Charging Batteries with Generator

[east lake hunter]

What's the best way to charge your battery using a generator?  My generator has DC clips that can be attached to the battery for charging or should I just plug the generator into the PUP and let the converter handle the charging.

If I'm supposed to use the DC clips from the generator, do I need to unhook the battery from the PUP before charging it???

[austinado16]

If your battery is external and it's not hard to get to the terminals, I'd check the water level, top off with distilled as needed, and then hook to it directly.  Otherwise, plug your PUP into the generator's AC plug and let 'er rip.

[wavery]

I use a 25A, 3 stage "smart" battery charger with my generator.

I have a Honda EU2000i generator and it only puts out 10A with the internal charger.

My converter on my PU does a lousy job of chargeing the battery. It only puts out 12.5V, My battery charger will charge to 14V.

[zamboni]

I use a 25A, 3 stage "smart" battery charger with my generator.

What charger do you use?  Or did you add the "IQ4" smart plugin to your existing charger?

I have an AGM battery, which can take a tremendous amount of current (claims unlimited) to charge the battery extremely rapidly.  Being 100 AH, it can easily handle charging at 400 amps... if I could give it that!

Given that the Honda 2000 will sustain 1600 watts (continuous), that could give me 133 amps at 12v... if I could find a way to harness all that power...

[zamboni]

One more thing to consider...

The Iota chargers have a phone-sized plug (where the smart plugin goes).  However, if you plug the "Dual-Voltage Jack" into it (should be taped to your manual- looks like a 1-inch phone wire), it turns your converter to a one-stage BULK charger at 14.2V.  You want to be careful to not over-charge your battery, but the dealer said this is the FASTEST way to make your camper's converter charge your battery as the 3-stage charger will back off the voltage as it reaches about 80% of battery capacity and go into "absorption charge" mode.