About 6 weeks ago, I noticed (with my inexpensive 12V meter mounted in the face of the kitchen counter) that my converter wasn't charging above 12.5V when plugged in to shore power (it had always been 13.8 volts). I did extensive research online and in this forum and replaced it with a Progressive Dynamics PD4655 upgrade for my Parallax converter from bestconverter.com. For anyone considering it, they are a great company; very attentive and quick.Then I thought, I need to keep a better eye on things, so I bought a Victron BMV-700 Battery Monitor. It lets me see the charge rate of the converter, what percentage of power I have left in the batteries and a whole lot more that I don't even use (yet).Finally, I took a look at my pair of three year old group 24 batteries, which, by the way, were NOT a matched pair, having purchased the second one after I bought the trailer, and me not knowing they SHOULD be matched. After reading all the information on the forum regarding true deep cycle batteries and 6V in series vs. 12V in parallel, I made my way to Costco and bought 2 of their golf cart batteries.We had our first trip out after all of the changes this past weekend and what a difference. My 12V batteries barely lasted a night and I would have to charge them for several hours the next day. We would have to run the generator to watch TV until about 9pm to make it through the night. With my new system, we watched about 4 hours or so of TV with our 19" flatscreen and DirecTV DVR receiver, ran the overhead fan (for white noise) and the furnace all night, and I still had 83% of my charge left this morning. Fired up the Yamaha EF3000iSEB and it was back to 100% in about an hour.Sorry this is so long - just excited to share.

Sounds good! I recently installed a 700 to monitor my system and I love it! I have two CR235's and plan to add two more for 470AH's. DW wants to watch Dish sat on the flat screen also. What inverter are you using? I currently get about four days before I need to fire up the genny, but that's without tv. I also have all LED's.

It's so nice to do work and see positive results. Salutacciones I mean congatulations!

You would be even more geeked if you had a real battery charger that took your batteries to 15.5 or so. I have the same PD 4655 and its a good converter but my Quick Charge battery charger makes the PD sit in the back seat.I understand that many on here also like the Black and Decker $150.00 charger.http://www.quickcharge.com/on-board-chargers-standard.html

You may get even better performance from it if you need a wire upgrade. Mine was 6 gauge and it went from the converter at the curb side to the drivers side, towards the rear about 8 feet and then back to the curb side 8 feet to the battery box. I shortened it up by going down the curb side with number 4 gauge. It lost about .5 in voltage drop. The lug on the converter is made to accept 4 gauge but you can use 2 gauge and knock another 2/100 or so off the voltage drop. 2 gauge wont fit in the lug but some have mentioned that they make an adapter that would make it work. That may be splitting hairs but I would surely run 4 gauge from the converter to the batteries. If you have a newer rig you may already have it.

Pulled the trigger on my 12V system | Good Sam Community

NinerBikes
Explorer
Aug 04, 2014
Getting your GC-2 batteries back to 100% charge in an hour sounds impressive. I'd want to see the specific gravity of each battery cell, when you bought it, when you arrived at camp after driving to camp, and first thing in the morning after all the TV, heater, Dish TV and converter activity, then after your recharge with the generator, for an hour.

You are looking for 1.275 for your specific gravity, or better, for 100% state of charge. You might want to confirm that with a good Freas #1 Hydrometer reading. I suspect that if you are under 1.275, you are not fully charged. Generators and3or 4 stage charge convertors are pretty good at getting you charged to 90% charge in an hour, but it takes a long long time with a generator to get that last 10% to get to fully charged. Generators are not good, efficiency, fuel or time wise at getting in that last 10% state of charge.

You need that last 10% charged and in those batteries, before putting the batteries away for storage, or doing a 16V equalize cycle every 10 -14 days of camping off the grid.

Or, you get a solar panel and a good adjustable charge controller for it, to top you off to full 100%, after the generator, first thing in the morning. Solar panel has all day to get it topped off, but keep in mind, your system, just running the CO meter and propane fridge, burns .75 to 1 amp an hour, every hour. Have to account for that too, charging with solar.
azrving
Explorer
Aug 04, 2014
You also need to consider equalization.
azrving
Explorer
Aug 04, 2014
You may get even better performance from it if you need a wire upgrade. Mine was 6 gauge and it went from the converter at the curb side to the drivers side, towards the rear about 8 feet and then back to the curb side 8 feet to the battery box. I shortened it up by going down the curb side with number 4 gauge. It lost about .5 in voltage drop. The lug on the converter is made to accept 4 gauge but you can use 2 gauge and knock another 2/100 or so off the voltage drop. 2 gauge wont fit in the lug but some have mentioned that they make an adapter that would make it work. That may be splitting hairs but I would surely run 4 gauge from the converter to the batteries. If you have a newer rig you may already have it.
azrving
Explorer
Aug 04, 2014
You would be even more geeked if you had a real battery charger that took your batteries to 15.5 or so. I have the same PD 4655 and its a good converter but my Quick Charge battery charger makes the PD sit in the back seat.
I understand that many on here also like the Black and Decker $150.00 charger.
http://www.quickcharge.com/on-board-chargers-standard.html
MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Aug 04, 2014
It's so nice to do work and see positive results. Salutacciones I mean congatulations!
sjturbo
Explorer
Aug 04, 2014
Sounds good! I recently installed a 700 to monitor my system and I love it! I have two CR235's and plan to add two more for 470AH's. DW wants to watch Dish sat on the flat screen also. What inverter are you using? I currently get about four days before I need to fire up the genny, but that's without tv. I also have all LED's.
time2roll
Nomad
Aug 04, 2014
Very nice :B

Forum Discussion

Pulled the trigger on my 12V system

About Technical Issues

Related Content

Pulled the Trigger on LiFePo4

Pulled the trigger today. . .

Finally pulled the trigger on a 5er

Pulled the Trigger on a new one

We pulled the trigger