Double up output from Xantrex TrueCharge??

[FlyingCloud1937]

Originally Posted by smac999

why are you so fixated on a bad charger? charger is fine.


guy uses bow thruster and windlass at same time on water. blows acr fuse.


comes back to dock, plugs in. battery 1 charges battery 2 doesn't...

BECAUSE you said!

Originally Posted by smac999

I would run one lead to each battery. and not worry about the 3rd. it can provide all 20a to either battery.

Originally Posted by smac999

I always run both charger leads. gives redundancy.

[Sailor Bob 350]

I have almost your identical setup. 4 6V golf carts wired to a 30A charger, and a starting battery wired to the engine alternator. A Blue Sea combiner relay makes the engine charge the house bank and makes the charger charge the starting battery. Disconnected from both sources, the combiner relay shuts off and I can drain the house bank while the starting battery keeps a full charge.

Based on the meter on my shore charger, it rarely puts out more than 10A unless the batteries are really flat. So I'd give your 20A charger a try, it may be just fine. Once you are at the dock, it doesn't really matter if it takes 4 or 8 hours to get a full charge, you'll probably be there for a while.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Jon.
Yes.

[rwidman]

Originally Posted by pgijon

I'm in the midst of upgrading my house batteries from a single 12v group 29 to 4 6v batteries. The charge on board is a Xantrex 20A TrueCharge. With my new layout, I will only be charging the house batteries and will use an ACR to charge the reserve/starting battery. My question is can I combine 2 of the 3 output lines from the charger to double the charge available to the batteries?

Thanks
Jon

No, it's still 20 amps.

[EmeraldCoastSailor]

I am in similar situation as OP; I am upgrading my house from 2 Group 27s to 4 GC2 6 volt batts which will more than double my AH leaving my current Xantrex 20 amp (3 bank) charger as undersized (but still in good working order). Xantrex and others have said that it would be fine to add another charger (for a total of two working chargers) in order to increase charging capacity. I was thinking of adding a 40 amp charger. This would also provide a level of redundancy should one charger fail. Advice so far has been that the chargers are smart enough to live with each other. 60 total amps ought to be enough for 440 AH house arrangement.

Anyone have any thoughts on this approach?

[Scout 30]

I have the exact same set up with the same charger except I use the true charge 20 to charge the 4 T-105s & the second bank which is an Optima blue top. Since I have a small trawler the alternator keeps the batteries charged when under way. At the dock the 20 amp charger works fine for me. A bigger charger would charge faster but I don't need it.

[pgijon]

Thanks GordMay and everyone here. Sound like I'll keep the 20A Xantrex and see how things work.... Thanks again and Happy New Year to all!

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by smac999

well there has to be isolation otherwise the banks would just drain into each other with charger off. probably a common bus fed into 3 diodes to batteries. so there is a failure point. but like I said. the 3 other faults are still fully possible. blown charger fuse at battery. blown acr fuse, or bad acr. in those 3 cases 2nd charger wire still charges both batteries. with one charger feed. none or only one bank gets charged.

That's exactly what's inside.
A common + bus which feeds diodes to the output terminals via fuses on each leg.
I have one of these on the boat, but it's not been used in over two years as the boathas never been plugged in since 2012.
Boat runs entirely on solar and the LifePo4 cells are happy.
Lead is SO dead.