still on the road and able to keep them charged by just driving 2-3 hours a day without shore power for the last 14 days, the lowest readout was 12.09 in the morning, most average around 12.22 and the rig Sunexplorer panel showed 65%. I'm okay with this setup but observed that the charging profile while driving is probably good for 80% but not quite up to 100% like when plugged into shore power overnight allowing it to go through a complete bulk/absorb/float stages that take several hours to achieve. Again I observed and compared many overnight graphs hour by hour to see the difference. To me lead acid battery charging is not very efficient as I observed using this nifty device.
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Old 08-26-2017, 12:09 AM   #31
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Related to this discussion, has anyone installed additional house batteries, in order to get more boondocking time?
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Old 08-30-2017, 06:07 PM   #32
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Related to this discussion, has anyone installed additional house batteries, in order to get more boondocking time?
We are going to do so, with Airstream OEM battery cases and standard Lifeline batteries. Scheduled for September 7, unless the hurricane has screwed things up.

FYI we are able to boondock successfully by turning off LPG and the freezer (leaving the refrigerator running). Battery usage drops to about 70% by morning per SunExplorer.
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Old 10-13-2017, 03:03 AM   #33
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Fuse is located on Sprinter battery under drives feet. Photos of fuse block attached. Fuse is the one missing from second photo attached.


Thanks Tronadora.

Boxster, was there anything to removing this fuse besides simply removing the bolts? IR did you have to disconnect or disengage anything prior ? Thanks in advance.
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