Quote:
Originally Posted by mcgyver210
I was comparing specs to our WFCO 8955 & they are very close although the crossover for ours is the PD4655. Looks like TM already did a pretty good upgrade on the newer ones.
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Do yourself a favor. Run the batteries down then plug in the converter. Immediately check the voltage and amperage at the converter, then check the voltage and amperage at the batteries. I think that you may be surprised at what you find.
The travel from the converter
to the batteries and back is about ~40'. Because of the wire size used, the voltage drop is great. Even if your converter is putting out 14.4V, the batteries may only see ~13.4V. Maintenance charge is even worse. When the converter is putting out a 13.8V maintenance charge, the batteries may only see about 12.9V (due to wire resistance). That is not enough to keep the battery fully charged.
Most people feel that if they put a bigger converter on their camper, it will solve this issue. Not true. It doesn't matter if you have a 15A converter or an 80A converter. It's all about the voltage that's able to make it to the batteries. Amperage has nothing to do with it.
This is why the converter should not be used as a primary source for charging and maintaining the batteries (unless the converter is within a few feet of the batteries and/or the appropriate wire size is used). A "Smart" battery charger hooked directly to the battery bank maintains the batteries better than the best converter that you can buy if the converter is mounted 20' away and only uses 10g wire to handle the current.
That is why I re-mounted my new converter right next to my batteries. I get the full voltage and I get 45A (at full charge) at the batteries. When the same converter was mounted in the back of the trailer, the best that I could get was 25A and when the converter was putting out 14.4V, I was getting 13.4V at the batteries. When my batteries get low, I can get a 90% charge in 2 hours on the generator. That used to take 10 hrs of generator run time when the smaller converter was mounted in the back of the camper. Even then, I could never get a full charge.
That reading is 47.2 amps.
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