BFL13 wrote:
jrnymn7 wrote:
BFL13 wrote:
Not sure about #4 from the PM but try it and see. I use fatter than that #1 18" for the 100amper.
i'm not sure if even 2ga would fit in the screw connectors of the 75amper? i'll check it tomorrow. i do know the ground barely took 6ga.
You are allowed to fit whatever will go into the set-screw terminals and let those be short "pigtails" joined to fat wires fore the long run.
If the charger is right next to your big inverter that has fat wires from the batts to its terminals, you can wire the charger over to the inverter and then both use the same set of fat wires to the batts.
Or you can shave strands from the fat wire ends till they fit in the terminals, or you can buy metal lugs that crimp onto the fat wire ends and then the metal changes to a sort of spike that fits into the set-screw hole. Actually the set-screw holds those spikes better than a squashed bunch of strands.
All based on the fact that the pigtail or thinner strand length is short so it doesn't need to be so fat to carry the current as does the long run of wire.
I use #8 for the chassis grounds on my deck mount converter and inverters. The owner's manual would have advice on the minimum gauge for that.
i'll check into those spike/adapter thingy's... they would be preferable to squishing the wires in there.
also, my batts are in their own compartment under the bed/dinette seat, and vented out the exterior wall. the inverter and tri-metric are also under the bed/dinette seat, but separated from the batts, and accessible from inside the bus (so further from the chargers). the chargers are right under the batts, under the floor, in a compartment, and vented out the skirting. so, to run wires from the chargers to the inverter would be further than from the chargers to the batts. (it would add a foot to the pos lead and about two feet to the neg lead.)
and i don't want to have to pull my bed apart just to switch charger leads at batts, so i'm going to build a wooden terminal box with two sets of pos and neg lugs, and do the change over from pm / 1620, to either bank, in the charger compartment. worse case scenario, i will have short 4ga leads from chargers to terminal box, and longer 2ga leads from box to batts. and if i can find those adapters, it will all be 2ga. i also found some nice brass connectors, but have to order in the sizes i need.
i will only have one meter hooked up to one of the two banks... but after a while i will know how my batts are performing by the voltage and sg readings, anyway... and the meter will help better establish Ah usage to batt voltage at ??% soc for my particular batts.
