Falcon 190 Isolator?

[glennm01]

I have a '92 InterVec Falcon 190 (Ford chassis), and I'm trying to figure out if it has a battery isolator in it or a continuous duty solenoid. Any other Falcon owners out there have insight on this?

Glenn
http://tosimplify.blogspot.com

[Mike]

Near the bottom of this thread, there's a Falcon owner bundy2230 who is available for q&a.
http://www.rvusa.com/forum/mbbs22/forum ... p?tid=4347
Here's another thread with some Falcon owners.
http://forums.woodalls.com/Index.cfm/fu ... 146271.cfm
and this one
http://www.goodsamers.com/members/forum ... page/2.cfm

I googled "1992 intervec falcon 190" to get them.
Do you have any sort of battery disconnect or battery disable/enable switch anywhere in your rig?
Might be a clue that there's an isolator or separator system in place.
Finding it might be a pita. Mine was attached to the inside of the frame just behind the front
passenger side wheel well/tire.

[glennm01]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the links. No battery disable switch that I'm aware of. I'll check the area where your isolator is first thing tomorrow. That's definitely one place I haven't checked!

Glenn
http://tosimplify.blogspot.com

[Mike]

Just to clarify, I have a Roadtrek 190.
However, these things can generate a fair bit of heat, so it isn't out of the realm
of possibility that it's near an area where there is free air flow.
If you know what they look like, and you don't mind a scavenger hunt, have a look
under yours, and you might find it.

[obiewan kanobe]

i have a 1986 model falcon 190 slf. isolators can be a problem. i recently disabled mine after a bad chain of events. i had upgraded my batteries to the heavy duty "dry" type (not really dry). isolators use heavy duty semiconductor diodes to feed power from one alternator to two batteries. the diodes will occasionally "punch through" due to environmental conditions or cheap manufacture. they can become shorted or an open circuit. if shorted, the fireworks begin. one battery can discharge the other or create a bad overcharge situation.

in my case, the 1986 dodge has an external voltage regulator. the regulator apparently gave out after 15 or so years of use in hot texas. the result was an overvoltage condition which destroyed the alternator and cooked the batteries. i am charging manually or through converter and shore power now.

i think the isolator will work with some refinements. the first is a battery disconnect for the coach battery. next would be some dash mounted gauges to monitor voltage and current in both circuits. this would also be a good time to make some modifications, allowing the veh to use the coach battery. i can do this now by moving wires on a terminal block in an emergency.

what you want to prevent is the chain failure i had. extra inline diodes may help, but, may drop a small amount of voltage. study your wiring set up and think ahead of what would happen for:
shorted battery
bad regulator
discharged or open battery
necessity to run chassis system off coach battery

have fun.

[glennm01]

obiewan,

Thanks for the input, and sorry to hear about the troubles. Can you tell me where exactly the isolator was located on your Falcon?

Thanks,
Glenn
http://tosimplify.blogspot.com

[obiewan kanobe]

on my '86 , it is mounted on the center firewall in the engine compartment. it usually has about three terminals , maybe 4x6 inches and looks like a heatsink for power transistors (sometimes). if you have to replace one, get two, they can be hard to find. the output wire from the alternatoe goes to one terminal (assuming an internal voltage regulator on a '92) the isolator splits this between batteries. one terminal for each battery. good idea to label which is coach and chassis battery very plainly so some mechanic doesn't screw it up when checking something. you may have some other safety diodes in the wiring somewhere . mine has something, i'm not sure (or can't remember) if it is diodes or inline circuit breakers. they are about an inch long. mine are mounted with two screws. these are not part of the isolator, but, could confuse you. they wont matter unless they blow like a fuse.

[Mike]

Originally Posted by obiewan kanobe

if you have to replace one, get two, they can be hard to find.

I picked one up in D/FW, TX at HDPSI who were the manufacturers of my original isolator. They
have a pretty wide selection of models and capacities, and they will ship to Canada (if you can't
swing by their warehouse). There's a downloadable catalog of what they have. The casing may be
a metallic blue or red in color.
Mine is set up for a GM AC/Delco alternator and had a casing rating of 130 amps but the person
I dealt with said they always put a bit more (diode capacity) inside than the label states. Not too
pricey either.
http://www.hdpsi.com/