Hi Jim,

The LVD should not be involved in your charging issue, as it is between the house batteries and the 12V PD4645 shore power charger, and not between the house batteries and truck batteries. If the LVD were disconnected, the shore power would not charge the house batteries. The connection between the alternator and the house batteries was originally through the positive truck battery to the 1315 isolator and on to the house battery positive connection. Charging the house batteries from the alternator should happen as long as the isolator relay is closed, it is as simple as that. If your alternator is not charging the house batteries it would indicate that the relay is open for some reason. When you modified the boost switch circuit to control the relay, it is probably working different from the original circuit, but that is a guess. The original Boost switch forced the relay to close regardless of voltages on either side. I suspect by using your switch to control the relay with the relay ground wire (negative side), you are simply turning the isolator electronics on or off, not the relay itself. If this were the case, the isolator will power up with your switch but will still use voltage sensing to open or close the relay, which could lead to charging or not charging depending on the battery types and resting/charging voltages. I suggest you wire your switch up to the original boost wire input to the relay, which would cause your switch to close the relay as you intend. However, this would not force the relay to open as your modified switch circuit does, so that configuration would not protect your alternator from the (probably small) risk of overworking to charge empty lithiums while driving.

I enjoyed reading your blog, especially your Chinook upgrades. I have a 1999 Concourse and I’ve done the house lithium battery upgrade you’ve done (2 X 100amp), including the PD4565LIV distribution box upgrade. My chassis start batteries are still lead acid. I recently swapped them out from AGM deep cycle marine to Interstate start batteries. I have the 7.3 Powerstroke that requires two start batteries.

I’m having an issue charging the house lithiums from the engine alternator that you might be able to help me with, but first I should mention an upgrade I’ve done to the battery separator circuit. I revised the solenoid circuit from positive to negative and swapped out the overhead battery combiner switch from a momentary switch to on/off. I can now open and close the solenoid at will allowing me to choose when to use alternator charging and/or disconnect the house from the start batteries. I really like it.

The problem I’m having is that when I close the solenoid, I’m not getting a charge to the house lithiums from the alternator. I was when I had the deep cycle AGMs under the hood, but since the battery swap I’m not. I still get voltage the other direction from solar, shore and generator power when the solenoid is closed, just not the other direction from the alternator. When I had the marine deep cycle AGMs under the hood, which held a higher voltage for a longer period, I would sometimes get current to the house batteries, but now I’m getting nothing at all. I’m thinking it’s the LVD sensing the voltage difference between the two battery banks that is not allowing current to flow to the lithiums. Would bypassing the LVD solve this?

I’d appreciate your input and possible solution on this issue! Feel free to give me a call and discuss.

Jim

Hi Keith,
Solar panels tend to run at higher voltage than 12V, and a 200-300 watt system won’t produce as many amps as your shore charger or alternator, for example. The wire runs to the panels are short and would most likely never reach 20 amps, so the wires can be smaller, in the 12-14 gage area. IN fact, the solar controller only allows connectors for wires in that range. The wires to the batteries carry a few more amps over a longer run, due to the slightly lower voltage. You could choose to increase the wire size to 8 or 10 gage, but the factory wires can be used safely if you don’t want to run new ones. I use the original wires with the fuse upgraded to 20 amps, and don’t have any problems with my 220W panels.

Did you ever solve this James? I’ve been reading through this thread and noticed your question. Which model Chinook? I have a 97 and I’m back where the manual is I can see if there’s a wiring diagram in there. Not sure it would be helpful.

Just purchased a 96 Concourse. Looking to swap out current dining area with 2 lazboy type chairs and lower profile table. Can you point me in the right direction? Thank you.

Hi Jim, Buying the Chinook was one of the best things we have done. We visited 48 states, 48 National Parks, driving about 48000 miles in about 48 months! We are on a long pause after Covid. We actually bought the Chinook so we could travel with our dog Troy, and now Troy is getting old and doesn’t enjoy traveling as much. Harmony is a great rig, and worth more today than what we paid 7 years ago! Hope you get the same opportunities and enjoyment in your retirement.

Its 2023 and I hope you and yours are ok. Your writings since 2016 are great and I am mimicing you too after retiring 12/31/21. Looking at a 1999 Chinook Premier with Ford V10 and 180k miles. For $30k. How did yours play out since 2016? I think the quality of these are tops so I might roll the dice!

Hi Chuck, there is a circuit breaker behind the front cover of the generator that may have tripped. You can join the Chinook RV Facebook groups to post questions, ideas, and experiences, and receive a lot of useful advice. Another owner had this breaker trip recently which turned out to be the reason her generator stopped putting out power.