2006 Rockwood 8317SS Battery, Inverter, Charger upgrade

[qisope]

Hi all,

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read through this.

I just upgraded from a small, older Class C RV to a 2006 Rockwood 8317SS travel trailer. Loving the trailer, but I'm ready for a project. In the RV I had my power set up like this:

- 4 6V batteries
- Inverter
- Converer / 3-stage charger

I would manually switch between the inverter and grid (or generator) power.

I now want to replicate this setup in the new trailer. I can get the new batteries hooked up easily enough, but I'm not sure about the inverter / charger.

Does anyone have an opinion on how good the stock battery charger is in the trailer? The batteries weren't cheap, so I want to treat them well. If my charger is better, I'd prefer to use it.

What is the best way to wire my inverter into the system? The easiest option seems like installing some outlets in the trailer which are inverter-only and using them when I want power off grid. This prevents unwanted battery drain, and means I don't need to mess with the rest of the electrical system.

My preferred option though is to do this properly. How do I wire the inverter in so that the built-in charger isn't functioning when the inverter is on? Where abouts in the trailer is the converter?

If I go this direction I'll probably get one of the automatic switches to switch between grid and the inverter. I already have a remote switch for the inverter to prevent it being used when I want it off.

Anything else I need to be taking into consideration which I may not have thought of?

Thanks again,

Ross

[NWJeeper]

Originally Posted by qisope

Hi all,

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read through this.

I just upgraded from a small, older Class C RV to a 2006 Rockwood 8317SS travel trailer. Loving the trailer, but I'm ready for a project. In the RV I had my power set up like this:

- 4 6V batteries
- Inverter
- Converer / 3-stage charger

I would manually switch between the inverter and grid (or generator) power.

I now want to replicate this setup in the new trailer. I can get the new batteries hooked up easily enough, but I'm not sure about the inverter / charger.

Does anyone have an opinion on how good the stock battery charger is in the trailer? The batteries weren't cheap, so I want to treat them well. If my charger is better, I'd prefer to use it.

What is the best way to wire my inverter into the system? The easiest option seems like installing some outlets in the trailer which are inverter-only and using them when I want power off grid. This prevents unwanted battery drain, and means I don't need to mess with the rest of the electrical system.

My preferred option though is to do this properly. How do I wire the inverter in so that the built-in charger isn't functioning when the inverter is on? Where abouts in the trailer is the converter?

If I go this direction I'll probably get one of the automatic switches to switch between grid and the inverter. I already have a remote switch for the inverter to prevent it being used when I want it off.

Anything else I need to be taking into consideration which I may not have thought of?

Thanks again,

Ross

Hi Ross, welcome to the forums.

We have 6 6V trojan batteries in our rig and I have installed the Xantrex Prosine 1000 inline inverter. The inverter is wired into the breaker that supplies the passenger side of our rig which is basically all our entertainment gear plus a few other things. The inveter has a built in transfer switch that when on will sense if the power is connected (or gen running) and switch automatically to shore power rather than supply that circuit from the batteries. Since our converter/charger is not on that run it isn't powered.

Without a model number for the converter/charger in your rig it's impossible for me to tell if you have a 3-stage charger or not but my guess is you probably don't as most RVs I have seen or owned do not.

We changed out our Parallax for a PDI 9200 series conveter/charger and I have been really pleased in it's performance for keeping up our batteries. We also run solar panels and the charge controller is actually a 4-stage on that and does just as good a job as the PDI.

As I am not familiar with your particular trailer I can't tell you where you conveter/charger is but someone should be along soon to shed some light on that.

[qisope]

Hi,

Thank you for the reply - connecting my inverter directly to the breaker box sounds like the answer I was looking for. My plan now is to:

Get hold of an auto-sensing switch to switch between the inverter and the grid power, then connect the output of the switch to my breaker box. Sounds like that will successfully bypass the existing charger. I can then consider replacing the converter/charger as a second project.

- Ross

[NWJeeper]

Originally Posted by qisope

Hi,

Thank you for the reply - connecting my inverter directly to the breaker box sounds like the answer I was looking for. My plan now is to:

Get hold of an auto-sensing switch to switch between the inverter and the grid power, then connect the output of the switch to my breaker box. Sounds like that will successfully bypass the existing charger. I can then consider replacing the converter/charger as a second project.

- Ross

The Xantrex Prosine inverters have built in transfer switches (if you select the correct model) to do this. Xantrex also makes models that have chargers built in. Not sure of their capacity or if they are 3 stage and capable of doing equalization charge or not but worth looking into. Your existing converter/charger is usually wired on it's own breaker so as long as that is not the circuit you power with the inverter then you are fine.