Trickle charging battery while still hooked-up

[cutbobbyc]

Sent: 4/1/2008

it doesn't seem like the converter is charging the deep cell battery ---  no more blinking light ---can i put a trinkle charger on it with out hurting the converter ? ---

[denisondc]

Sent: 4/1/2008

I don't know the year of your motorhome, & wouldn't know how sophisticated its converter would be anyway. Any converter will have diodes in its output to 'rectify' the 12 volt a.c. to 12 volt d.c. (though actually its more like 13 or 14 volts after its rectified). Unless one or both of those diodes have shorted out, they would block any juice from flowing back into the converter. But if the converter was really fancy, it could have a voltage sensing circuit on its output to the battery, for the purpose of lowering the charging current after the battery showed signs of being fully charged. Although I think it really unlikely, there is a small chance such a voltage sensing circuit could be damaged by voltage being fed to it from the 'battery side' when the 'converter side' was not working.
Personally I would put a trickle charger on it and not worry. A trickle charger (1 to 2 amp rating for instance) would keep the battery charged up, but probably should not be left on the battery for weeks/months when the RV is in storage and unused: Unless the charger itself is designed for the purpose of long term battery maintenance.

[cutbobbyc]

Sent: 02/04/2008

thanks for your input --- think i will go ahead and get that charger