orourkmw
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Re: Lance TC - lithium - DC-DC charger question
One more question, please. I’ll be wiring up in the next few days. I plan to use the Lance truck plug with 8 ga wires from the truck battery to the camper plug at the front of the camper, which runs to the 30A DC-DC just upstream from the house battery. The other smaller (lights) wires will go to the 4-way pin at the rear of the truck. Since the DC-DC is itself an isolator, and the Lance camper has its own isolator (Blue Seas Battery Link Automatic Charging Relay), will there be any conflict if I leave the wiring through the Blue Seas ACR?1.1KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Propane won't flow? Maybe this....
Thank you. I was pulling my hair out. I followed every advice I could find on Google, except for the clown on YouTube who advised unscrewing the valve from the tank and dumping out the liquid propane.. He’s going to get somebody killed. Anyway, with the valve closed I spray WD-40 and used a torx screwdriver to push in the check valve, with the valve opening pointing away from me and gloves on, just in case. At first, very hard to push, but the more I worked it the easier it became. Thought I had it, but no flow, so I repeated the procedure, and had success. Two thumbs up for this advice… It sure is better than beating the tank on the ground2.1KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Lance TC - lithium - DC-DC charger question
I consulted a wire gauge chart. A 6 ga wire has an ampacity (so can carry an amp load) of 65 amps, while an 8 ga can carry 50A. (The National Electric Code has a safety factor, so for a 15 ft run they list 8 ga wire for 25-30 amps, 6 ga for 40-50, and 4 ga for 60.) I understand that to mean the 8 ga wire can fail before the 60A fuse….the wire is not protected. My thinking, then, is if I drop down to a 50A fuse on the 8 ga wire there should be minimal risk, and I don’t think there should be any nuisance trips. Sorry to belabor this, but I would rather think it out now. Thanks to everyone for the conversation.462Views0likes0CommentsRe: Lance TC - lithium - DC-DC charger question
Sorry, I had a typo…it is a 240A alternator, and it was a no-charge option. I received the Victron 12-12/30 today. The manual says for a 5 m wire run (approximately what I’ll have from truck battery to camper battery, it should be 6 AWG with a 60A fuse. I just want to double-check if that changes anybody’s guidance. It will be much simpler to run the standard 8AWG to 6-pin, but I don’t want to take undue risk.285Views0likes0CommentsRe: Lance TC - lithium - DC-DC charger question
My main goal is to make sure I don’t burn up the alternator and get stranded. But also, on my last two campers the charge I got from my alternator was minimal. With a compressor fridge (NovaKool) on my last camper I would end a day driving 10% under the SOC where I started, even with 200 W solar. I would like to have a 30A charge or so go into the batteries while we’re rolling (even though I’m back to a 3-way fridge). It sounds like the system as described will be ok on both counts. I’m ordering the Victron 12-12/30 amp Smart DC-DC, and will hook up 8 ga 6-pin. Thanks for the clarity.286Views0likes0CommentsLance TC - lithium - DC-DC charger question
I’ve just purchased a 2020 Lance 975 that will sit in my 2022 F350. I have to install the Lance 6-pin at the front of my bed. I will also replace the two 12V lead acid house batteries with one 200 ah LiFePO4. The Lance has a battery separator, which appears to be installed just upstream of the house batteries. I think I need a DC-DC charger to protect the 270A alternator (as well as to get charging benefits), and am considering 30A-40A. Lance specifies at least 8 gauge hot and ground wires from the truck to the 6-pin. I am thinking that to protect the alternator from a large current draw, ideally I should run 2 or 4 AWG wire from the truck battery all the way to the DC-DC, and back, and not connect to the 6-pin plug (so skip the 8 ga). I think CamperJeff explained the potential complications of feeding the 6-pin. I would mount the DC-DC at the battery box, which is ~4 foot from the pin connector, so I’ll have to see how to feed the wire through. My questions are these: First, am I understanding this properly? If I can keep the battery separator in-line and ahead of the DC-DC, can I avoid the D+ signal wire that the DC-DC uses to isolate truck from house? I think the DC-DC only takes as large as 6 ga, so I’ll need to narrow down as close to the end as I can manage. Is there still a risk of overheating when running lighter gauge wire between the relatively short run from the battery isolator through the DC-DC to the LiFePO4? Any guidance would be appreciated.9.9KViews0likes41CommentsRe: Supporting a pop up roof - examples or methods?
Here are a couple of excerpts from a post of mine in Sept 2015, thinking I was piggybacking on whazoo's and oldetymeflyr's advice....I had to adjust the roof lift motor torque,so I cutout notches in each end of 2x4s ~28" long to fit between the horizontal torsion bars, with the notches allowing the piping to "seat" in the 2x4.. Now I think I understand that whazoo didn't actually put the supports in between the bars, but on the roof itself....maybe I should have paid more attention the first time?? would have saved myself trouble (I actually did this job a second time when I ended up replacing the motor, and did use two supports on each side between the bars without problems.) "I put oldetymeflyr's roof supports, one one each side, just behind the kitchen sink (and same place on passenger side). If I have to do it again, I'll put two on each side, at each end of the piping. Doing it the way I did it, in the middle, allowed the pipe to spread, which put the weight on a little fiberglass piece on the cabinet....there is no other support from end to end. It held for a while.....then I heard it start cracking, but I couldn't react fast enough to what was going on. It broke a small piece on the end of the cabinet (which is not visible) and the roof fell about 2 inches....which tightened the gap where I had taken the motor out, so there was no way to get it back in (it also tightened various parts of my anatomy when it happened). I put a jack under the piping on the kitchen counter, but immediately realized there is no support under the counter, so I had to pull out the pots and pans and build a support. I realize now part of the difficulty in sliding the jack motor out was that it was carrying the weight, because when I jacked the roof back up and ensured no contact, the motor slid in easily.... I did run into difficulty rebolting the white piping to the bronze blocks....it was a job to get the bolt holes to line up. I was able to lift and hold the roof by hand on the passenger side, but needed my jack again on the driver's side." Hope this helps.598Views0likes0Comments
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Prefer to camp in a travel trailer? You're not alone.Mar 05, 202544,027 Posts
