Question About Charger Spiking While Running on Gen

[rick911]

hi all, 1st post here, glad to find this forum. I just purchased a 2001 maxum 2700 scr last month. my question is....while im running the generator I went to check to see if the charger was running to recharge my batts and the red light is on but the needle spikes from lets say 12 then spikes to 30 ish. while on shore power the charger runs fine, no spikes and turns to green light when charge done. is this normal? charger is a promariner promatic 30-3. if anyone can shine some light on this for me...
tks
rick911

[ranger58sb]

ProMariner tech support guys are pretty good at questions on the phone...

-Chris

[rick911]

called them and they could nothelp really...if anyone else could know why this is happening...

[Sailmonkey]

Is your generator a 3600 rpm Kohler? I've seen chargers not happy with the distorted sine wave from these units.

[rick911]

yes it is....kohler model 5E 3600rpm.

[Sailmonkey]

From what I've seen one some if these units, the output power is more like a square sine inverter than what shoreside power or slower generators produces. I have had some luck replacing the regulation capacitor to clean it up, otherwise you may need to get more creative.

[rick911]

how big of a project is that? what is needed to be replaced to solve it

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by rick911

called them and they could not help really.....

Surprising; they've always had a clue when I've spoken with 'em in the past.

Maybe a different question. If your genset doesn't put out pure sine wave power (seeing some of the other posts), maybe useful to ask ProMariner again:

"Is this charger expected to work well with genset power that's not pure sine wave?"

"If not, would the symptom be power spikes like I'm seeing?"

Or something like that...

I'm a firm believer in manufacturers knowing their products, and my expectations are "usually" met OK. Pester then to death, if necessary. (I haven't had to do that with ProMariner, though.)

-Chris