Thor Forums

[mtntrek]

Originally Posted by Hunter11

I know we have made a couple of trips of 8 hours on the road and had no problem running the fridge. When we stopped and got setup I checked the batteries in the control panel before plugging in and they were still above 12 volts.

We FT and generally find this to be the case also. If for some reason our travel day is longer or the drain is greater. We run the generator.
BTW, for the most part a resting state 12 VDC. is about 50% SOC and about where the Magnum shuts down the inverter. I don't feel you can ask your vehicles charging system to serve two masters without cooking your vehicles primary starting batteries. Perhaps with some sophisticated isolation circuitry. Our boat's large frame true high output alternator had massive heat sinks and such an isolation controller to protect the starting batteries.
Your deep cycle house bank really requires the bulk, and absorb, cycles the Magnum provides. Your TV basically supplies a float cycle while traveling.

Originally Posted by ;

How can I verify my truck is properly maintaining the RV batteries?

The best indication of your house banks SOC (State of Charge) will be a shunt type watt meter like solar folks use. Similar to a Trimetric etc. measuring watts in watts out.