Adding Inverter for dry camping
I would like to add an additional battery (have one group 27 now), possibly a solar charging system and an inverter. I hate that the 120V outlets don't work on battery power. Seems crazy you can't...
Forum Discussion
jcarlilesiu wrote:Snowman9000 wrote:
The maker doesn't care about charging, inverters, solar, etc. They build these things optimized to run on shore power. That's why your converter is at the opposite end from the batteries. Without re-reading, I think you said you have room in the front of the rig to mount a converter or inverter-charger. That's where you should put it. You already have DC cables running from the front to the back to serve the existing converter and fuse box. You will re-use those to supply the fuse box, which will stay where it is.
Currently you have: Batts=============Converter & Fuses===Loads
After you re-do: Batts=Converter===================Fuses===Loads
IIRC someone already said, it's no problem to run 120v wiring the length of the trailer. That's correct. Mount the inverter by the batts, and run the 120 to wherever you need to.
That makes sense.
One question. My shore power cable is on the back near the converter. Wouldn't that have to be extended to the new converter location?
The Converter is the gizmo in the Power Centre that makes 12v from 120v. It can be removed from the power centre and put somewhere else. The power centre would still have the 120v input where you shore cord is terminated, the 120v circuit breakers, and the 12v fuse panel.
A converter mounted away from the power centre is called a "deck mount" and has a full casing (chassis) and its chassis must be grounded to the RV's frame. The converter in the power centre location has a partial chassis grounded by touching the rest of the power centre's chassis which is grounded to the frame, so if you move it to up front you need to make a cover for it and ground it.
One wrinkle is that some converters like the 7355 have their reverse polarity fuses on the fuse panel, while some have them on the converter's own chassis. One of the PD converters has its Charge Wizard button on the fuse panel ISTR, so it would also be hard to relocate.
You can add a deck mount up front and leave the existing converter in with the power centre. The deck mount one up front is on the battery and the battery has wires going back to the 12v fuse panel already, so you don't need to wire that front converter to the fuse panel.
