converter too far from battery!

[TitanMike]

I find it interesting that someone wits a half dozen "free" meters would throw one away just because it read differently. Unless checking with a known standard how would they know which ones were bad . The "different" one could very well be the only one that was right.

As for a good "standard" a silver oxide battery, like a #357, will have a nominal voltage of 1.55 volts. Maybe not good for a lab standard but more than enough to weed out inaccurate meters one gets for free.

[NMWildcat]

Originally Posted by TitanMike

I find it interesting that someone wits a half dozen "free" meters would throw one away just because it read differently. Unless checking with a known standard how would they know which ones were bad . The "different" one could very well be the only one that was right.

As for a good "standard" a silver oxide battery, like a #357, will have a nominal voltage of 1.55 volts. Maybe not good for a lab standard but more than enough to weed out inaccurate meters one gets for free.

Oh geez. You guys are too funny. It's not rocket science, and my RV electrical system is not my passion, so I don't need a super precise meter. But y'all do, so enjoy! It cracks me up that my simple system that does what I need it to do, bothers some so much......

[dward51]

Open the front of your WFCO panel and you will probably see it has a 2nd terminal lug space for adding that 2nd 6 gauge wire. Mine does, and I have the same model (in a 2015 year trailer). If you can figure out a way to snake the wire from the front to the WFCO, I would just add the 2nd positive feed. Like others already said, the negative/ground is not an issue as it's a very short run from the battery to the frame, and from the frame back to the WFCO. The frame acts as a huge gauge wire for ground in these trailers.

I will say this. My WFCO is a 55 amp charge rate. But they have it going thru a 50amp auto-reset DC breaker. If I forget to plug up to charge or disconnect the battery and the phantom loads have drained my stock battery too far, that DC breaker will "click" a few times until the charge kicks a little bit into the battery (trips and resets for the click). That paring seemed a little odd to me from the factory as well. You may see something similar with a larger 6v battery bank and I just wanted to give a heads up on what the clicking is.

[davesmith26]

As I stated above, I found out the wire size to the battery was only a size awg 8. So is it ok to run say a size awg 4 along with the awg 8, or should they both be the same size wire?

[davesmith26]

As I stated above, I found out that the wire size to the battery was only awg 8 instead of awg 6. So is it ok to run an awg 4 with the awg 8 or should both wires be the same size?

[babock]

You can run another wire in parallel

Originally Posted by davesmith26

As I stated above, I found out that the wire size to the battery was only awg 8 instead of awg 6. So is it ok to run an awg 4 with the awg 8 or should both wires be the same size?

[boondocking]

Originally Posted by davesmith26

As I stated above, I found out that the wire size to the battery was only awg 8 instead of awg 6. So is it ok to run an awg 4 with the awg 8 or should both wires be the same size?

Don't need to be the same size.
If you run a 4 AWG with the existing 8 AWG you if in effect have 3 AWG wire.

[cl733]

Originally Posted by camaraderie

Since you will have around 210 amp hours...you will be replacing 105 of them if you charge your new batts at 50%dod.
You will AT MOST be able to put in 50amps current for a little while in bulk mode...so that is the only place you will lose a LITTLE efficiency in charging with the wire run you have...it is still gonna take you 6 hours of charger time with ANY charger to get a full charge from 50%, I wouldn't worry about it unless you are NOT getting to 100% by 7 hours.
The ONLY way to figure this out is by getting a REAL battery monitor...Victron BM700 series seems to be the favorite. You'll never regret having it AND it will pay for itself over time. About $150.

This sounds perfect there are alot of trailers built just like yours and have no problems a victron bm712 battery monitor will tell you exactly how much power you have left and your exact charge rate while charging , and will tell you exactly how much every light or 12v appliance is consuming

[Half Ton Heavy]

For someone who has fished a wire from end to end in an ultra light, how did that process go? Drop the coroplast I assume, and go to town? How long?

My Walter Mitty set up (I don’t own a trailer yet, but DW and I have our heart set on a 2608) would be two or three Battleborn and a victron multiplus up in the front somewhere. This would require running 2 AC lines from front to back, and disconnect the factory converter. Add solar on down the line.

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by Half Ton Heavy

For someone who has fished a wire from end to end in an ultra light, how did that process go? Drop the coroplast I assume, and go to town? How long?

My Walter Mitty set up (I don’t own a trailer yet, but DW and I have our heart set on a 2608) would be two or three Battleborn and a victron multiplus up in the front somewhere. This would require running 2 AC lines from front to back, and disconnect the factory converter. Add solar on down the line.

Dropping the coroplast is one way.

Another is to run some conduit along the underside, secured to exposed edges of frame with tek screws and appropriate hangars. Then merely cut access "flaps" in coroplast to make the connecting runs on the conduit. Easier and wire is better protected than it might be passing through sharp edged frame components.

[NMWildcat]

One thing about dropping the coroplast, is that once you do, you will find all manner of things that need to be fixed and upgraded. You will also learn many new things about your RV. I cut my coroplast in two (front and back) to make it easier to manage. I've taken it off about four times in 8 years to fix squeaky floors, bad sewage valves, install new plumbing, and replace hydraulic ram. Also rerouted heating ducts and secured wiring. Just use gorilla tape to seal seams and protrusion cuts after you are done.

[Jay2504]

Harbor freight meters can be adjusted here. Jay

[NMWildcat]

Thanks for the info! Oh dang, I can see I'm going to have to play with mine now

Originally Posted by Jay2504

Harbor freight meters can be adjusted here. Jay

[ebergler]

Your system as is is not really too bad, but at full load of 55A it will have a 12% or 1.5V voltage drop. Towards the end of charge this will go down to half a volt and better.
Likely your ground line is the metal body of your trailer that has plenty of area, so if you run somewhere another #6 or bigger wire that will do if you are not too finicky!

[babock]

Originally Posted by ebergler

Your system as is is not really too bad, but at full load of 55A it will have a 12% or 1.5V voltage drop.

12% is a LOT. of course you will never even get close to 55A with cable that's going to drop like that. The charger won't even be in bulk mode for more than a few seconds. The rest will be at 13.6V at the converter and who knows what at the battery.

[babock]

Originally Posted by Jay2504

Harbor freight meters can be adjusted here. Jay

I really don't care about adjusting HF meters. What I want to know is why you have so many aluminum pull tabs?

[jimmarako]

Originally Posted by babock

I really don't care about adjusting HF meters. What I want to know is why you have so many aluminum pull tabs?

And "ointment" of some kind. Now thats a party.

[BOO-BOO-IS-IN-CAMP]

i have a inverter im installing
i see the GFI braker is the gfi the actual wall socket or is it the braker in the box ??
i want to run my 110 TV through my inverter but GFI Braker controls all the wall Outlets ???

[01tundra]

Originally Posted by Half Ton Heavy

For someone who has fished a wire from end to end in an ultra light, how did that process go? Drop the coroplast I assume, and go to town? How long?

I pulled 1/0 from front to back in our Mini Lite because our converter is in the very back of the trailer and the batteries were up front, later when I upgraded the converter I put our new battery in the rear of the trailer and repurposed the 1/0 to connect the solar controller that's in the front pass-thru to the battery in the back. I imagine it would be about the same for an Ultra Lite.

I removed the trim angle at each end holding the coroplast up, also had an access cut in the middle from my fresh water tank support project.

I installed plastic expandable sheath and then corrugated loom over a 30' long section of 1/0 cable, pushed a flexible fiberglass fish tape from back to the mid section access, pushed the cable from the front to the mid section, attached cable lug to fish tape and pulled it through the web openings in the cross members along the frame. It was actually not near as bad as I had expected.

[BOO-BOO-IS-IN-CAMP]

heres what i did
we have a 2014 forest river 2608ws UL
i have GFCI so there's a bunch of outlets ..

put my Inverter under the sink.
took a 14 Gage extenchion cord cut the socket end off.
disconnected the wires from circuit braker box pulled them out ..
got wire crimps.
connected the GFCI outlet's to the 14 gage extinction cord & plugged it in to my windy nation pure sign Inverter ..

If i plug in to show power there is no need to plug or unplug shor power.
shore powers the rig's inverter to charge the batt's ...

we only use GFCI outlets for coffee maker CPAP AND TV not all at once

how did i do