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Battery charging question
I have a question for all you 12v and battery gurus out there. I am upgrading my WFCO converter/charger to a Progressive Dynamics 4655. We dry camp in the National Parks and Forests a lot and the PD4655 has the capability to manually choose the charging mode. This means I will, hopefully, be able keep the charger in the 55 amp charging mode for the full hour+ that I run my generator and put as many amp hours back into the house batteries as possible in a short period of time.
However, the way the charging system is set up in the Axis (and most - if not all - Thor RVs), when the generator is running the Trombetta is opened and both the chassis and house batteries are charged at the same time. Since the house batteries will be around 12v when I turn on the generator, it is not possible to over charge them in an hour or so of generator time. However, the chassis battery will probably start out in the 12.5v range.
My first question is - should I worry about over charging the chassis battery if I keep the PD4655 in the high charge mode for a hour or so to put the maximum charge on my house batteries.
My second question is - since I want to put the maximum number of amp hours back into the house batteries, is it necessary to put a circuit breaker between the house battery and the Trombetta to keep the chassis battery from being charged when I want all the charging amps to go to the house batteries? I don't really understand how the charger charges the three batteries (two house and one chassis). Does it divide the 55 charging amps among the three batteries equally? Is there someway that it senses the voltage in the batteries and charges the lower voltage batteries at a higher rate? If it charges the batteries equally, it seems to me that unless I isolate the house and chassis batteries, I will only be putting in 2/3 of the charging amps into the house batteries and could overcharge the chassis battery over multiple days of running the generator
My high school physics 50+ years ago leaves this a little fuzzy.
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