Sounds like this thread is winding down, as Alan did some rewiring and improved his charging. Just wanted to throw in my recent experience w/charging, in case anyone else is considering charging alternatives.
I recently replaced my original Surepower 1314A separator with a Blue Sea 7611 ACR. When the separator was in place I would notice, after camping at night and driving the next day, that it would take a long time to bring the batteries up to full charge when the engine was running. I have a hefty solar panel bank on my Hawk roof (320W), so charging the camper batteries is not usually a big concern for me, but the slowness of charging when driving, on a cloudy day, bugged me. I attributed this to the separator not connecting when camper batteries were in the mid 12V or lower range. Anyway, I thought the 7611 ACR would be a simple and inexpensive experiment. I left all my original camper wiring the same, i.e., 10 AWG. Since replacing the separator w/the ACR I've noticed a significant improvement in charging. If, for example, I wake up one morning after camping and my batteries are, say, 82-85% capacity, which is typical for my usage, and my battery voltage is around 12.4-12.5, I can start my engine and the amperage going into the batteries is usually over 10A initially, according to my battery monitor (I've seen it as high as 15-16A). It will gradually drop off as the batteries become fully charged. Happens much faster than with the separator. After driving for an hour or two everything is 100%, and my camper batteries are in float mode.
So, just swapping the separator with the ACR and making no other changes did improve things for me. Plus, I now can keep my engine battery topped off w/solar, since the ACR joins the two battery banks and acts as one. Of course, having heavier gauge wire would improve charging even more, but at this point I don't really feel I need it.
Edited by radarcontact, 14 September 2019 - 02:33 PM.
