Replacing my Converter/Charger - Help

[Steve92004]

Hi Guys/Gals
I have a 25' Weekend Warrior toy hauler and last week in Baja my my Iota DSL-30 converter/charger stopped working
I bought a PowerMax PM4 100A converter/charger to replace it
I was thinking about just putting it in the same spot as the old converter/charger but I started reading around and most said to move it closer to the battery.
It got kind of confusing on how to do that, they said to run power from the breaker that supplies the converter to the new location and use the existing wires to run the power back to the fuse box
I don't get that part
I'm also going to be replacing my one 12v Deep Cycle with two 6 Volt deep cycle batteries, that part makes sense to me
Could somebody help clarify the moving of the converter or if it's just ok to replace the old one in the same place
Thanks!

Here's a picture of what I have, sorry for the multimeter in the way, I took the photo when I was trouble shooting the problem

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Amplitude + time

An extreme example. Batteries that are discharged to 30% of capacity then put on continuous power at 13.6 volts for an unlimited time, they will recover slowly and over a period of perhaps 12 recoveries using this formula, over 8-10 months time, become sulfated.

That's what they make the Megawatt and dial timers for. To chop the idiotic manufacturer's anti-lawsuit, anti-battery psychosis off at the roots. Even the 29 amp 350 watt unit would work.

But some people seem to be afraid of setting up a Megawatt or Meanwell. You can pinstripe a donkey but you ain'g gonna have a zebra.

[BFL13]

You need an ammeter to really know what is going on.

However, you do know your 6s want 14.8 volts at 77F for proper charging , so your 14.2 or even if you get it to 14.4 no loss, is going to be a limiting factor in how long the 6s last (Although not necessarily a big deal budget wise in comparison between say 3 years and 5 years or whatever when you annualize the costs.)

In hot weather 14.8v equivalent is less in voltage amount, so if you keep camping where it is hotter than most if us could stand 🙂 it might get closer to the specified amount temp comped, once you get closer to 14.4 at the batts at 77F by improving your R on the pos and neg paths (or at least one of the paths.)

[Steve92004]

They were discharged, I still don't know

[DrewE]

Steve92004 wrote:

DrewE wrote:

Steve92004 wrote:
I got 14.4v from the charger and 14.2v at the battery.
Is that good enough voltage drop?

So a 0.2V drop...at what charge current?

That was bulk mode so 70 amps?
I don't know
It's now in regular mode 13.6 and I still have that.2v difference

Bulk mode (or any mode) would just max out at 70A or thereabout, in theory, before the converter's current limiting cuts the voltage down. In practice it's not quite that precise; often they're limited as much by power as by actively limiting the current.

If the batteries were nearly charged, the 14.4V or whatever your converter puts out could only put a few amperes of charge current through the battery. If they are discharged, it could be a whole lot more current. 0.2V drop at 5A isn't great, but at 40A it would be perfectly acceptable. (This is, of course, a practical application of Ohm's law.)

[Steve92004]

time2roll wrote:

Steve92004 wrote:
I got 14.4v from the charger and 14.2v at the battery.
Is that good enough voltage drop?

Good to go IMO.
I have seen a full volt differential and that is bad.

I still have one old #4 cable I want to replace and that might bump it up a bit

[Steve92004]

DrewE wrote:

Steve92004 wrote:
I got 14.4v from the charger and 14.2v at the battery.
Is that good enough voltage drop?

So a 0.2V drop...at what charge current?

That was bulk mode so 70 amps?
I don't know
It's now in regular mode 13.6 and I still have that.2v difference

[time2roll]

Steve92004 wrote:
I got 14.4v from the charger and 14.2v at the battery.
Is that good enough voltage drop?

Good to go IMO.
I have seen a full volt differential and that is bad.

[DrewE]

Steve92004 wrote:
I got 14.4v from the charger and 14.2v at the battery.
Is that good enough voltage drop?

So a 0.2V drop...at what charge current?

[Steve92004]

I got 14.4v from the charger and 14.2v at the battery.
Is that good enough voltage drop?

[Steve92004]

time2roll wrote:
Yes. Don't forget the converter/panel to frame connection.

Yup thanks!

Geez pulling the wires was crazy, they had staples and zip ties under the electric bay, I had drill a hole to undo them
And the #8 positive terminated into a foot of #12 with an inline fuse

[time2roll]

Yes. Don't forget the converter/panel to frame connection.

[Steve92004]

So I've been under the trailer all morning

Battery NEG is #4 and goes direct to the frame

There's a #4 and a #8 going from battery POS to the trailer

The #4 goes to the generator solenoid, so I'm guessing that's to start the generator

The #8 goes to the converter, so I'm going to replace that and everything else that goes to the converter with new #4

Sound about right?

[Steve92004]

time2roll wrote:
I would just connect the 9270 and not worry about pulling wire if you have #4 to the battery.
Just use #4 to the panel and call it good.

In the end I think life will be better with the automatic 9270 over constantly fiddling with the PowerMax.

Thanks the PD9270 came in today, I'm going to try to see where the #8 stops and the #4 starts
And it'll be easy to replace the small jumpers to the panel

[time2roll]

Well call mine the exception. I use stainless wing nuts on top of three lugs. All neat and clean after ten years. I do snug them up with a pliers.

Inverter on the bottom, parallel lug, then main RV feed on top.
This keeps the inverter lug that may draw 200 amps sandwiched between the battery and the parallel connection. Never any issue.