DavePhelps

Good post JD. I hope a lot of folks read this. I learned early on that the brake controller is not a "set and forget" device. I am always tweaking mine depending on road conditions, speed and especially GRADE!! At the start of a long steep descent, I put the gain way up. I can tell now when the TV and trailer are in sync with each other. Good thing you have an HD truck and glad you are safe. Brake failure on some of the steep grades we have out west is not an option! Does your Ram Cummins not have an exhaust brake? Not a diesel owner but thought that was one of their great benefits. Cheers, Dave

Tracing leaks is a real challenge. Up in the attic, behind the side panels, there is a lot of wiring (the dreaded Oliver sign and the marker lights to name two). On my trailer, no drip loops were employed on these wires. So when my rear Oliver sign started to leak, as well as my streetside marker light, the water did not go straight down but traveled along the wires horizontally to a low spot where they dripped. In my case, this was out the rear streetside ceiling speaker, which is right over my head when I'm sleeping! This is all just to say that, water can travel a long ways before it finally comes to light. I would tape the Oliver sign and the marker light as one other test. As Steph and Dud B mentioned, water is still getting in from somewhere, even though you sealed the interior of your window, which you shouldn't need to do. Regarding the window weepholes, This was discussed a while back. They are not so effective draining water due to capillary attraction between the narrow slots and the water. What I ended up doing to solve this was to cut some short pieces of paracord and stuff one end into the slot. It acts like a wick and you'd be surprised how much water they will suck out of the track in a heavy rain, and they do it quickly. I know about heavy rain here in the PNW (well, it used to rain here....)! So, you may also want to try this hack to stop the leak. Good luck, Dave

LOL, yes that's exactly what was missed by inches! Just couldn't figure a polite way to explain it! Dave

I know it's not as fun, but opening a hot water valve at any faucet will relieve the pressure in the hw tank. When first learning how to winterize my trailer, I blew out the lines with compressed air without putting the hw tank in bypass mode. I can't remember the exact sequence of events, except when I unscrewed the anode that sucker shot 20 feet across my yard just missing me by inches. Live and learn! Dave

I somehow missed Snackchaser's post last night. Thanks for that great idea about using a fuse instead of a breaker for the charger to battery connection! It makes good sense to me. So I will amend my proposed diagram above to eliminate the 50 amp breaker, and replace it with a 60amp ANL fuse (per JD's recommendation). Wondering if now would be a good time to add a battery disconnect switch, or if I even need one. Seems like a lot of folks have added them. I could add one to the negative 4awg wire between the battery and the ground bus. I read (Battleborn Battery website) that putting the switch on the negative lead is potentially safer, so trust their call on that. I really appreciate all the input I get here. I could hire this all out, but I really want to learn all that I can about the electrical side. And I like doing the work on my own trailer. I've done a lot of my own residential AC work, but the world of 12VDC is quite different in many ways! JD: There is a 30amp breaker between my solar charge controller output and the battery. With the 'aux' connection on the controller side and the' battery' connection on the battery side (seems correct?). The solar panel inputs are not fused, at least not inside the trailer. I need to now draw out a complete wiring diagram of the entire system. It may take a day or two as I'm pretty swamped right now with other projects. But I'll get it up here as soon as I can. Again, I really appreciate all the help I have received here.👍 Dave

Thanks so much JD for your help with this. I had a feeling that the aluminum plate was a bad idea so glad to get the confirmation! Regarding your statement above, do you mean I need to run a second 6AWG positive wire from the LiFePO4 battery to the Battery(line) side of the 40 amp breaker? While still keeping the two fuses connected? Or a more simple solution might be to eliminate the battery to battery connection between the 50 and 40 amp breakers in my diagram (revised by turning the 50A breaker around as you suggested) and instead connect the aux side of the 50amp breaker to the battery side of the 40 amp breaker. That way power from the LiFePO4 battery would travel down the existing 4AWG wire and then jump over to the 40 amp breaker without traveling through the 50 amp breaker as you suggested. This has my head in a knot. I'll draw it up tomorrow! 🙏 Dave

After reading all these posts carefully, and especially the one from JD, I have come up with this wiring plan. I still may consult with an RV solar technician but though I'd post my crude diagram here for any comments. Sorry, my computer graphic skills are non existent. Forgot to write in that all negative leads from charger to battery will also be 4AWG. This is just the Charger/converter side of the system. I left out the solar side for clarity. Also note the orientation of the fuses to make sure I got that right. I wasn't aware that there was a battery and aux side to them. There are no indications of this on my current Bussmann fuses, but I do see this on newer ones. I may connect the two fuses with a 1/8"x1" copper bar as has been described elsewhere on the forum. Mostly for a clean connection as the distance will be so short between the two. My plan is to mount both fuses to an aluminum plate that is bolted to the existing Starboard panel (?) or whatever it is that Oliver used to mount their components. Dave

Received this PDF from Progressive Dynamics. Thought I would post it here for anyone's interest. News to me that when calculating wire length, the combined length of the positive and negative leads must be added together. Dave Wire-Guage-for-Lithium-Charging.pdf

So one final question. The Bussmann circuit breaker between my converter/charger and the hot bus is 40 amp. The next size up is 50amp (Blue Sea) With my new 45 amp charger, and new 4awg wiring, it seems like the 50 amp breaker would be the way to go. Or is the OEM 40 amp breaker adequate? Thanks. Dave

OK, let me try to get through everyone's good advice! 🙏 My new PD converter/charger module is the PD4045CSV, which puts out a max 45 amps. My solar array is 200 watts (Elite 1 remember). I think the newer models are a bit more.... I hope to add an aux 100 watt panel in the future, so 300 watts of panels. Yes, my Blue Sky charge controller is for the solar panels, and there is already a schunt installed that communicates with my Blue Sky IPN Remote display. It sounds like 6awg works for the solar side of my battery charging, but is lacking for the increased amp output of my new converter/charger? According to Snackchaser"s chart, 4awg wire would be the correct size, for the 45amp output of my converter/charger. I think I have enough OEM 6awg wire to install new crimp connectors and keep that wire in place from my charge controller . Some of the old ones were not so great. Even have some exposed wire on two connections that were over stripped and then the heat shrink was cut too short..... For the new converter/charger, I'll run new 4awg to the battery. Sounds like a plan is emerging! Not a lot of room in my trailer's electrical space under rear dinette seat, so glad I don't have to break in to my BS charge controller, it's kind of buried in there. Thanks again everyone for helping me through this. I'm good with the tools, but with the design side of electrical work I'm a bit lacking. Best, Dave PS. guess I'll also have to check the fuse from the converter/charger to battery to make sure it's rated for 45 amps.

My 9 year old AGM batteries are finally at the end of their life and I’ve decided to convert to a LiFePO4 battery system. One Epoch 12v 300ah battery I am looking at will fit nicely in my Legacy1 battery box and will have almost 2x the amp-hr capacity of my 2 6v AGM’s. . I have ordered a new Progressive Dynamics charger/converter module as my old one does not have the lithium switch or the other manual means to charge lithium batteries. So this is all good. My question is about the wiring. I do not have an inverter, nor do I plan to get one in the future. Between propane and 12VDC, I feel pretty comfortable. My current system however is wired with only 6awg wire. This seems way too small (or not??). The crimp connections are also of poor, bordering on dangerous quality. So I want to redo all the wiring from the batteries forward. Distances are short but with the new lithium batteries, I’m wondering what gauge wire is recommended? I have the Blue Sky charge controller and can’t find in the OM the max wire size it can accommodate. Any other ideas or cautions for this conversion would be appreciated! And thanks to those who have posted a lot of great info in other posts about this conversion. Cheers. Dave

I took both my torque wrenches to my auto mechanic. I've been a loyal customer and he was happy to take them. When the Snap-on truck stopped by, as they do fairly regularly, he had the calibration tools on hand in his truck as they regularly test/calibrate torque tools for all the shops they visit. One of my wrenches was a Snap-on, the other was a Precision Instrument. Fortunately, they both tested in spec. Good to know! Dave

I had the same issue with my aux cooling fan not coming on. Once again, the issue was a loose connection. That blue wire coming off the fan ends up coming out on the left side of the lower refir access panel. Look for the silver tape on the left side of the pic. There it combines with another yellow wire and inserts in to a terminal block (I believe that is what these are called?). In my case the blue wire was loose in the terminal block so I carefully braided the two wires together and reinstalled them in to the block. I bypassed the temp switch to verify all was well and the fan fired up, which it was not doing before. Now whether or not the temp switch is also bad is another story. I hope to test it next trip out. But check that blue wire connection at the terminal block! Good luck. Dave

This is unexpected, and a little concerning. On my 2015 LE1, the water heater and refrigerator have separate fuses, as they should. So to Ron and Phyllis, check your panel! Dave

How did you test this? I ask because if the problem you have is a grounding issue, then you may still have power to the receptacle. If you tested by using the hot and neutral wires supplied at the plug, and the neutral is bad, then your meter will show no power. Most all of my electrical issues have been with bad (loose) grounds. Hook up your meter to your supply (hot) wire and use another neutral/ground to see if you get power. If you do, then you know it's a grounding issue and you can start tracing that back to the bad connection. If you still have no power using a different ground, then most likely it is a supply line issue, so work back from there. Also, since your receptacle is out and disconnected, I'd do a continuity check to be sure it is functional. Finally, I have the Dometic 3-way refrigerator and there is a 5amp fuse for the AC heater hidden away in a control box attached to the back of the refir, accessed by removing the lower vent outside. Check your manual to see about yours. Time to buy a multimeter if you don't already have one! These issues can be challenging to trace. Just be methodical and don't ignore the grounding side of the tests. Good luck. Dave I edited this for some better clarity...I hope.