Arctic Fox Wiring/Ammeter

deltabravo wrote:
They slice off strands of wires when stripping insulation to make a connection, because the assembly line tech uses the wrong size hole on his/her wire strip tool.

THe first thing I do when buying a new RV is I pull out the electrical panel and re strip the wires and redo all the DC wire connections - I always find wires that are loose, barely inserted in to the terminal strip, and that stripped with the wrong size wire stripped.

The physical location of the shunt does not matter, but it should be the last thing connected between the negative battery post and any other wiring. If you want to continuously monitor the current going and coming from several different power sources and loads, you will need several shunts and several meters (or a way to switch between them). Usually though, these different paths are something you want to check once in a while, or when something appears to be not working correctly.

For that, a DC clamp ammeter is far more useful. This device clamps around any wire you can access, without having to disconnect or otherwise disturb the circuit. The better ones will read from 10 milliamps to 200 amps DC (also AC, if you are debugging AC circuits). They usually also include standard DVM type functions, so it is the only electrical test instrument you need. The Fluke 325 is a premium example, the Extech 380941 is another good one (I own both of these). There are cheaper ones that work OK, just make sure it reads DC amps and has resolution of at least 20 or 30 mA. For debugging DC power systems and also understanding what is using power, these meters will save you hours or days of work. Simply clamping the jaws around any wire will give you current magnitude and direction instantly. They generally have MAX/MIN functions as well.

This is what I went with and I'm VERY happy with it.

Best Converter

Good Luck
Rick

AKSuperDually wrote:
After seeing the wiring in my AF....I am not surprised at all if they don't have diagrams or even know what they are.....and I think pretty much most of the manufacturers are like that.

That is very true.

The majority of RV Manufacturers don't do a very good job at anything electrical - They jam a bundle of wires through a hole barely big enough, they slice off strands of wires when stripping insulation to make a connection, because the assembly line tech uses the wrong size hole on his/her wire strip tool.

I could go on for a hour describing the issues I've fixed on RVs over the years.

Golden_HVAC wrote:
I have a 'E-Meter' in my motorhome that I installed myself. .... It is sold as the "Trimetric" now.

The E-meter, which was also sold as a Link 10, was never related to Bogart Engineering, which makes the Tri-Metric meter.
They (Bogart and Cruising Equipment, maker of the E-Meter) are two totally separate meters and companies. Bogart never took on the E-meter.

Here's the "correct" evolution of the product (The E-Meter and Link 10):

The E-Meter was designed and manufactured by a company in Seattle called Cruising Equipment Co. (aka, CECO)

Cruising Equipment and Heart Interface teamed up, and were later owned by the same parent company. They developed products together, one such product was the Link 2000, which was a 2 bank amp hour monitor and a remote panel for an inverter.

CECO rebranded the E-Meter as a Link 10 for Heart Interface.

In the early 2000s, Xantrex (now also known as Schneider Electric) bought Heart Interface, CECO, Statpower and Trace Engineering. All 4 companies were in the Pac NW, with Statpower being in Canada, the other 3 in Washington.

The E-Meter / Link 10 evolved to the LinkLite and the LinkPro.

Xantrex LinkLite

Why do I know all of this? Because I used to work for Heart Interface. I also own a Link 10.

Back in the day, when I worked at Heart, The Tri-Metric meter was the only product that competed with the various amp-hour monitors that CECO manufactured.

In regards to the OP's questions:
Install the shunt as close to the battery as possible. I personally would install it in the battery compartment. That's where my shunt is.

Installing 3 ammeters is overkill. All you need is one. One will tell you everything that's going in to or out of the battery, regardless of the source of power, or the load.

Me personally, I'd go with a LinkLite. Since it's an "amp hour" monitor, it will read your battery like a fuel gauge.

I have not upgraded the charging wire between my truck and camper, and I can tell you the charging current while the truck is running is pretty minimal. My last trip, even with batteries that were below 11 volts, the small wire and resulting voltage drop across that wire only resulted in a charging current of about 5-7 amps according to my Link 10.

After seeing the wiring in my AF....I am not surprised at all if they don't have diagrams or even know what they are.....and I think pretty much most of the manufacturers are like that.

It almost seems like they change their wiring layout day to day.

I was told by customer service couple weeks ago that they are going to offer them to the first time owner for maybe a year then no more, when calling on a TT.

I wonder if the answers change from who answers the phone at the time?

I prefer Fred's solution, with a digital meter. High current shunts are NOT cheap, and one can answer most of your questions.

I know that Northwood's CS "Tech Rep" changed this year, last year when I had similar questions the then tech rep was able to send me some sketches that answered my wiring questions. Not that they showed me where the wires were, but they did show me what is connected to what, I had to figure out the routing myself.

I have a 'E-Meter' in my motorhome that I installed myself. It cost about $300 back in 1999. It has a 500 amp shunt in the negative battery cable, and monitors all the amperage going in and out of the battery. If i see it charging at 4-8 amps, I know that is from the solar system. Charging at 45 amps is the total between solar and 120 volt charger. If the generator is running, then I know that the power is coming from there.

Anyway it works really well. It is sold as the "Trimetric" now.

The meter stays in the camper, near the battery, with a 6 wire twisted pair between the shunt and meter. It would be difficult to mount the meter remotely in the truck, as voltage loss would cause mis-reading, and unplugging the meter to move it into the camper would erase any reading that it had before it lost power.

If you want 'effective' camper battery charging, then the factory installed #12 wire to the wiring harness is not going to do it. You will need to upgrade the factory wiring to something much larger, such as #8 wire. Install a plug rated at 50 amps or so. Install a relay such as Grainger.com part #6C017 It is rated at 100 amps max, with silver allow contacts, rated to switch under load 100,000 times before wearing out! I installed that relay on my prior motorhome and this one as well. I used #4 wire from the output of my alternator to my coach batteries, via the relay. I turn on the relay with +12 power from my radio. When the key is on, it gives +12 to the radio, and this relay too.

Have you considered installing a solar system? A couple of 100 watt solar panels, and you will not be concerned with the amperage anymore, as you will have more power than you will need.

My RV uses 35 amp hours daily to just run the refrigerator, CO and propane detectors. That is enough to deplete a group 27 battery in 2 nights! Add to that some lights, and you will require frequent charging!

Do you have a 'good' battery charger? What is the amp rating? Some brands do not work well with a generator that is only putting out 110 volts, others work fine with anything between 100 and 135 volts input!

Good luck!

Fred.