Mounting inverter in close proximity to AGM batteries

Gerald, any welding supply should have the very flexible wire and terminals you need in bulk and should be able make the cables for you. Welding cable is very flexible as each size is made of a large number of small individual strands. The same gauge of regular cable is made using fewer strands of larger gauge wire. Welding cable is more expensive but is so much easier to work with in small areas.

Sorry this thread got so off topic - I should have noticed it earlier.

A little bit more on topic - where can I get heavy gauge wire such as starter or welding cable, cut to an exact length and crimped? I don't want generic lengths like 2 ft, but rather to have the minimum length needed between the batteries and the inverter (as well as between the batteries in the bank). I don't have the tools to crimp that kind of fat wire myself.

CO is very similar to "air" in weight. But given the choice your lungs choose carbon monoxide five-to-one over oxygen for absorbsion into the blood. It is most definitely NOT a head to head contest.

One single RV isn't an issue. It's when there are sixteen RV's per acre all running a generator. I heard CO detectors going off all over White Wolf campground in Yosemite. Another time detectors screeched in the US Forest Service campground, in Lee Vining canyon.

People scream about city smog yet may endure ten times the amount of pollutants in a packed rural RV campground. To say doing so is not absurd, is -stupid- incarnate.

I have four white enameled boards vertically mounted three feet away from my Kubota's exhaust. Weekly glances tell me which way the wind is blowing. If it should come from the north I avoid starting the engine. Time to wait.

From inverters to exhaust fumes:)

Back to the diversion, CO is roughly the same weight as air, which is part of the problem. CO in exhaust will rise with the wamrer exhaust. If there was an elevated risk of CO in the air outside, pulling air through the roof vent into an enclosed RV is only going to make it worse. If your CO alarm goes off it's trying to tell you something.

Combustion products probably rise in confined spaces (i.e. smokestacks) .... where the combustion debris heats up the air molecules around it and then the air rises - carrying the combustion products up with it fairly rapidly within the confines of the vertical exhaust smokestack.

This is not going to happen anywhere near as pronounced, if at all, out in the open (i.e. right at/after the end of the generator's horizontal exhaust pipe) where the hugh volume of outside air down low all around the RV and the exhaust pipe will immediately start cooling the generator's combustion products such that much less "rise" of anything occurs. The fumes remain fairly low in the area around the RV.

I've proved the above over and over again in with our motorhome. An open dinette window right above the running Onan's exhaust pipe indeed does soon bring inside a slight exhaust smell of course - due to some small amount of wind and/or a small amount of slightly warmed rising air caring some fumes. When we then change over to our coach pressurization technique (with the generator still running), all fume odors in the coach vanish within seconds.

When going down dusty roads not immediately behind another vehicle, all dust from our tires stays down low enough such that our coach pressuriztion technique keeps the interior free of dust even though a roof vent is open way up high with the fan (slightly) sucking in air to maintain the interior pressure .... thus preventing the dust from entering anywhere down low.

To the OP: I apologize for the diversion from you inquiry. We do use a PSW inverter in our rig to supply small levels of power for all sorts of things .... including a non-heating CPAP device each night. Large inverters should indeed be mounted close to AGM batteries to minimize voltage sag between the battery terminals and the inverter input when high currents are flowing. AGM batteries, especially, have very low internal resistance and hence can supply instantaneous large currents that can cause momentary high amounts of voltage sag that will trip inverters. (My diversion, in defense of selected use of RV generators in addition to any inverters on board, merely got out of hand!)

pianotuna wrote:
Those really quiet generators can be heard for miles.

If one is running in a boat.. maybe.. across a lake.

pnichols wrote:

What Winnebago rig do you have?

It's a 28/29 foot C. 4K Onan

The silence was deafening. The pair of CO alarms screaming their fool head off, weren't.

I've evidently missed out on the Syrian Refugee Camp ambiance by being down here so long. I did stop overnight north of Quartzite one night in December in the eighties. Ode de Oil Refinery at 0800. Next stop. Mexico.

But on my foray Mexico - Vancouver Island 2005 I did find generator people crammed in tight at the most extreme upwind point in Oregon / Washington state parks and California rest stops. Denman and Hornby Island Englishman Falls and Port Alberni were better.

Maybe all those pack trips, backpacking, and camping solo in Mexico spoiled me. I do not own a radio or television. Boca de Iguanas campground was a hoot - 50 Quebecois driving 4,000 miles so they could drag their chairs onto the beach, light a bonfire then scream at each other (in French) at the top of their lungs, hours on end, about Quebec politics. Mexicans think they are completely insane.

Down here campground power is marginal so all of those rugged outdoor types start their generators and leave them running until late in the evening.

I guess I am a failure when it comes to the RV Society. Everyone is always curious about Quicksilver. It has blackout curtains. And a bulkhead behind the driver seat (Freedman air over hydraulic).

My excuse is being solo with the 4 Rolls L16s needing power I start the Cummins and let the 24 volt Niehoff charge the batteries. It equals the power of an 800-amp 12 volt alternator. More than likely Quicksilver will never cross the USA border again.