Converting a Magnetek 6300 to a Progressive Dynamics Unit

[Fxfymn]

We have been pretty much living in our fiver every other month or so while we restore a house we bought in Charleston, SC. Upon returning to the trailer after about a month’s absence the battery was dead flat. Since it was a relatively new battery I suspected that the original Magnetek charger had failed. Because of time constraints I threw a cheapy battery maintainer on it and that worked to bring it back to life.

Now that we have the trailer back home I went ahead and purchased a Progressive Dynamics PD9270V 70 amp charger from Amazon to replace the old unit. The only reason I went all the way up to 70 amps is it was a returned item and I bought it for less than a 45 or 60 amp unit sold for.

Prior to installation I went looking for installation directions and hints on-line. There were a few out there, but nothing specific to this combination, so I thought I’d post this for anyone else who needs to do the swap over.

These should be applicable to any of the Progressive Dynamics Intelli-Power units, but I used the 70 amp version, so the others may have something I am not aware of. I replaced a Magnetek 6300 charger which was part of the power panel in our 2001 Cardinal. I used the existing 12V fuse panel as a new panel did not come with the new charger. Obviously if you have a new 12V panel to install follow the factory directions to do so. This took me about 3 hours, but if you learn from my mistakes it should take about 2 hours.

1. Kill the 110V by disconnecting from shore power and disconnect the battery(s)

2. Remove the four Phillips head screws that hold the cover on the Magnetek charger. You will need to put this back when you are done, so don’t lose them or any other screws you take off in the trailer. The charger is on the bottom, the circuit breaker/fuse panels are on top.

3. Remove the two screws that hold the cover over the circuit breakers. Remove the cover and set aside.

4. Find the black and white 110V power wires coming from the breaker to the charger. I cut them as close to the charger as possible, but you could disconnect them from the breaker and neutral bar if you so desire. Push the wires back up into the breaker area.

5. Remove the two screws that hold the 12V fuse panel in place and pull the panel toward you.

6. Find the red, white, and blue wires that connect the charger to the 12V circuit breaker panel. The red and white will be connected to the back of the 12V circuit breaker panel, the blue will be attached to a screw in the center of the panel. Disconnect all three and push the wires back down into the charger.

7. Remove the four screws that hold the charger in and you should be able to pull the charger and its metal case out of the enclosure. Just make sure the wires you disconnected earlier are clear of the holes on top of the case.

8. Take the old and new chargers to a work bench. The old charger and its components are held in by a combination of pop rivets and screws. Drill out all of the pop rivets and punch out the rivets. Remove all of the screws and then remove all of the components from the case. Discard all of the components except the red, white, and blue wires and keep the case. Cut the wires as close to the old converter as you can.

9. If your new charger came with a pendant plug it into the charger now. (If not you will need to remove the entire charger to do this later; ask me how I know this)

10. Strip the ends of the red and white wire and put the red wire into the charger’s positive terminal and the white into the negative terminal. The terminal screws are a 7 mm Allen wrench.

11. Find a suitable piece of wire and secure it to the charger ground terminal located on the end opposite the 12V terminals. I used a 12” piece of 12 ga.

12. I put a grommet in the hole that the 110V wires go up through. A 7/8” grommet fits.

13. Place the new charger in the old case with the heat fins facing out and the 12V wires on the right. Push the charger as far to the right as it will go. I used a ¼” socket on a long extension to drive a short 1/8" self-tapping screw through the flange of the charger into the bottom of the case by extending the socket/extension down through the large hole on the top of the case. I put a screw in each end, removed the screws, and then drove them back in from the bottom.

14. Back out to the trailer. Slide the charger and case back into the hole it came from. If so equipped make sure the pendant wires are pulled to the front. Pull the 12V wires up through the hole on the right. Cut the plug off of the new charger and strip the cord back to about 10” from the charger. Pull the wires from the charger and the ground wire you attached earlier up into the circuit breaker panel through the hole on top of the charger case.

15. Cut the wires from the cord to the appropriate length as you make the connections. Attach the green wire and the ground wire to the ground wire block on the circuit breaker panel. It is the one with bare wires attached to it. Attach the white wire to the neutral bar after removing the old neutral wire from the panel. It has white wires attached to it. Either attach the black wire to the circuit breaker or splice it into the black wire coming from the circuit breaker. Place the cover back over the circuit breaker panel you removed earlier.

16. Re-connect the 110V power to the trailer after ensuring the breaker controlling the charger is off. Using a volt meter check the charger by turning the circuit breaker on and placing the leads across the red and white terminals. It should read around 13.5 volts. Turn off the breaker.

17. Attach the red 12V wire and the blue wire to the same terminal you removed it from on the back of the 12V fuse panel. Connect the white wire to the terminal you removed it from earlier. (Red goes to the red on the front, white to the white on the front if you can’t remember) Re-connect the blue wire to the screw in the center of the 12V fuse panel you removed it from earlier.

18. Push the 12V fuse panel back into place and fasten it with the two screws you removed earlier.

19. Pull the pendant wire out and re-attach the front cover with the four Phillips head screws. I fastened the pendant to the panel next to the 110V breakers.

20. Re-connect the battery(s)

21. Turn the breakers back on and if you have a pendant check it to make sure everything is working right. You can also check with the volt meter to make sure all 12V terminals have at least 13.5V to them.

22. Pull the couch out and take a nap for a couple of hours and tell the wife it took way longer to do than you thought.

[98silvz71]

We just did the same thing right before we went to the lake on my in-laws camper. We were out loading the camper and the lights just keep getting dimmer and dimmer, finally the fridge turned off before we knew what it was. The camper had been plugged in the whole time so we knew it wasn't the battery. After we reworked some of the hacked up wiring job the previous owner did to the camper, I grabbed a tester and started checking the 6300's charger. When we figured it out, I bought a new PD 45amp charger from Amazon and got it there the day before we left for the lake. We put it in that night and the camper was better than ever. Never have we been able to turn all the lights on and they don't go dim or you can't hear the fans run on the PD charger now.

The only thing I will say about using their board vs the old 6300's board was it had 2 extra low draw spaces, had the button to boost the charging, and it was just in better shape. I only used the button because I honestly couldn't tell the PD was even working. Even after I had a meter on the outputs. It wasn't until I pushed the button and it boosted up to 14v that I could tell it was working.

Good write up and glad you had the same experience we did.

[Fxfymn]

My 12V panel does not have reverse polarity fuses, but that is an excellent suggestion.

The one downside to the way I did mine is it is almost impossible to reach the fuses on the new charger. If you put the heat sink to the rear they are accessible, but I was more concerned about heat dissipation than access since I have not blown a 12V fuse in the 16 years I have owned the trailer.

One of the other sites I go to regularly has a "Wikipedia" section for storing DYI run downs like this. That might be a good idea for this site as well.

[Davidlee64]

I upgraded my non-charging parallax 7345 unit to a PD4645. It came with the fuse panel. One thing I did was upgrade the battery leads from 8 AWG to 6 AWG. I also pulled all the negative leads from the buss bar, and clip & strip each wire. I re-installed them to a new hole as there was some mild corrosion where they had been originally. If I had had a small round wire brush, I could have cleaned out the holes. Also the battery lead where it attached to the buss and the fuse board had green ends (corrosion), and the fuse board had some discoloration where the battery leads were attached. I presume heat from resistance caused this.

[ScottG]

Nice write-up. BTDT!
One suggestion I have is when aconnecting the 12V output of the PDI to the old flock, wire it so it bypasses the reverse polarity fuses that the 6300 came with. The PDI has its own reverse polarity fuses so it would be redundant and the fuses in the old panel will also be too small to support the higher output of the PDI.