[whatsnewell]

Tom, I was reading your post about the battery merge switch. I've owned my coach now for almost 4.5 years, and I always leave the merge switch in the "off" position. I've used it twice when the engine batteries were low to start the engine, and once when the house batteries were low to start the generator. I have never replaced this switch, but, of course, it is rarely used in my scenario. When we are sitting in one place for a long time, and are plugged in the charger/converter keeps everything charged. I have a separate isolation switch for the engine batteries that I can flip and the charger cannot send a charge to them, but I leave it closed most of the time. With my solar panels, the house batteries are always getting a charge.....full, or trickle, or some where in between. Of course my coach is very low tech and does not consume a lot of battery power unless I am running the TV off the inverter, and now that most of our interior and exterior lights are LED the consumption has gone down a lot. When we are in travel mode and moving every few days the alternator is charging everything.