Alright everyone, I need electrical upgrades, time for ALL NEW! Suggestions needed!

[HoosierB]

As per Clay's blog of his Sunforce/Coleman controller install, you may need to "Dremel out" the existing opening slightly with a sanding barrel for a good fit. I needed to do this on my install as well... easy peasy. Just be prepared to clean up some fiberglass dust.

[Dano]

Hoosier, do you recommend any kind of display to monitor your current state of charge/dis-charge?

[HoosierB]

Other than the Sunforce being able to display the charging current/voltage and charged condition of the bats, the only other monitor I have is the remote display for the Progressive Industries EMS surge protector. It displays amp draw, accurate voltage and any system error codes. Important when plugging into camp posts. I plan on a more sophisticated monitoring setup when I do my solar system upgrade (wiring, panels, MPPT controller, etc.).
FYI: I'm in the somewhat electrically challenged camp. I prefer the smell of fresh cut wood, rather than burning electrical wires...

[deppstein]

Dano--
--The Honda 1000 is not powerful enough to start and run the AC. My original idea was to get the 2000watt model and put some sort of start-up surge reducer (did some research and they do make such things) in effort to be able to run AC off of a portable generator. But, fact that the 2000 was too wide for storage rear storage cabinet, coupled with fact that it would still be iffy for a 2000watt generator to start and run the AC, I let it go. So, having pulled the on-board, we have no way to run AC unless we are connected to shore power. Fine for our way of using the Rig. In your case, may be reason to keep the on-board for sure.
--Regarding the separator...there are good threads in other parts of this forum (search Surepower, separator, Blue Sea and you will find them) that will give you a good perspective about this. Blue Go, Scott, and others who know a ton about all of this may want to chime in here. Some of the original Superpower Separator models were recalled (again use search), so if that is case with yours, it would be a no-brainer to swap out for a Blue Sea 7622 or similar. I made the switch in effort to minimize voltage drop. Since I did not have Scan Gauge II installed (you can search about that useful little item as well), I don't have a comparison of the voltage drop with Surepower compared to to my Blue Sea...but, according to Blue, it seemed significant enough to warrant the switch. That was enough to convince me to do the swap out since we use the alternator as a charging source so much of the time. A note about my install-- I did not change the location of the Separator (under hood on driver side fender), because I was not switching the wiring (Blue and others recommend going to a thicker gauge than the current 4...for less voltage drop and fact that you would have a lot of power surging through the wire if you were to use the "battery boost" switch that allows use of House Batteries to jump start Vehicle Battery). As stated in pervious post, I am only seeing a .1v drop from alternator to battery, so don't feel the need at this point for larger wire there. And, my NOCO Genius 15000 charger actually has a "jump start" mode, so feel like I am all set there as well. When installing the Blue Sea 7622, I also did not wire up the remote. Don't feel the need for that either. Using the manual knob attached to the unit itself works well enough for me. Just have to lift the hood to throw the knob--which I do when using solar or NOCO to charge House (so that it won't have to work to do start battery as well.
--As for the House Batteries--I just got a pair of Group 31 Deep Cycle Duracell Ultras off-the-shelf from Batteries and Bulbs. They were well reviewed and, as I said, I am in my 3rd year with them (charging by the various means described in previous post) and they are still good at coming up to charge and holding a charge.
Anything else...feel free.
David

[caconcourse]

JUST AN FYI for anyone following this thread...The Sunforce 30 Amp, 12-Volt Digital Solar Charge Controller has two part numbers but are identical units from what I can see. The only difference is one is branded Sunforce and the other Coleman. Sunforce part number is 60032 and has a yellow stripe across the bottom and the Coleman part number is 68032. The only difference with the Sunforce brand, is a little over $31 cheaper with taxes on Amazon here in Canada, enough to buy a Coach battery monitor!

Hi Dano,
These are probably the same unit, but make sure you buy the one with the digital readout, there is a cheaper model without it. The readout will provide battery voltage and charging amps.

For a battery/temperature display, I bought a unit similar to this on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Multifunctional- ... GVJTR8QS0A

It came with a lighter-type power input, but I cut it off and wired it into the 12V line for the TV. I mounted this display on the wall to the left of the TV, where there was an old audio control panel I disconnected. I wanted a temperature display as well as voltage, and this unit provided both inside and outside temperature, battery voltage, and a clock, for under $20. I connected the outside temperature probe to the old telephone wire and spliced the sensor to the a tekephone jack and stuck it inside the outside compartment for water/shore power/cable access.

[Dano]

Thank you Clay, I was hoping you would chime in! Here is the link to what I got and it says it has an LCD display so I should be good: https://sunforceproducts.com/products/3 ... troller-2/

Have you been satisfied with your setup so far? Has it worked well for you? Many thanks!

[caconcourse]

Thank you Clay, I was hoping you would chime in! Here is the link to what I got and it says it has an LCD display so I should be good: https://sunforceproducts.com/products/3 ... troller-2/

Have you been satisfied with your setup so far? Has it worked well for you? Many thanks!

Hi Dano,

I am very happy with our current setup, but it matches our usage style. We drive a lot on trips and rarely stay in the same place two nights in a row. Consequently, most of our recharging is done by the alternator, and some solar while driving. Blue exaggerates some when he describes the expected stock usage as "driving power post to power post". The Chinook has a great balance of power sources, including 12V, shore power, generator, solar and propane. We are perfectly good for a few nights on the road without power, sometimes using parking lots (mostly Walmart), truck stops, primitive campgrounds, as well as full hookups. We need a dump about once a week, and need to refill water every few days, so we look for hookups whenever we need to, plus they are a luxury when we stay there, with showers, unlimited power, dumping, laundry, and water. When not hooked up, we use propane for the fridge, and boil water for coffee and use a french press. We still have a coffee maker we use when we have power. (I drink lots of coffee!) We rarely use the generator; to date we have only needed it a few times to run the air conditioner, when we were parked on 100 degree afternoons. But it was invaluable when we needed it, and it is always there as a backup power source.

We watch one or two old movies on the VHS player every night, and occasionally need the fan in the evenings, and the batteries will cover us for at least a couple of days without charging. 150 watts of solar made a big difference from 50, and we don't really need any more than that for our usage. I prefer having the roof panels, because there is no setup, they work fine in the driveway year-round for battery maintenance, etc. The 50W flat panel on top of the air conditioner is almost a no-brainer, since it takes no usable space. We wire the three panels in parallel, because one shaded corner can kill the output of panels wired in series, whereas the parallel mode uses whatever it can find.

The only real deficiencies for us in the stock setup were the bad chargers (old Magnatek, and old solar), and insufficient watts of solar panels. Your new Magnatek probably solves that problem, and I suspect it is equivalent to the Progressive Dynamics technology. Our batteries are conventional Interstate batteries installed by the dealer when we bought the unit four years ago. They are working fine, and we haven't needed to top of the fluid in the last four years, since we replaced the chargers with 3-stage.

[Dano]

Clay, your usage sound EXACTLY like us, very exciting AND with the same coffee consumption! My Parallax converter is new and a 3 stage so am reticent to get rid of it since it came with ours when we bought it. I think it will work fine. The new charge controller as you say will be a 3 stage vs. the old Mark15 and a vast improvement. I’m leaning towards changing the old solar panel out for news ones at this point so they all work together to avoid any compatibility issues and am pretty sure I can get 150-200 watts up there using different shapes by the same manufacturer, need to do final measurements but still a foot and a half of snow up there!
That’s good use out of your batteries, you must be pleased. Do you feel the added cost of AGM’s would be worth it over your conventional deep cycles? Doesn’t sound like it?

Dano

[caconcourse]

I’m leaning towards changing the old solar panel out for news ones at this point so they all work together to avoid any compatibility issues and am pretty sure I can get 150-200 watts up there using different shapes by the same manufacturer, need to do final measurements but still a foot and a half of snow up there!
That’s good use out of your batteries, you must be pleased. Do you feel the added cost of AGM’s would be worth it over your conventional deep cycles? Doesn’t sound like it?

Dano

Solar panels are very simple devices, so mix and match panels in parallel should not be much of an issue as long as the output voltage range is similar. It is hard to find panels as narrow as the stock panels, but if you are willing to have a few inches of overhang, you can find a couple of 100W panels that would fit two down that side. The third 50W panel seemed to put us "over the hump" of our needs, so I just stopped looking for expansion options.

Since these conventional batteries are working well and are housed outside, I will probably just stick to the old style batteries, rather than spend more for AGM (which is now also becoming dated technology). In the grand scheme of things, spending about $300 or less to replace them every few years seems inexpensive and a reasonable approach. I have to admit that after finding out how much we have enjoyed the Chinook, I am much less concerned about the cost of things than I was at the outset, when we weren't sure we would use it much.

[Dano]

Clay/Dave/Hoosier/Everyone;
What would your opinion be on this PWM Renogy charge controller? Flush mount like the Sunforce but is a 4 stage charge controller vs. 3 and has a few more features like a little battery graphic showing how charged your batteries are. It’s a flush mount like the Sunforce/Coleman but has more functionality I think and it’s only $70. It will need a face plate to be made since it’s not quite as close at the Sunforce is in size...Opinions appreciated! https://www.renogy.com/renogy-adventure ... d-display/