Thank you so much to everyone who responded to my thread about my coach battery not charging from my alternator. You gave me excellent insights that have me thinkin'....
Flash forward to this morning, when I received some good news: overnight, looks like my new Norco Genius was able to revive my completely discharged Deka Gold coach battery, which wasn’t otherwise charging for me. It was only two months old but I’d previously given up on it because I’d discharged it a few too many times and had a tech tell me it was never coming back from the dead. In the interim I invested in a new Duralast Platinum AGM coach battery, so now I’m wondering what to do with the 50lbs of lead sitting on my kitchen floor. I can take it over to Autozone for recycling and a $18 refund, but that seems like a waste. This has me pondering whether or not I could try daisy chaining them together...but since these aren’t quite the same battery technology, I’m wondering if this is even possible and if so whether it's a good idea. BTW, I’m not sure what kind of starter battery I have…would have to go look.
If it is possible to connect a flooded lead-acid maintenance free battery with an AGM of roughly the same specs? And is all that would be needed is some 10awg wire + loop connectors, or do I need something fancier than that? Also, want to add a battery monitor into the mix…does it matter where I place the battery monitor (between batteries, or hanging off one or the other)?
One other thing I want to run by you folks…thanks to several on this list, I’ve decided to add some solar to my system sooner rather than later. I’m not looking to go totally solar, but just add a panel to keep my coach battery happy since the alternator doesn’t seem to be topping it off on short to medium trips between plug-ins. This is totally something I should outsource to a professional and normally wouldn’t even fantasize about DIY but dammit I go on amazon to look around and it just starts sounding so doable!
So here’s my plot: since I have a 2004, I’ve got that pesky no-good tv antenna + crank hanging out for no good reason. I was thinking why not pull that guy out, place a 100W flexible panel on the roof, and run the extension cable down through the opening (caulked up nice and good once in place), then down to a solar controller under the passenger lounge (have plenty o spare space under there) and then into my new AGM battery. I’d also want to hook up a battery monitor to that AGM as part of the process...I got a Bluetooth
12V battery monitor off amazon that has an iphone app. No reviews for it yet so it’s a risk, but it was only $25 so I just went for it.
So here’s my question: could someone look at the attached diagram and tell me if I’m totally insane and deluded for even entertaining such thoughts, or if I’m about to attempt something that will either blow out my electrical system or do bodily harm to self and/or assistant? I haven’t ordered any parts yet…only the battery monitor…but I included the components I’m considering. Would love to get some thoughts from some of you with solar experience in particular.
BTW on the solar, I like the idea of going with a flexible HQST panel that I can stick to the roof rather than deal with mounting it on my roof rack…I need to get up with a measuring tape verify that I’ll be able to do that, but if not I’d plan to go with another Renology 100 Watt panel.
Thank you in advance for any advice you can give.
~Angela