Your last generator Maintenance Run

[Patrick Herd]

The EVSE is not the charger, it's essentially an extension cord with a contactor in it and a small microcontroller that gives the car a square wave of certain duty cycle. The duty cycle of that square wave is what determines how much current the car will draw via its onboard charger.

If the EVSE is set to 6A, the car will draw a maximum of 6A regardless of whether it's 110V 200V or 240V.

 

[bdhsfz6]

A question for those who use a battery maintainer on their generator:

Is it safe to leave a maintainer connected to both the battery and A/C power while the generator is running? With vehicle batteries, either the A/C or DC side must be disconnected when the vehicle is moved. Not so with a stationary generator.

I had a BatteryMinder, which I used on dozens of batteries in boats, trailers and vehicles for over 30 years. I hooked it up the the battery on my generator and it worked fine leaving it connected to AC & DC while doing short maintenance runs. We had a 6+ hour outage a couple of days ago though and the BatteryMinder failed. It overheated and the case is noticeably swollen.

I'm planning on replacing it with a Noco Genius 10, which states in the manual that it is ok to leave both AC and DC connected.

Has anyone else had this problem? There is nothing in the BatteryMinder manual that says to disconnect it from a running engine. The unit was over 30 years old, maybe it was just its time.

 

[arto98607]

Good question about Battery Minder - need to disconnect or not?

I have several of them and have a habit of always disconnecting as a precaution before starting up car or truck...

 

[grsthegreat]

Depends on generator. A generac standby needs constant battery charging while operating during power outage. This is designed into the generator. Some generators have battery charging windings in alternator, some dont.

It depends on generator specifications.

 

[LittleBill21]

A question for those who use a battery maintainer on their generator:

Is it safe to leave a maintainer connected to both the battery and A/C power while the generator is running? With vehicle batteries, either the A/C or DC side must be disconnected when the vehicle is moved. Not so with a stationary generator.

I had a BatteryMinder, which I used on dozens of batteries in boats, trailers and vehicles for over 30 years. I hooked it up the the battery on my generator and it worked fine leaving it connected to AC & DC while doing short maintenance runs. We had a 6+ hour outage a couple of days ago though and the BatteryMinder failed. It overheated and the case is noticeably swollen.

I'm planning on replacing it with a Noco Genius 10, which states in the manual that it is ok to leave both AC and DC connected.

Has anyone else had this problem? There is nothing in the BatteryMinder manual that says to disconnect it from a running engine. The unit was over 30 years old, maybe it was just its time.

Rv's have multiple charging sources hooked up at all times. It can be solar generator and alternator at the same time, generally which ever unit has the highest voltage output will take the bulk of the load, i have read they sometimes get confused, but I have never seen it.

 

[mrmikey]

I try to remember to remove mine when starting my ZT, tractor or bike but I don't always, never had a problem...yet. Saying that, it's not running for a long time when it's connected.

 

[daugen]

finished maintenance on my rv gen this morning, changing out air filter element
after a year and 30 hours, but across the US and back. Slight change in color; I rarely use this gen,
normally plugged in at campground.

interesting adjustment on carb plainly marked to adjust based on elevation. First time I've seen that.
wiring connections had a little crud on them, cleaned them up and sprayed waxy oil on them. Cleaned everything up
with 303 protectant, ran the gen, put on my service stickees and job was done.

 

[Fallon]

Rv's have multiple charging sources hooked up at all times. It can be solar generator and alternator at the same time, generally which ever unit has the highest voltage output will take the bulk of the load, i have read they sometimes get confused, but I have never seen it.

My toy hauler has 400watts of solar connected all the time. It stays live even when towing or plugged into shore power. Multiple charge controllers or converters output 12v nominal with each other just fine.

 

[3930dave]

My comment was meant mainly as a joke. I would buy an EV for "green" reasons and running a diesel to charge it would defeat that purpose.

Sure, there are many practical industrial / commercial diesel-electric applications, but I'm talking about a small compact vehicle for around town use, not a hybrid

If I were going to regularly charge a small electric vehicle with a diesel generator, I would just buy a diesel powered vehicle instead.

Again, it was mostly a joke.

You/I view this landscape similarly/same.

But, I do like dzl/elec hybrids, as a platform. In fact,my favourite generator setup is much like 90Cummins has crafted. Not that this is new..... at scale, that is what we built (in sea-can sized containers) at my first Summer Job, in college..... more years ago than I care to count . That solution worked out well enough, that company was later bought by Cat Power.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

finished maintenance on my rv gen this morning, changing out air filter element
after a year and 30 hours, but across the US and back. Slight change in color; I rarely use this gen,
normally plugged in at campground.

interesting adjustment on carb plainly marked to adjust based on elevation. First time I've seen that.
wiring connections had a little crud on them, cleaned them up and sprayed waxy oil on them. Cleaned everything up
with 303 protectant, ran the gen, put on my service stickees and job was done.

Onan perhaps ?

I seem to recall seeing Elevation stickers on some RV Onans, once upon a time....

Rgds, D.