Major Mods

Solar+Inverter+BMV+Screen+Lithium – 1

Shortly after we headed out on our first trip (Quartzite, AZ) we were experiencing issues with low battery voltage whenever trying to run an appliance like the microwave off the inverter. We had the factory installed 2kW inverter and four Lead Acid batteries. When I would check the battery voltage (no load) there didn’t seem to be a problem, but, well, there was this sale on Battle Born Lithiums in the big tent. We bought four GC2 batteries, then sold the lead acid batteries as almost new/used. That however wasn’t the end of our problems – more about that on this page.  When we got back home, we decided to install solar, a larger inverter, a Battery monitor and a color screen to monitor it all. The installs are covered on this page. The equipment (and helpful advice) for those installs all came from ContinuousResources.com.

Lithium Battery Heater – 2

Lithium batteries are not supposed to be charged when they are below freezing. You can either add temperature monitoring to the batteries, linked to your charger and solar keep them from charging when too cold or do what I did, add a thermostat controller set of battery heaters.  Thus I can leave the heaters always plugged in and they only come on when needed. The thermostat can be found here and the 120V heaters can be found here. It took two heaters to wrap my four batteries.

DC Panel Replacement – 3

On many Open Roads there is a DC power distribution panel right next to the batteries in the right rear compartment (some models may have this elsewhere). There is a fuse on the back of the panel that, if not properly torqued down, can overheat and conduct so much heat into the Inverter Power Switch that it melts the switch and it fails. I never liked this panel and after two of them failed on me, I chose to rip the panel out and replace it all with discreet components. The story that covers that installation is here.

Battery to Battery Charger – 4

Victron Orion-Tr Smart 12 12 30 DC to DC charger.  When I first installed the lithiums batteries, I never saw them charge at more than 90 amps from the engine alternator.  With 150 amp alternator, I figured: no problem.  Then one morning after dry-camping overnight, the lithiums were down to 40%.  It was still dark when we hit the road.  I looked at the battery monitor and we were pushing 120 amps into the lithiums.  Adding in the headlights, dash heater fan etc.  I’m sure the alternator was working right at its max of 150 amps – for over an hour.  My solution was to install this Victron Orion battery to battery charger, a breaker on each side and to disable the chassis to house solenoid with a switch so I can re-enable if needed.

7000 pound hitch – 5

The GCVWR for our motorhome would allow us to tow up to 5000 pounds, but the RV hitch was only rated to 4000 pounds.  We had the dealer install a larger (7000-pound) rated hitch.  We can still only tow 5k, but I don’t have to worry about the hitch breaking or falling off.

Towed Hitch and Brake and TPMS – 6, 7, 8, 9

We had towed our aluminum 2015 F150 behind our Class C, and had configured it with a Roadmaster Nighthawk tow bar, an RVIBrake braking system and a Brake Buddy Towed Vehicle Battery Maintainer.   The Battery Maintainer is a battery to battery charger and does a better job of maintaining your towed vehicle battery than just connecting the wire from your motorhome to your towed vehicle battery.  If you get a Roadmaster Nighthawk tow bar, you need to order the baseplates for connecting it to your towed vehicle separately.
Along with the RVIBrake braking system, we installed RVIBrake’s TPMS system.  Both operated off the same hub and tablet.  I do not recommend the RVIBrake TPMS system because the sensors use non-replaceable batteries.  It has been a pain.  I’d rather swap out all my TPMS batteries before a trip than to get on the road, have three sensors fail and try to deal with getting new ones on the road.  The moral of this story is, while you are picking a tow bar, braking system and TPMS – look at all of them together before you decide on any part.

Hitch Doubler and Bike Rack – 10, 11

We carried a pair of Lectric bikes on some trips.  Initially, we put them on the back of the pickup truck, but eventually moved them to the back of the motorhome.  To do this, we purchased a Roadmaster Dual Hitch Receiver.  Our bike rack was Heavy Duty Two Bike Rack designed for 60 pound bikes. We carefully checked clearance to make sure the bike rack didn’t contact the tow vehicle on sharp turns.

Air Conditioner Covers, Reflectix and Ez Starts -12, 13, 14

When we got this motorhome we decided to change the BLACK AC covers for White ones ( Maxxair replacement shroud), figuring why let the units bake in the sun.  While we were in there, we taped up the seams on the cold box and added a layer of Reflectix insulation.  We also added easy start units to lower the starting amperage of the air conditioners.  For reasons I won’t go into, we used a SoftstartRV Air and an Micro Air EasyStart on the other.  Both work well.