Batteries, Electricity, Technical 
16 Comments Thoughts On Idling My Triton V-10 To Charge My RV Batteries
I don’t like to idle my vehicles, not even in cold weather. Idling my motorhome’s Triton V-10 engine for about an hour to charge my house batteries has just about been giving me hives, enthused as I am by this new-found charging ability.
Knowing that a little education goes a long way to calming my nerves, I did some research about the Triton V-10 engine and I now feel much, much better.
You can find Triton V-10s in buses, ambulances, and other service vehicles that frequently idle for long periods of time. I’m not saying that idling is good for the V-10, but it’s an engine that was built to withstand it.
Another thing that I should point out about my engine is that it has only 98,000KM on it (60,900 miles) and I have only put about 26,000KM (16,000 miles) on it in five years. There is no hope in hell that I will ever run see the end of the lifespan of that engine unless something really dramatic happens.
So the noise and the exhaust are going to still bug me, but I’m not going to let the alarmists freak me out anymore about idling my rig a few hours a week at about one gallon per hour.
As L said over lunch yesterday, that few hours a week won’t kill my engine and at about $3.50/gallon, I’d have to idle over 100 hours to get to the price of an additional solar panel. My stop gap measure to get the 5 to 15AH I’m missing on cloudy clouds is just fine until I get a better and more efficient charging solution.
One thing I realised tonight, though, is that I can only use my engine to charge during the day because no one in the boondocks wants to be blinded by my running lights! I don’t even know if the running lights can be disabled and I wouldn’t want to anyway, for fear that I would forget to hook them up again.
Today wound up being a bigger power use day than I would have expected because of the computer kerfuffle. We wound up having a lot more sun than expected, too. So between the solar panels and about an hour of alternator charging total today, I’m at 93% battery capacity, which is just about where I was this morning.
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Up in Terrace in the dead of winter one volunteer would gather up everyone’s keys, go out into the -20 weather and start all the cars in the parking lot about an hour before quitting time. If we did not do this we would all be stuck in the parking lot for fifteen minutes waiting for our windows to defrost. With the method we used we all got to head home in toasty warm vehicles. With square tires maybe, but warm inside. The idling never seemed to hurt anything and that was an hour or so every day for the whole really cold season.
Why don’t you like to idle your vehicles? It certainly will not hurt them. I’m just curious.
Croft, up in the Territories, some folks idle their cars 24/7 because they wouldn’t start again.
Bast, I don’t know. It just makes me feel restless. I’m just weird, but you know that. 😉
It’s good. I was just curious. (I like weird.)
There’s idling laws in BC, but I was uncomfortable with idling way before then.
My cars never warmed up on idle, only when driving. There wasn’t any point in running them more than 15 minutes.
Rae – agreed with L’s assessment and your conclusion. I’ve had V-10’s in my current and former motorhome’s and attest that they are tough! As to idling and your daytime running lights, you might try engaging the parking brake prior to starting the engine – that might work to keep the lights off (it does on my truck) – never tried it on my Moho as I have a Genny……
Interested to see how your AC issue works out as my dash AC in the Moho may need recharging…..
Following your power/panels/batteries discussion as I plan to install panels next year. I’m learning more by being quiet (for once) and listening/reading.
TTFN…..
Mike, that’s good thought about the parking brake, but mine is always on when it’s parked, so it’s obviously not wired that way. 🙁
I’ll be getting a can of Freon next time I go into town and will report about the results!
The summary of the electrical saga is:
1) older rigs are not wired heavily enough for today’s electrical needs
2) make sure your lugs/terminals are tightly crimped
3) make sure your connections are tight
4) watch out for sea salt in the air
5) voltage matters; big drops can provide clues about major issues
The issue with idling engines is that they don’t develop as much compression as when they are under load. This results in the piston rings not expanding as much onto the piston bore, and can result in glazing of the bore. You will know when this has happened because the exhaust will be giving up a blue coloured smoke, from burnt oil, which has leaked through the poor piston ring seal.
This was brought up on my Ford forum as well. I was advised that if I want to start idling two or three hours a day, every day, I should look into getting a high idle switch.
Just a crazy thought here but I wonder if running the heater or AC while it is idling would produce enough load?
Hmm… good thought. Will investigate this further.
Anyway, we’re talking a couple of hours every few days total to get about 20 amps total.
Idling high, won’t put a load on the engine, it will just rev faster. If you have a really high output alternator, that may do it, but remember vehicle engines are designed to move weight and that is the easiest way to put a load on.
Running the heater won’t put a load on, but the AC will, though how much I don’t know.
One way you could check is to compare how long it takes to get your engine up to temperature while driving, then see how long it takes, while idling with the AC on.
I was told that idling higher was better for the engine. Has nothing to do with the alternator output.
The 10A I get from the alternator are sufficient for my purposes.
I think you may have missed my point. Putting a load on your engine is better than not putting a load on your engine. Idling won’t put a load on your engine, whether you are running at low revs or high revs.
A high alternator output has everything to do with engine load in this situation, as a high enough alternator output will put a load on your engine, but not at 10 amps. You would have to go to well over 100 amps before your engine would take any notice of it.
I did miss your point. Thanks for the clarification.