Foretravel Owners' Forum

Foretravel Motorhome Forums => Foretravel Tech Talk => Topic started by: Chuck & Jeannie on February 24, 2014, 09:05:27 am

Title: Shore Power Without Batteries?
Post by: Chuck & Jeannie on February 24, 2014, 09:05:27 am
I'm working on changing out my converter/charger, and general clean-up of batteries, battery bay, cables, etc.  I currently have all batteries (house and start) disconnected.  The old converter/charger is unplugged, but still in place.  I do not have shore power connected.  I'm waiting on some new "military style battery terminals" to get here from Amazon before I hook the batteries back up.  Although the weather is mild, it is possible we may have a light freeze in the next couple days.  Since the coach is not winterized, I have aux electric heaters in the wet bay and inside the coach to prevent freezing.

So my question is:  Can I connect shore power to the coach (so my AC powered heaters will function) with all the batteries totally disconnected (cables hanging loose)?  Any special precautions?
Title: Re: Shore Power Without Batteries?
Post by: fouroureye on February 24, 2014, 09:32:26 am
Chuck, my inside outlets are plugged through the inverter circuit except the vaccum and w/d hookup. Look at the color of the outlet plate. Seem to recall brown = inverter, almond/white straight 110 from the breaker pannel.

I would also, just to play it safe turn off the breaker to your systems not in service.

Just to make sure yours is like mine look at you pannel to see what is on the inverter circuit

110 is a seperate so it should work.
Hope this helps ^.^d
Title: Re: Shore Power Without Batteries?
Post by: Barry & Cindy on February 24, 2014, 09:54:13 am
Chuck,

Yes, you can plug in shore power. The only thing that crosses over between 120-volt and 12-volt is the converter charger. Just be sure the 120-volt breaker that powers the converter charger is turned off, so there will not be 12-volts at the disconnected battery cable end from the converter/charger. Probably a good idea to also tape up those cable ends.

We like the military battery terminals. We buy them at NAPA and my notes say that negative is NAPA p/n 78222, positive 78223. All our batteries have them and we carry spares. We also learned to not tighten battery post bolt just enough to snug it to post. We used to over tighten the bolt and over time, the terminals distorted and were also hard to remove without a screw driver to spread it apart each time.
Title: Re: Shore Power Without Batteries?
Post by: John Haygarth on February 24, 2014, 10:06:23 am
If the converter is unplugged there will not be 12v on those cable ends as no power to convert to 12v.
JohnH
Title: Re: Shore Power Without Batteries?
Post by: Chuck & Jeannie on February 24, 2014, 12:06:40 pm
I thought I would be OK plugging in, but Thanks for confirming that "opinion".  My "Opinions" sometimes get me in trouble - safer to solicit 2nd opinion from more experienced members!
Title: Re: Shore Power Without Batteries?
Post by: kenhat on February 25, 2014, 10:27:08 am
@Barry Checked napa online and P/N 78222/78223 was not found. The proper P/N is 728222/728223. In case anyone is having trouble finding them. ($9.54/$9.27 each)

see ya
ken
Title: Re: Shore Power Without Batteries?
Post by: Barry & Cindy on February 25, 2014, 10:56:34 am
Great part number work Ken. You always come through. Barry
Title: Re: Shore Power Without Batteries?
Post by: Chuck & Jeannie on February 25, 2014, 05:02:13 pm
I ordered 3 of these kits from Amazon:

NOCO TZKIT3 Lead-Free Military Grade Zinc Battery Terminal Kit : Amazon.com : (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DNU3MIG/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

Title: Re: Shore Power Without Batteries?
Post by: Barry & Cindy on February 25, 2014, 10:41:28 pm
By the way, some stores call these military terminals, including some NAPA store. They are heavy duty, just not heavy enough for us and we consider them un-military like. . .
Amazon.com: Pico 0810PT Military Style Top Post Battery Terminal 1 Set Positive (http://www.amazon.com/Pico-Military-Terminal-Positive-Negative/dp/B001QRTZR0) /ref=sr_1_2?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1393385331&sr=1-2&keywords=top+post+bat tery+terminal

I have only used the larger terminal like Ken's NAPA part numbers, in fact, one of the reasons we carry spare terminals, is that I cannot always find them when they are needed.
Title: Re: Shore Power Without Batteries?
Post by: philtravel on March 02, 2014, 09:22:02 am
Has anyone seen these type connectors in brass?