8 Gauge Wire

[BradW]

Got 25' of red and black 8 gauge copper wire, a 40 amp breaker and some lugs. I plan on wiring this truck correctly for the 12v frig. I hate to admit I never wired the three previous trucks correctly and the frig never worked right.

[LaneW]

Srschang. This is really helpful. I like that battery post mounted fuse. And the “gland” that you describe going through the front of you camper. That’s really nice - where do I find one of those? And is that 4 awg where on the plug? It looks smaller in the pic.

Thanks!

[srschang]

On the driver side battery in my Ram, there's a High Amperage Power Point (HAPP) that I installed a 60A fuse. The HAPP is just a threaded post that you can draw up to 300 amps from. I ran 4 gauge wire under the cab of the truck, through a plastic hole cover in the front of the bed, to the Pollak outlet mounted in the board that keeps the camper from hitting the top bed rail. The plug end of the Pollak connector is connected to 4 gauge wire that goes through a sealed gland into a Victron 12-12 30 amp converter inside the camper. 4 gauge wire runs from the Victron to the power center of the camper. Then 4 gauge wire runs from the power center to the 2 100 ah lithium batteries.

[LaneW]

srschang wrote:
That NAPA plug looks exactly like the Pollak plug I used on my charging cable from my truck batteries to the DC-DC charger in the camper.

Pollak Outlet

Pollak Plug

Can you tell me more about how you wired it? Same thing Im trying to do. Routing of cables, sizing, connection location, etc….

[srschang]

That NAPA plug looks exactly like the Pollak plug I used on my charging cable from my truck batteries to the DC-DC charger in the camper.

Pollak Outlet

Pollak Plug

[JoeChiOhki]

Napa has a 100 amp 2 wire Lift Gate Plug set you can use to add a heavy gauge umbilical between you camper and your truck.

https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/PHI15326 - Outlet
https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/PHI15336 - Male Plug

[LaneW]

NRALIFR wrote:
Brad, if your goal is to get good refrigerator performance in DC mode and still keep the camper batteries fully charged, you might want to read this topic of mine in Tech Issues. I did this after being disappointed with the camper battery charging I was seeing after running 4 AWG welding cables from the truck batteries to the camper plug in the bed of the truck. My camper is also a Lance, so the wire size then changed to 8 AWG in the umbilical.

When I had a 1995 F350, I upgraded the truck-side wires to 6 AWG, connected them directly to the alternator, and got acceptable charging performance to the camper battery. On my 2010 F450, I went to 4 AWG wires still connected directly to the alternator, and was surprised to see that the charging performance was no better than the old truck. Possibly because the camper umbilical wires were still 8 AWG, but upgrading them was going to be a huge project as you can see in the linked Tech Issues topic.

When I upgraded the charge wires on my current truck, I found that the alternator/battery charging system on the truck had changed so radically that I was very apprehensive about connecting any auxiliary loads directly to the alternator. Plus, if you have a single alternator on your truck, it’s located way down low on the driver-side of the engine, and you’d have to remove a lot of stuff to get to it. I connected my new charge wires directly to both truck batteries, which improved the charging performance over the OEM wires, but it still wasn’t as good as what I was seeing out of the older trucks. It wasn’t keeping up with the drain on the camper battery from the fridge running in AC mode through an inverter, or running in DC mode.

Without going into a long-winded explanation, the fact is the charging systems on new vehicles is so tightly controlled by the ECM that it’s nearly impossible to get decent auxiliary battery charging out of a single alternator system. I’m fairly certain that on a new truck with a single alternator, you could run 0000 cables to the camper and still not get good performance. I have no idea if the dual alternator systems work any better since I don’t have dual alternators.

I finally bit the bullet and did what I describe in the linked topic, including upgrading the camper umbilical wires to 4 AWG as well. That required removing the water heater from the camper so I could get to the area the wires enter the camper. The results have been fantastic. The refrigerator DC mode now works so much better that I no longer run the fridge in AC mode through an inverter. I believe this is due to the camper voltage always being over 14 volts thanks to the Redarc DC-DC charger. Best of all, we always arrive at camp with a fully charged camper battery.

***Link Removed***

:):)

I know this is a very old post, but I am trying to do something similar on my 2022 Lance 825. Adding a Renogy combination DC-DC/MPPT charger and 200 ah lithium. I think I need to run a 4awg from my truck battery (2016 F350) to the go where the ACR is now in the camper and cant figure out how/where to get the wire into the camper and routed to the right place. Currently the Lance plug and cable has only an 8 awg incoming, but somewhere it changes to a 4 awg inside, because I see a 4 awg connected to the battery side of the ACR. Any help?

[bb_94401]

I also used welding wire due to it's flexibility as it made rewiring the inside of the TC to the batteries easier. Used split loom for the parts from the truck alternater back to the separate connector on the TC, not inside the TC.

You might consider using a separate connector at the TC for this. Anderson Power Products PowerPole can be found at a local Battery Store. They also are a source for welding wire and can crimp on connectors as well. The powerpole connectors can be panel mounted using anderson accessories.

You might install a 1/2/ALL/OFF marine battery switch inside the TC to direct where this power goes. The reason for this is that your truck voltage may overcharge your battery if it is already topped off before you leave. I found that my truck was doing this when I put a data logger on my batteries

This switch gives you the options:
1 - power directed to battery only
2 - power directed to refrigerator only
All - power directed to both
OFF - power discontected

[Fuller_Johnson]

I have found that the newer fridges with the circuit board and electronic ignition don't blow out anything like the old ones where you have to ignite them with a push button. The Dometic in my 2009 Apache has never went out on the road that you would notice anyway up to 70 MPH. The downside in the fridge draws a small amount of power all the time to keep the board alive

The old one I had before needed constant monitoring and relighting all the time.

I have 8 Ga charge wire and a 50 watt solar panel I set out and have boondocked for days with no problem.

[BradW]

SidecarFlip wrote:
I use stranded neoprene sheathed welding cable from the local LWS. It's sold by the foot and Tweco crimp on lugs too.

Did you put inside wire loom or just run it bare?

[SidecarFlip]

I use stranded neoprene sheathed welding cable from the local LWS. It's sold by the foot and Tweco crimp on lugs too.

[BradW]

Well, me proud of myself for getting this far on properly wiring this new truck. I spent the last 22 years arriving at every destination with a dead camper battery due to my laziness and visceral hatred for pulling wire. Maybe with the 8 ga wire I will arrive with 2 half-dead batteries. Me will consider that a success and a great improvement over what I had with the last 3 trucks. 🙂 🙂 🙂

[BradW]

I think the roof vent was too big and funneled too much air down the backside of the fridge. The roof vent on our 1996 Lance was huge; a full grown possum could have crawled into it.

[srschang]

BradW wrote:

NRALIFR wrote:
The problem with running my fridge on propane is that it won’t stay lit reliably.

Same here, we could never keep the pilot lit on our 1996 Lance. It worked fine up to about 45 mph, and then it went out every time. Tried every internet fix out there; nothing worked. Call me old fashioned, but I never really like the idea of having an open flame around gas pumps anyway.

Brad

I had the same problem, only 55 MPH was the magic number. I added shielding around the flame in the fridge compartment, a shield around the vent outlet on the roof, and shielding on the intake hatch on the side of the camper. Every time I got over 55 MPH, the flame went out. Got really tired of 50 or 60 degree fridge when we reached our destination. As soon as we set up for the night, I'd switch the fridge to propane and by morning it was cold again. I'd take the blue ice things out of the freezer, put them in the fridge to help keep it cool during the day, but it was a never ending battle.

I finally had enough, and bought a 12v compressor fridge. I also added a second battery, 400w of solar, and charge controller. It a fantastic upgrade! Travelling was fun again! My wife said it was the best improvement we've ever made to the camper.

[Kayteg1]

When I bought my Lance, it had shields stick between back refrigerator cover fins. They look like factory made, but ugly.
I removed them and driving 9000 miles with speeds up to 75 mph never had pilot flame going out. My fridge is first unit on driver side behind the cab.
I did check and do some tests with my fridge.
When 120V element is like 250W , the 12V element is 180W, so they don't perform the same.
Test show very slight advantage of propane v/s 120V, so that is negligible.
I was getting 40/2F in the fridge with 100F outside and refrigerator side exposed to sun. Pretty impressive.
Just remember that propane burner leaves soot, what needs to be cleaned.

[BradW]

NRALIFR wrote:
The problem with running my fridge on propane is that it won’t stay lit reliably.

Same here, we could never keep the pilot lit on our 1996 Lance. It worked fine up to about 45 mph, and then it went out every time. Tried every internet fix out there; nothing worked. Call me old fashioned, but I never really like the idea of having an open flame around gas pumps anyway.

Brad