Continuous Duty Solenoid for RV Battery System

Question:

Is this coil rated fir extended use in the energized state or more suitable for momentary energized state. Need extended use. Will be used to join 2 batteries from the truck to 2 batteries in the bed to power my inverter when extra power is required.

asked by: Todd G

Expert Reply:

I checked with Bulldog and the # BDW20113 is really only rated for what Bulldog considers "momentary" or intermittent duty as opposed to some other solenoids and contactors that are designed for continuous duty. With that being said, the biggest concern would be the amperage of your batteries and whether or not a contactor like this would be able to handle the load that your batteries would place on it. The # BDW20113 has a continuous duty amp rating of up to 200 amps, which would be downgraded by over 50% for continuous duty (they were not able to provide an actual number).

The # BDW20204 has an intermittent duty amp rating of 450 amps and would provide around 200 amps under continuous loads and might be a better option. If you can give me an idea of the total amp rating on your batteries and how they're wired, I can look to see what we might have that would work for this type of application.

expert reply by: Erik B