We have a 1996 GS Class C, on a Chevy G30 chassis, so I can help. Good News. Since you have engine battery under the hood and another battery near the generator, you already HAVE a house or RV battery. You will need to do some wire tracing with a bright flashlight and terminal tightening with a small screwdriver. If any of these wires are missing, your only cost is some hunks of wire and a few terminals/fuses.
1. Start at the front under the hood and there will be a large #4 copper cable, usually red in color from the alternator to the engine battery. It may have some connectors and fusible links, but this is your primary source of power.
2. There should be a second #4 large copper cable going from the engine battery (or terminal block near it) to the rear battery. This is to recharge the rear battery from the engine. There should be an isolator or solenoid inline to prevent house battery from draining the engine battery, leading to a no-start-situation.
3. The house battery will have at least a #10 wire up to a size #4 wire going from the battery to the converter box. On your 92 model, this most likely is a tan/brown metal box with the 110 volt breakers, and multiple 12 volt fuses. Use the small screwdriver to tighten all the screws on the 12 volt side on the wires at the bottom. Danger: do not touch 110 volt side unless unplugged and gen off. The converter CAN recharge the house battery but only about 4 amps at a time, so it will take overnight.
4. The generator feeds into the same converter box, usually thru a metal relay box that auto-switches between the power cord and the gen feed. If your battery is next to the gen, probably the same wiring path is used for all the wires.
5. There has to be a common ground to all these points...usually the metal chassis frame. Grounds have a habit of dirt, corrosion, and rust breaking the ground connection. A Dremel wire brush, sandpaper, and tube of dielectric grease fixes the connection.
On our motorhome, the house battery is under the entrance step in a box that is vented to the outside. I am surprised the factory would mount your battery next to the generator with all that heat, vibration, that are not ideal conditions for a battery. It saved them money for wire. The house battery usually has direct connections for generator start, slideout motors, that do NOT go thru the converter box. On a 92 model, you probably do NOT have an inverter, power management system or voltage interrupter to add complexity to your system.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim Brennan
Hi... new to Rving and bought a '92 Conquest that I'm restoring. It has a generator with a vehicle battery to start it, but I don't seem to have a "house" battery - or the provision to install one. The owners manual only mentions shore power or the generator for electric.
So, is there no house battery system?
How could I install one?
Thanks!
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