Where to ground house batteries and inverter in MCI
 

Where to ground house batteries and inverter in MCI

Started by Midwilshire, May 10, 2014, 07:35:21 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Midwilshire

Our 8D house batteries and inverter are now in the center of the bus where the old OTR air conditioner used to be.  Can anyone recommend where to ground them?  I'll be running a solenoid between the house and chassis positives.  Could I simply run the ground directly to the negative terminal on the chassis battery, or would that overload it's ground cable? 

All of my house dc loads run back to the negative terminal on the house bank.  I just need a solid place to ground that.  I was hoping to find a large ground cable in the AC junction box, but those all appear to be chassis 24v runs.  I recall that there was a robust ground stud above this bay, but lacking foresight, I covered it up when we put down the new floor.

Thanks for any help you can provide,

Mike
Michael & Gigi
1978 MCI-5C "Silverliner"
Full-timers in the DC area

bevans6

I just put a 3/8" bolt through the floor and bolted my ground cables to that.  The entire metallic structure of the bus is ground so it really doesn't matter all that much.  I used anti-corrosion grease on it and I keep it clean.  So far it works fine.  I wouldn't connect to the ground cable terminal of the start batteries but I might connect to the chassis stud that they use for ground, if it was close enough.  Keeping that ground cable as short as possible is important.

Brian
1980 MCI MC-5C, 8V-71T from a M-110 self propelled howitzer
Allison MT-647
Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia

Midwilshire

Thanks Brian.  What size cable did you use for the house battery ground?
Michael & Gigi
1978 MCI-5C "Silverliner"
Full-timers in the DC area

Dave5Cs

mine is 00 2 feet long. Inverter is 00 welding cable 6 feet long 4024 inverter. 4 - 6volt bats @ 232 AH
"Perfect Frequency"1979 MCI MC5Cs 6V-71,644MT Allison.
2001 Jeep Cherokee Sport 60th Anniversary edition.
1998 Jeep TJ ,(Gone)
Somewhere in the USA fulltiming.

bevans6

Based on my current load design I used a 1/0 cable.  It should be able to carry 100% of your anticipated maximum current at your voltage.  My battery bank is configured for 24 volts to reduce the current load and cable sizes compared to the same power at 12 volts.

Brian
1980 MCI MC-5C, 8V-71T from a M-110 self propelled howitzer
Allison MT-647
Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia