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Old 03-07-2015, 04:24 PM   #1
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: Hurricane 34E
State: Texas
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THOR #1599
Hurricane 34E electric question

So when I am driving down the road traveling, with LP off, and the Generator off, but have the "Kill" switch on.....is the engine alternator charging the house batteries? Also, will the refrigerator only work under these conditions with the house battery powering it? I.E...the kill switch on? Hope this is a clear question, and thanks!!

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Old 03-08-2015, 03:21 AM   #2
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Originally Posted by Tytlfamily View Post
So when I am driving down the road traveling, with LP off, and the Generator off, but have the "Kill" switch on.....is the engine alternator charging the house batteries? Also, will the refrigerator only work under these conditions with the house battery powering it? I.E...the kill switch on? Hope this is a clear question, and thanks!!
Most units do not charge the house batteries with the engine alternator. If you have an inverter in the coach the inverter will allow the refrigerator to run off the house batteries until (whichever occurs first) 1) you start the generator, 2) you plug into shore power, 3) you open the propane to allow the frig to run off LP or 4) the house batteries go dead.

Not sure about the Hurricane, but my Challenger has a feature, that if turned on, will automatically start the generator when the house battery charge drops below a certain level. Since the Challenger has a residential refrigerator the house batteries are critical because I can't switch over to LP.
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Old 03-08-2015, 04:15 AM   #3
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Actually, my coach charges the house batteries from the engine battery. Whether or not this is unique to Class C coaches I don't know. But there is an Intellitec Isolator Relay Delay/E auto switch installed that accomplishes this.

http://www.intellitec.com/assets/pdf...-00629-120.pdf

One way to tell for sure is if you are comfortable with a voltmeter, to put the voltmeter on your coach batteries. Then start the engine. After about 5~10 seconds, you should see a very slight increase in voltage - it's almost not noticeable, and only around 1Volt.

The increase in voltage is the charge voltage from the engine's alternator. The delay is so that the engine can briefly warm up before starting to charge the coach batteries.

If your coach exhibits the voltage increase as described above, then the alternator is likely charging your coach batteries.

If you find that is the case, run the test again with the kill switch off, and see if there is the telltale increase in voltage about 5~10 seconds after engine start.
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Old 03-08-2015, 11:48 AM   #4
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Actually, my coach charges the house batteries from the engine battery. Whether or not this is unique to Class C coaches I don't know. But there is an Intellitec Isolator Relay Delay/E auto switch installed that accomplishes this.
After some further research I am going to retract my prior statement.

Contrary to what I was told by a Thor rep at a show and by the dealer it appears my coach does charge the house batteries when the engine is running.

Here is the quote from page 93 of the 2015 Challenger owners manual

"The auxiliary batteries are recharged by the power converter when the motorhome is attached to an outside 120 volt power source, or by the generator when it is running, and by the chassis alternator when the chassis engine is running."

Note: although the manual is listed on Thor's site as a 2015 Challenger manual the front cover says it is generic to all Class B, C and A motor homes. It is a different manual than the one I was provided when I bought the coach.

Sorry of any confusion.

Sorry for any confusion.
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Old 03-08-2015, 11:56 AM   #5
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I wonder if your camper also makes use of the FW221 battery circuit. From what I'm seeing it appears to be a standard part on many motor homes.

For more info on that circuit--including a comprehensive manual see this thread:
http://www.thorforums.com/forums/f8/...-box-1203.html
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Old 03-08-2015, 12:58 PM   #6
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You can always do the simple test with the voltmeter to find out for sure.
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Old 03-08-2015, 02:14 PM   #7
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You can always do the simple test with the voltmeter to find out for sure.
The voltmeter is coming out today.

Since I want to take this coach out for its shakedown this coming weekend I will also roll it down the road without the generator running and will all systems going and see what the battery drain is between points A and B. In my former class C the battery drain based on the battery sensor was about 1/3 over an eight hour trip. That coach however used LP for the frig when I didn't run the generator.
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Old 03-08-2015, 06:27 PM   #8
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Well i am out now in the coach, drove 4 hours with refrig and interior lights on.. The house batteries on the monitor panel always showed completely charged.. The refrig definitely takes a long time to cool down on only 12v though.
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Old 03-09-2015, 06:46 AM   #9
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Well i am out now in the coach, drove 4 hours with refrig and interior lights on.. The house batteries on the monitor panel always showed completely charged.. The refrig definitely takes a long time to cool down on only 12v though.
One of the surprises when we went from boats to RVs is the refrigerator. In our boat, we did not have any LP on board at all. We had an Alcohol/Electric stove, microwave, heat pump air conditioners, and 120VAC/12VDC refrigerator. Generally, the less explosive gas on a boat the better (sailboats though commonly use LP).

For the 'fridge, yea... it is marginal running on just 12VDC. When running on battery, it is better for maintaining already cold temps rather than initial cooling.

I don't know if you do this, but we used to do the initial cool down on 120VAC before leaving the dock on a trip, and used 12V just to keep things cold between ports.

That seemed to work pretty well.
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