Suspected Converter Problem

BFL13 wrote:
So the two #4 wires going from neg junction to the batteries are equal in length for Method 3? (There was an issue before where the downstream battery --one above the other in racks) meant you had to go longer on either pos or neg to do Method 2)

I see where the confusion might be here. To answer your question, YES, the two #4 wires going from the neg jct to each battery are equal in length. I cut the first one, held it against the spool and cut the 2nd one to be the exact same length.

The issue before was that there was only one pair of wires entering the back of the battery compartment. There is a shelf dividing the upper and lower batteries. The two wires entered through the back of the compartment into the TOP battery compartment. They would thus hook to the TOP battery. Then, two cables would have to be hooked from the top battery to the bottom battery to parallel them together. This had to be done from the front of the compartment, so the cables were against the door of the battery compartment when closed.

What I did was add a second entrance point into the BOTTOM battery compartment. Through this entrance point, a newly added #4 power and ground cable enter to hook directly to the BOTTOM battery. An identical set of #4 wires enter through the existing entrance point in the TOP compartment and hook directly to the TOP battery. The other ends of these wires are joined at the ground junction block in the case of the negatives and at the breaker for the positives. Thus, the batteries are truly parallel'ed.

BFL13 wrote:
Was the #8 converter to frame wire for its output before, or was it a "chassis ground"? With a deck mount converter, they say to have a chassis ground, whereas a "lower portion" converter doesn't need one, being in the metal framework of the frame-grounded power centre.

Again, I see your confusion. The #8 converter-frame cable was the cable hooked to the negative output terminal of the converter and ran straight to the frame ground. I believe you're asking about the bare copper wire hooked to a separate terminal on the case of the converter. This wire does exist on my converter. It runs to a separate frame grounding point with dedicated terminal. These two fram grounding points are within a couple of inches of each other.

My electrical background would suggest this is a "bonding wire", as it bonds the metal case of the converter to ground so that a human body cannot serve as the path to ground if an internal short causes the converter case to become energized.

BFL13 wrote:
You added the #4 as converter output to junction stud, so unless there are more output terminals I am wondering if the #8 is a chassis ground. If so, you don't want that in with the negs on the neg junction stud. It should go to the frame independently. If it is output, you don't need it in parallel with the #4 to do 55 amps.

See above.

The new #4 converter neg output wire runs to the ground junction block. Before, the #8 ran straight to the frame ground. I utilized the junction block because this allowed me to connect the battery and converter neg cables all in one spot, then run one additional #4 from the junction block to frame ground. Otherwise, I would have had a #4 neg running straight from converter to frame and then 2 more #4's running from each battery to frame ground.

In essence, I did it to simplify the wiring arrangement.

BFL13 wrote:
What happened to the parallel link wires between the two batteries? You don't need them with Method 3.

Because I now have a separate pos and neg running to each battery, the two jumper wires that ran from the top to bottom battery compartments were no longer necessary. They are sitting in the 5er's "junk drawer" for emergency use.

I hope this clarifies some things. What I really need to do is sketch up a before and after diagram. I'm sure that would answer a lot of these questions.