Charger converter opinions

[sweeney153]

My 4106 has a Progressive dynamics PD733 power converter that looks like it hasn't worked in years. A previous owner rewired the bus so that the A/C is not even connected to the power converter. The house batteries are not connected to anything and all the 12v runs off the start batteries. I found 110 wiring mixed in with the 12v. I need some Major wiring done. The actual running of wire is not a problem and I can read the code. Where I am in need of help is the control systems.

Can any one point me to a good resource for RV wiring, A book, article  or post? Also I was looking at the PD4500 Inteli-Power Panel. Is this a good choice or bad and why.

It looks like we are not going away next week.

Any and all help would really be appreciated.


Thanks

Kevin

Sweeney153

[BG6]

Wiring is actually very simple.  With an RV, you have two separate wiring systems -- DC (low voltage 12 or 24 volts) and AC (110 or 220) -- which may come together at a couple of points (battery charger, inverter, genset).

I dunno if any of the following will help, but here goes:

I am still doing some of the wiring on my liveaboard coach.  I am using NO RV stuff in the entire coach, except for a propane fridge.  I am in the process of converting everything to run on 24VDC or 12VDC (including a DC power supply for my desktop computer).  The only things which run on AC are the microwave, convection oven, toaster and my HDTV, and these run from an inverter when I'm off the grid (which is most of the time now).  When I'm on shore power or running the genset, I have electric griddle and hotplate

My coach alternator pumps 270 amps @ 28 volts = 7560 watts.

My 5KW Onan genset runs on propane, and has start / kill switches at the driver's panel, kitchen and bedroom (the start / stop switches are open circuits, momentary-make to command the genset).

I have 140 watts of solar (and will go up to probably about 600 watts, plus add a wind generator for use when camped).

With that combination, power is something that I have plenty of.

My AC breaker panel cost about $20 from the big hardware chain store.  I feed AC through the shorepower line (I have a socket run from the genset to where the shore cable is stored, I plug into that or to shore power, so no autoswitch to fail).  AC is backfed through the main breakers, which are mounted in the 1 and 2 positions on the panel.

My DC (24V) runs lights and everything else I can convert to low voltage.  A battery charger keeps the house batteries topped off any time there is AC power, a separate trickle charger keeps the chassis batteries topped off, and I am rigging solar.

When I am done, I will have the following meters:  AC volts, AC frequency (you really want this if running a genset), AC amps, DC volts, DC amps (load), DC amps (charge / solar), battery bay temp, genset oil temp and genset oil pressure.

[bevans6]

I installed a PD4000 power center in my bus, and I think it's doing a very good job.  Main differences are it is a 45 amp charger, and 30 amp AC distribution for 6 120 volt AC branch circuits.  I think the DC section has 10 or 12 DC branch circuits.  I used an Iota 30 amp transfer switch (obviously I have set my bus up for 30 amp service, since a lot of places I go don't even have that).  I used romex for my AC wiring, and single wire for my DC wiring, kept separate.  I used home runs to a DC ground buss bar rather than local chassis grounds, I'm not sure why - it just seemed like a good idea.  I basically kept to code for normal house wiring, which means I probably broke or bent a few rules for MH wiring, but I tried to keep it logical, simple, and safe.  I used a GFI outlet as the first outlet in a branch, so that all subsequent outlets were GFI protected.

Brian