Converter Question

[Bmbrady77]

Hi all. New to the forum and RV'ing and have a quick question.

My wife and I just bought a 32BHSS second hand and are staying in it full time. It didn't take us long to realize that the 30 amp service just wasn't going to cut it! Blow dryers and microwaves combined with a rooftop a/c don't play well together when all they have available is chump change, so I decided to do something about it. I just finished converting the camper to a 240VAC 50A service. Now we are rockin in style but there is one thing bugging me.

The old load center was a WFCO WF-8930 30A 120V box with the built in converter that was wired to a distribution board on the 12VDC side. The board had the terminals for the converter DC power, and a separate terminal for the battery leads with reverse polarity protection. This leads me to believe that the charging circuit is in the distribution board itself and not the actual converter.

The new box, WF-8950, came with a distribution board that only has the terminals for 2 positive DC leads from the converter (2 isolated circuits) and nothing for the battery leads. I am still using the converter from the old box (I relocated it to the back wall of the wiring compartment) but I left the positive battery lead disconnected with a wirenut due to the fact that it doesn't appear as though the existing converter has a charging circuit.

This is working fine but it's going to cause me problems if I want to run the slides or lights when I'm not shored, say if I want to pull over and fix lunch or hit the bathroom on the side of the road. It also is going to keep me from being able to operate the electric jack when I am shored and not plugged into the truck if the battery is dead. Dilemma dilemna!

My question is, am I looking at this wrong and the existing converter actually does have a charging circuit with overcharge protection, and the old distribution board simply had the terminals there for convenience, or am I right? If I'm right, is there another converter that I can buy, that you guys can recommend, that will have a built in charging circuit to protect the battery and allow back feeding from the battery when not shored?

If I'm wrong then I guess I can just splice the battery lead back in to the DC+ side of the output and be good to go correct?

Btw, I already tried to swap out the distribution board and use the old one, but no matter how I arrange it, it's not going to fit in the new box.

Thanks in advance for any replies!

[TURBS]

Hello there,
In my opinion id go to progressive dynamics and buy this.
http://www.progressivedyn.com/all_in_one_pd4500_1.html
And be done with it.
"sabre owners united!"


turbs

[Bmbrady77]

Appreciate the response turbo, but I'd rather not drop another $400 bucks if at all possible. I've already broke the bank with the new bark box, power cords, and quick connect coupler and pigtail. I can bite the bullet on a new converter for $200 or so, but I'd rather not if I can get away with it.

[Bmbrady77]

Well guys I figured it out. The charging regulator and protection circuit is inside of the converter and not on the distribution board. I took the old board out this morning and gave it a good once over with my multi meter and the connection from VCC+ to the battery lead is a straight through shorted connection with no circuitry whatsoever, other than a 40A fuse for reverse connection protection.

What this means is, I can reconnect my battery lead to the + output of the converter and not have to fear the thing just supplying a steady current to my battery and eventually blowing it up! Lol it also means that the only thing I still have left to spend money on is a couple of 8 AWG splice connectors!


Thanks anyway guys and hopefully this may help someone else.