Bus charger (not inverter) suggestions (to supplement inverter charging)

[daveola]

I have abnormally high power needs. 

I have a massive 33kW AGM battery bank and often want to sink lots of current into it to charge.

I used to have two Xantrex/Trace SW4024s and they would charge together (either through my 10kW genset or through two separate shore power lines).

Unfortunately one of my SW4024s started smoking, so it's been pulled from the bus.  And I've often seen the remaining SW4024 hit it's max of 30A charging when I'm doing a bulk charge.

I was thinking about getting a larger charger that could handle all the charging and/or work in parallel with the SW4024.

So I'm considering getting a Xantrex C60 charger, in the perhaps naive hope that it will work well with my SW4024 I have, but I'm open to other suggestions - I suppose if the charger is big enough then I don't need to have it work well with the SW4024, since I wouldn't need the SW4024 charger to run at the same time, but it would be nice if it had a remote panel/display kind of setup.

Any suggestions?

[richard5933]

I've been using the Progressive Dynamics multi-stage charger/converter and think it's a good unit. We have the 9270 (70-amp) because it's the largest that can be run on a 15-amp circuit. If you've got circuits wired for 20 amps, then you can run the 9280 and charge at 80 amps.

https://www.progressivedyn.com/rv/power-converters/pd9200-series-rv-power-converters/#operation

The units come with a remote pendant to monitor the status of the charger and to make manual changes.

[Geoff]

I have suggestions.  First, since you have your bus in a lot in SF, how come you don't have shore power?  Are you using a generator for 120v power and battery chargers? 

If you only have a genset, I would say your battery pack is too large and you need to downsize so you can can run your genset less but more often so you don't end up with a huge battery bank to charge up.

[eagle19952]

why not rebuild those inverters..?

odd, my Trace sw2512 has a much larger charger than 30 amp, 130 amp iirc.
as well my Xantrex Marine 3012 does too..

[bevans6]

The Magnum 4024, in it's different varieties, has up to 105 amps at 28 volts charge rate, that is 2.9Kw.  If you don't discharge that bank too low, it would probably keep up.  You'd need at least a 30 amp 115VAC feed to achieve that, and typically it would only charge at max rate for a short time.  Don Rowe has a good price right now, I saw.

[windtrader]

I've been using the Progressive Dynamics multi-stage charger/converter and think it's a good unit. We have the 9270 (70-amp) because it's the largest that can be run on a 15-amp circuit. If you've got circuits wired for 20 amps, then you can run the 9280 and charge at 80 amps.

https://www.progressivedyn.com/rv/power-converters/pd9200-series-rv-power-converters/#operation

The units come with a remote pendant to monitor the status of the charger and to make manual changes.

Richard, What the rationale for having a separate battery charger? It seems like when you have access to shore power the batteries are charged via the inverter/charger. Once charged a small amp unit can be used to keep them topped off. Just curious when you use a high amp charger. don

[neoneddy]

On an unrelated note... I'd love to see pictures of the battery bank.   And what for? I'm sure you have your reasons, just curious.

[richard5933]

Richard, What the rationale for having a separate battery charger? It seems like when you have access to shore power the batteries are charged via the inverter/charger. Once charged a small amp unit can be used to keep them topped off. Just curious when you use a high amp charger. don

A few reasons, but the main one is that I've had problems in the past where multi-purpose equipment had one component fail which necessitated replacing everything. With our system, if the inverter craps out, then we replace the inverter. If it's the charger, then we replace the charger. We have a 2000-watt inverter that is just an inverter, not an inverter/charger. The converter/charger is used to keep the house batteries charged when we're on generator or shore power. While underway on the road, I'm using a 24v-to-12v charger to charge the house batteries from the bus alternator. Both our Progressive Dynamics converter/charger and our battery-to-battery charger put out up to 70 amps 12v, which is the recommended 10% charging rate for our battery bank (four Trojan L16G 6v wired series/parallel.) Both of these chargers are smart chargers, and they will automatically adjust their output the what the battery bank requires.

The only thing that we don't have in our set up that I'd like is automated switching for outlets being powered by the inverter. Eventually I'll be installing an ATS to do this, but not until I'm able to rework the 120v wiring and breaker panel. My end goal for this is to have the inverter outlets powered through a sub-panel, but our current 120v breaker panel didn't have the capacity to add a sub-panel easily, so that project got pushed down the line a bit.

We also have a 120v-to-24v battery charger that puts out up to 25 amps. This is so that we're able to top up our coach batteries if there is a need. There are a few small items which run from the coach batteries so it's possible we'll run them down a small amount if we're camped in one place for a while.

I know that this is not how everyone would set things up, but it works for us and I understand it. I'll post photos on another thread once I get the last details and the new battery box completed.

[daveola]

I have suggestions.  First, since you have your bus in a lot in SF, how come you don't have shore power?  Are you using a generator for 120v power and battery chargers? 

My bus is no longer in the SF lot, I don't have that space anymore.  And regardless of that, the bus does travel and comes across a huge variety of power inputs.

I would say your battery pack is too large...

Nope, but that's a discussion for a different post.

[daveola]

why not rebuild those inverters..?

I only found one rebuilder, and the price was ridiculous.  Suggestions on where to find someone who can rebuild, or where to find the replacement parts I need (and figure out what damage might have occurred besides the main board?)

[neoneddy]

I've been happy with my Victron Multiplus , those can be daisy chained 6 deep I think.   I found them on Amazon for $1200 earlier this year.   3000 watt inverter / 50-70 amp charge I think.

[daveola]

On an unrelated note... I'd love to see pictures of the battery bank.   And what for? I'm sure you have your reasons, just curious.

Well - it started a huge sh*tstorm of a discussion on the forums years ago, and I'd like to not start that again, though I'm happy to report that all the naysayers to my battery bank plans were wrong.    *pbbbblt*.

Here's the electrical system:

http://bus.getdave.com/Album/Electrical/

And here's the reason.

http://bus.getdave.com/Infrastructure/Electrical/

You may think my choices or values I put into this system are silly, and that's fine, but it works and does what I want and was worth it to me!

[daveola]

I've been happy with my Victron Multiplus , those can be daisy chained 6 deep I think.   I found them on Amazon for $1200 earlier this year.   3000 watt inverter / 50-70 amp charge I think.

For that kind of price I could probably find another SW4024 to put back in my bus...

[eagle19952]

I only found one rebuilder, and the price was ridiculous.  Suggestions on where to find someone who can rebuild, or where to find the replacement parts I need (and figure out what damage might have occurred besides the main board?)

call Steve
http://www.marineelectronicsrepair.com/

Jaytron Service
2635 Manatee Ave East
Bradenton, Fl 34208
941-748-1941 (8AM to 5PM Week Days)
fax 941-746-6426

[daveola]

call Steve
http://www.marineelectronicsrepair.com/

Will do - I'm worried about the shipping costs to/from FL alone...  I can probably buy a used unit for $1000, so I'm not sure a repair makes sense, but we'll see.