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DC power management, replacement.

The Problem

I’ve mentioned in other posts the problems we’ve had over the years with the DC power panel located (in the 32SA) in the passenger rear compartment, next to the batteries.  This panel has the main battery cut-off switch, the Inverter DC power switch, four DC breakers for distributing power to various parts of the RV house and a hidden component the battery combiner relay.

The primary problem with this panel is the Inverter fuse which is a 1 by 1 by 3/4 DC power panelinch block mounted between the battery buss (leaving the main switch) and a buss bar that bolts to the back of the Inverter Switch.  Apparently, this bolt that holds that fuse between the two busses isn’t torqued properly and the design is such that heat builds up and the fuse insulation fails (adding to the problem).  As the fuse gets  hot, heat conducts up to the inverter switch and melts part of the switch until it fails.  There was even one report in facebook of this panel catching fire.

Recall

There is an NHTSA recall for this problem for various 2019 to 2022 models.  I personally don’t like the solution as covered in the recall.  If you have a 2000 watt inverter, the solution is to install a cable between the fuse and inverter switch (which won’t pipe heat directly up) as well as check the torque of the fuse bolt.  If you have a smaller inverter, they just check the fuse bolt torque.

I consider this panel to be a total fail.  In order to pull the panel to work on it, the only safe way is to disconnect the battery (usually recommended anyway) beause the support bracket comes very close to the main battery buss when removing the panel.  Fuses shouldn’t be buried behind panels.  The design of the fuse depends on a thin plastic insulator which fails as the fuse heats up which results in the bolt shorting the two busses which means there is no fuse.  Finally – the four DC circuit breakers are poorly supported and heavy wires are connected to them, also not supported/restrained, so sometimes just pulling the panel out and putting back in causes one of the breakers to physically break (happened to me once and also happened to a tech at Red Bay while he was replacing this panel).

The Replacement

The following describes MY solution.  I’m not recommending this for everyone.  It requires significant expense, tools and expertise most RVers would have issue with.

I designed a “replacement” for the
DC power components Tiffin/Lippert DC distribution panel.  It is all based on discrete components and thus takes up a lot more room.  It is amazing just how much stuff, Tiffin (Lippert) stuffed into that tiny panel – and not amazing why parts of the original panel failed so often.

Note:  some who are familiar with my story might say – you installed Lithiums and that overloaded the panel.  Nope.  Right out of the gate on our first trip, with the original Lead Acid batteries and original Magnum Inverter, anytime we used the inverter for a significant load (like the microwave), the inverter had fits and often shut down and the Spyder system rang a low voltage alarm.  We ended up using the generator any time we needed to cook.

When we started out with the lithiums – I checked the alternator rating: 150 amps.  I never saw the batteries charging from the engine more than 90 amps.  I believe this is because the lithiums were never mostly discharged.  We often used the generator when boondocking rather than the engine to charge.  One night we spent boondocking behind a restuarant.  We hit the road very early in the morning while still dark out after running the batteries down to below 40%.  As we took off, I looked at the charging rate and it was 120 amps into the batteries.  Add in headlights, heater fan and anything else – we had to be pushing the generator on the engine to its limit for the first hour.  I didn’t like pushing it that hard.  My solution was to install a Victron DC to DC battery charger.  This will limit the engine to house batteries to 30 amps, which is fine because we rarely need to charge up the house batteries quickly with the RV engine.  It should keep me from pushing the engine alternator so hard.

The Tiffin battery connect solenoid links the house and chassis batteries any time the engine is running or when the battery linking switch on the dash is depressed (also maybe when generator is running).  I didn’t want it connecting when the engine is running – the DC to DC charger takes care of that by monitoring the chassis battery voltage to determine when the engine is running.   I disabled the Tiffin logic by putting a switch between it and the solenoid.  Thus I can flip the switch and still use the dash switch to connect the batteries.  My inverter has a trickle charger to keep the chassis batteries topped off so I don’t need the generator function either.

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Out of the COLD!

We made it from Illinois to Arizona without too much trouble.  Covid finally caught up to us on the way.  We managed to quarantine in a park (turning one night into 7).  Now several weeks later, we are all three still “getting over it”.  Minor symptoms persisted for weeks..  We spent a couple of weeks in Phoenix at a Thousand Trails Encore, then we scheduled two weeks at an Arizona State park.

All was well.  We had reservations for the end of December in Yuma (still do).  But we tried to make alternate reservations between a couple of AZ state parks.  My daughter who is camping next to us, has three vehicles.  They are in the process of trying to move to a 5th wheel and obtained a pickup truck which they need to bring along with their class A and a small car.  When we came to this park, the ranger said – no problem, you are all the same family, correct?  But when we tried to make another reservation – it was “$15 a day for the third vehicle, no exceptions!”  So, an additional $210 per week to park a third, unused, vehicle in the same site as the other two.  This is at an electric only site at a park with dump station, but NO WATER for filling tanks.  Sad Arizona.  Really Sad.  I understand there is a bit of an issue with people coming in with one RV and multiple cars and families all packing into a single site but rangers ARE ALLOWED to be reasonable.  Rangers are allowed to count heads and charge extra. When they choose not to be, they drive people away.  Drive reasonable people away.  And we drove away and it will be cold day in hell the next time we visit an Arizona state park.

So, we dropped the state park plan and are moving on early to the next TT Encore Park.  Meanwhile, we are taking it easy, trying to get back to 100% health.  Enjoying the warmer weather and sunsets.  

Crazies on the Mountain

Back home….. My mother found out we had covid via Facebook. That generated one “how are you” query via a text message.  That’s it.  Nothing more.  I could be dead, and my mother might have to find out about it via Facebook.  Some family.  Meanwhile, the weekly family zoom meetings have mysteriously stopped.  Not that most of the family would stoop low enough to actually participate.  There were lots of lame excuses, but the real reasons were all political and all excuses to avoid acting like we were a family.  

Dozens of questions remain unanswered about the homestead.  Family updates are few and very far between AND never complete.  That’s more than enough of that.

San Diego!

We all made a side trip to the San Diego Zoo with a short stop at the beach and Pacific Ocean. The zoo was a little disappointing with all the empty cages, but that’s what you get when you visit on the cusp of winter on a cool day. We stayed to see the light show which was made more interesting by a very visible meteorite blazing across the sky at the start.

I have been making progress in the astrophotography.  Deb bought me a nice scope a while back, but learning how to use it, and getting the right software all configured is a bit of work.  Add to that the necessity of clear nights that aren’t too cold.  But Janessa (a granddaughter) and I are working through it.  At least in the southwest, the skies in general, are darker and clearer.   Unfortunately, around Yuma they are terrible.  Short evening sessions under pressure to make things work aren’t conducive to achieving the best results, but we have made progress.  We made a nice mosaic of the moon last night.  Christmas went well, if very busy as usual.  In a few days, we head back toward Tuscon, in the rain.