First day working on stuff at all after being sick. Didn’t feel up for the detail and annoyance on the Ram, so I worked on bigger simpler battery stuff on the camper.
Got the old batteries and box out. Looked at layout options in the cabinet under the sink.
Should be able to get the two 150ah batteries I got (with room for a third) along with solar, 12v, 120v chargers and new diesel heater into the space surrounding that battery box, under the kitchen counter/silverware drawers, between the oven and hot water heater . Inverter may sneak in there too if it fits with adequate clearance to heater exhaust. Need to make a dead panel under those drawers into a door and figure out exactly where I put the diesel heater duct output. Hopefully that’s not too loud, I need to run test my mount before I commit to possible resonance with the oven and a very short outlet duct.
Figured out a plan for including the big inverter I have on hand (3kw running 6kw peak claimed, low end unit hanging out from early days of Joe) without making a loop between 120->12 and 12->120, while still having the generator charge the battery when run. The vicron multiplus line marries a charger and inverter into one unit and avoids this issue - and also costs about a grand. I’m using an 8 pole 30a rotary switch instead. Off grid, I’ll select inverter as opposed to shore power, which will disconnect the 120v charger’s supply. Inversely, on shore power, inverter output will be unhooked from the camper so theres no backfeed. Should be mildly annoying to wire up and then - I believe - foolproof?
Called it a night while looking at existing wiring and seeing a mystery of where the main battery cables go. 2/0 or so + & - go from the batteries down next to the fresh and gray tanks in the basement under the kitchen. No idea what they go to down there. I can feel a mounting point and they go back from there. Smaller cables go to the battery disconnect and a couple auto reset breakers that I’d like to identify. The factory charger had its own dedicated cables from it direct to the batteries. I also need to see where truck 12v feeds to and reroute that to my 12-12 charger. I hope I can turn that charger down to ~10a as to not tax trailer wiring until I run a dedicated 6awg wire for truck charging. Hopefully do that along with hunting for fuel gauge shorts and wiring harness issues sometime soon. I dont think ill have all done before fingerlakes national forest cleanup. Camper maybe but definitely not both, and probably not solar within the week yet either. 2x200w panels are going on with easy addition of 2 more.
Only picture I took was getting the lead-acid battery box out after I got the battery box door off.
