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Old 05-01-2023, 04:15 PM   #21
Casey Freswick
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Default Answers?

Battery Brand: unbranded straw Chinese battery from the same company that Rick got his a lithium battery 2 years ago. Not totally pleased. But they did replace a battery that melted. (I think that was actually my fault, I had hot skin on my Trailmanor). Which I found with help from Rick and fixed.

Converter: PD 4655VL 55 Amp Converter Upgrade
switched to lithium.

All wiring is copper battery cable 6 gage wire except for a negative wire that is three strands of copper 20 Am 120 wire stripped and weaved together at the ends.

2 SCORPION® GDB10248G - One 1/0 Gauge Input and One 2/4 Gauge, Two 4 Gauge, Two 8 Gauge Outputs Gold Plated Ground Distribution Block more details on - https://www.carid.com/my-account/order-status/result/#

1500 watt pure sine wave inverter, I have used this with my computer numerous times.

Inverter generator

35 amp fuse that came with solar panels, a 80 amp circuit breaker from converter to battery, a 100 amp circuit breaker (I think) from battery to inverter, circuit breakers have shut off switches.

I am presently working on making a new panel with most of my wiring. I was not happy with my previous job and thought with the new solar addition I should reorganize my wiring.

I was blowing my 80 amp circuit breaker last fall between the converter battery charger and my batter. This is an issue I need to address before adding solar into the system. When using shore hook up everything works fine if I do not charge the battery. Need to check circuit breaker and battery charger. I am not planning on using solar and shore electric until I am sure everything is working. I am thinking of keeping both systems separate.
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Old 05-01-2023, 04:42 PM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Casey Freswick View Post
Battery Brand: unbranded straw Chinese battery from the same company that Rick got his a lithium battery 2 years ago. Not totally pleased. But they did replace a battery that melted. (I think that was actually my fault, I had hot skin on my Trailmanor). Which I found with help from Rick and fixed.

Converter: PD 4655VL 55 Amp Converter Upgrade
switched to lithium.

All wiring is copper battery cable 6 gage wire except for a negative wire that is three strands of copper 20 Am 120 wire stripped and weaved together at the ends.

2 SCORPION® GDB10248G - One 1/0 Gauge Input and One 2/4 Gauge, Two 4 Gauge, Two 8 Gauge Outputs Gold Plated Ground Distribution Block more details on - https://www.carid.com/my-account/order-status/result/#

1500 watt pure sine wave inverter, I have used this with my computer numerous times.

Inverter generator

35 amp fuse that came with solar panels, a 80 amp circuit breaker from converter to battery, a 100 amp circuit breaker (I think) from battery to inverter, circuit breakers have shut off switches.

I am presently working on making a new panel with most of my wiring. I was not happy with my previous job and thought with the new solar addition I should reorganize my wiring.

I was blowing my 80 amp circuit breaker last fall between the converter battery charger and my batter. This is an issue I need to address before adding solar into the system. When using shore hook up everything works fine if I do not charge the battery. Need to check circuit breaker and battery charger. I am not planning on using solar and shore electric until I am sure everything is working. I am thinking of keeping both systems separate.
Sounds like a solid set up. Glad your inverter is pure sinewave.

How do you have your converter charger wired? I wired mine so that the Pos & neg leads (6G) off of the charger go directly to the battery busbars instead of going to the converter main board. IMO, going through the converter is not a good way to go and could be the problem that you have.
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Old 05-03-2023, 06:38 PM   #23
Casey Freswick
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Default Making Progress

I was never satisfied with how I rewired everything when I upgraded to lithium. Wires were too short. connections pulled out. So while wiring my solar system I rewired everything. This is what is looks like now. I also hooked up a solar panel to test the system and it worked great. Thanks for all the suggestions on the right equipment. Changed battery option on my phone.
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Old 05-04-2023, 12:29 AM   #24
Wavery
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Casey Freswick View Post
I was never satisfied with how I rewired everything when I upgraded to lithium. Wires were too short. connections pulled out. So while wiring my solar system I rewired everything. This is what is looks like now. I also hooked up a solar panel to test the system and it worked great. Thanks for all the suggestions on the right equipment. Changed battery option on my phone.
I'm not sure where to start but I'm pretty sure that those orange cables are copper coated aluminum wires. If they are don't use them.

You really want to be sure that all of your cables are pure copper wire. Also, you would do well to invest in some tools for attaching lugs to your cables. It's important that the lugs are properly crimped onto the cable ends so that it equals one solid piece of copper. A hydraulic crimper is best. Here is an inexpensive tool that does a pretty good job.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...e?ie=UTF8&th=1
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Old 05-04-2023, 06:10 AM   #25
Casey Freswick
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Default crimper and wire questions

Well, I am checking on the wire. I had some of this wire in my system before, yesterday I added another 8' to what I already had. Some of my ground negative wire is 20 AMP house wire weaved together.

My crimping tool is here:
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Old 05-04-2023, 06:15 AM   #26
Casey Freswick
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Originally Posted by Wavery View Post
Sounds like a solid set up. Glad your inverter is pure sinewave.

How do you have your converter charger wired? I wired mine so that the Pos & neg leads (6G) off of the charger go directly to the battery busbars instead of going to the converter main board. IMO, going through the converter is not a good way to go and could be the problem that you have.

Not sure what you mean by this. My wire goes out of the converter. But not sure what, "going through the converter is not a good way to go" means?
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Old 05-04-2023, 08:04 AM   #27
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Casey Freswick View Post
Well, I am checking on the wire. I had some of this wire in my system before, yesterday I added another 8' to what I already had. Some of my ground negative wire is 20 AMP house wire weaved together.

My crimping tool is here:
Those crimpers aren't really made for electrical connectors. They may work well on certain specific wire but not so much on others.

Another thing that you might like to have is a ferrule kit with crimping tool. I love mine. They are a real game changer for smaller stranded wire (22G-7G). You strip off the appropriate amount of insulation then slip the ferrule over the wire and crimp it. No more struggling with lose wire ends. The ferrule makes a far superior connection.

If you use those twisted solid strand wires, it would be a good idea to either solder them at the end and/or use ferules.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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Old 05-04-2023, 08:39 AM   #28
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Not sure what you mean by this. My wire goes out of the converter. But not sure what, "going through the converter is not a good way to go" means?
Sorry, that was confusing.

The converter manufacturer wires the converter charger with the 12V output going directly to the converter's motherboard for distribution back to the battery and to the positive and negative busbars in the converter's power center for distribution to the fuse panels and the campers 12V appliances (lights, w/pump etc).

When you replace the converter's charger with a charger that will handle the high output that the lithium battery will demand, it's better to run 6 or 8G wire from the output of the charger directly to the battery. Then run (the existing) 10 or 12G wire from the battery back to the converter's busbars (instead of the converter's motherboard). That way, the motherboard will not be subjected to the heat and high amperage of the charger output going through it. The WFCO motherboard is not designed for a constant output of 55A from the charger and may (probably will) experience a premature burn out.

I hope all that makes sense.
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Old 05-04-2023, 09:28 AM   #29
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Casey Freswick View Post
I was never satisfied with how I rewired everything when I upgraded to lithium. Wires were too short. connections pulled out. So while wiring my solar system I rewired everything. This is what is looks like now. I also hooked up a solar panel to test the system and it worked great. Thanks for all the suggestions on the right equipment. Changed battery option on my phone.
I'm a little confused about where all of those "PV" wires are coming from to your solar controller.

How many solar panels do you have? Are they matching panels. The wires from the panels should be tied together, either in series or parallel before coming into the camper.

I can help if you show me a pic of your exterior wiring on your solar panels.
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Old 05-04-2023, 09:30 AM   #30
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Default You both have the WFCO fuse board wired correctly, as far as I can tell.

The issue presented in post #28 was already addressed by Casey, correctly:

The PD Converter output goes through the "el cheapo" 80A circuit breaker and into the "positive" distribution block, he does not have the PD converter going through the fuse board from a "Converter" terminal WFCO fuse board terminal to reach a "battery" terminal on the same board.

One of the two other leads leads from reaches the battery pack (somehow, not visible) and the other feeds the fuse board. I personally have dual 8-AWG stranded copper reaching into both of the larger ports on the WFCO fuse board, each fused at 40A, but that is not completely optimal. It is a compromise based on the expectation that fuse board might have trouble distributing a lot of power from a single port. An adequate single wire, perhaps AWG-6, would probably not fit into either of the terminals, and a nonstandard oversized ATC fuse would be needed on that port.
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