05-21-2024, 10:15 AM
The connection point on your coach between the alternator(chassis batteries) and the house side is the merge solenoid. If you have the large blue diode isolator, but I don’t think you do, the situation gets a little more complicated.
This is where you are going to have to do some homework on your specific coach.
In the electrical box in the engine bay, find the merge solenoid. Determine if the merge solenoid is automatically energized when the ignition switch is on. If it is, then you will have to disable that circuit. By keeping the merge solenoid inactive, the alternator will be isolated from the house batteries. Manually activating the merge solenoid would allow you to charge the batts from the alternator.
When you stare at that solenoid, the house is one side terminal, and the chassis is on the other side.
There are other ways as you have already mentioned. My OPINION, and it’s not the gospel, is that trying to charge lithiums from the alternator on a Series 60 unless it has a 50DN alternator is a problem going somewhere to happen. I have been running a lithium setup for 10 yrs now without ever charging from the alternator. We go pedestal to pedestal normally, and usually with the gen running the AC units. Others have different needs with regard to boondocking and energy management. It depends a lot on how you plan on using the coach.
This is where you are going to have to do some homework on your specific coach.
In the electrical box in the engine bay, find the merge solenoid. Determine if the merge solenoid is automatically energized when the ignition switch is on. If it is, then you will have to disable that circuit. By keeping the merge solenoid inactive, the alternator will be isolated from the house batteries. Manually activating the merge solenoid would allow you to charge the batts from the alternator.
When you stare at that solenoid, the house is one side terminal, and the chassis is on the other side.
There are other ways as you have already mentioned. My OPINION, and it’s not the gospel, is that trying to charge lithiums from the alternator on a Series 60 unless it has a 50DN alternator is a problem going somewhere to happen. I have been running a lithium setup for 10 yrs now without ever charging from the alternator. We go pedestal to pedestal normally, and usually with the gen running the AC units. Others have different needs with regard to boondocking and energy management. It depends a lot on how you plan on using the coach.
Richard and Rhonda Entrekin
99 Newell, 512
Maverick Hybrid Toad
Inverness, FL (when we're home
)