Advice needed for installing an inverter/charger

[herman]

I have a 2020 303RLS and would like to install an inverter/charger. In April I installed a BattleBorn 270Ah GC3 and, temporarily, a Xantrax ProWatt 2000 inverter and a Progressive Dynamics PD9160ALV charger. I used 4/0 cable, fuse block, cutoff switch, busbars, Victron battery monitor, etc My plan was to install a Magnum MSH3012RV but I didn't have time to deal with wiring it in between the shore-power and panel before leaving for a trip. Now I have some time and need some advice on the easiest way to do this. I have everything in the front hatch so I do not believe I can simply cut the existing 6/3 wire and "splice in" the MSH3012RV because there isn't enough extra cable to reach the front hatch. Rather, I'll probably need to detach either the panel or the shore-power and run to the MSH3012RV in the front hatch and then buy more 6/3 wire and connect the other side. Am I on the right track? If so, I'm thinking it might be easier to detach at the panel instead of at the shore-power jack because of accessibility. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I had my eyes on the MSH3012RV because it can supply power to both L1 and L2 whereas the popular Victron MultiPlus II can only do L1. But the MultiPlus III is becoming available (I think) so I'm wondering if that's a better route than Magnum.

Jeff

[howson]

herman -- Consider a hard-wire Progressive EMS. The shore power (existing) goes to the EMS. Then run new wires to/from the inverter and panel.

On my phone so can't link, but search for my "comprehensive" thread and you'll find a schematic.

Howard

P.S. Go Victron! ( I'm a shameless fanboy...)

[wygieman]

I have a 2020 303RLS and would like to install an inverter/charger. In April I installed a BattleBorn 270Ah GC3 and, temporarily, a Xantrax ProWatt 2000 inverter and a Progressive Dynamics PD9160ALV charger. I used 4/0 cable, fuse block, cutoff switch, busbars, Victron battery monitor, etc My plan was to install a Magnum MSH3012RV but I didn't have time to deal with wiring it in between the shore-power and panel before leaving for a trip. Now I have some time and need some advice on the easiest way to do this. I have everything in the front hatch so I do not believe I can simply cut the existing 6/3 wire and "splice in" the MSH3012RV because there isn't enough extra cable to reach the front hatch. Rather, I'll probably need to detach either the panel or the shore-power and run to the MSH3012RV in the front hatch and then buy more 6/3 wire and connect the other side. Am I on the right track? If so, I'm thinking it might be easier to detach at the panel instead of at the shore-power jack because of accessibility. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I had my eyes on the MSH3012RV because it can supply power to both L1 and L2 whereas the popular Victron MultiPlus II can only do L1. But the MultiPlus III is becoming available (I think) so I'm wondering if that's a better route than Magnum.

Jeff

I am using the MSH3012M and I unfortunately cannot recommend it for a couple reasons. I selected it over the Victron version for a couple of irrelevant reasons but mainly because it fit my install much better. Mine is installed in the 303’s front compartment also. I replaced the wire from the plug to the panel with a cord to the front compartment using an extension power cable (flexible) where I put the EMS (portable) and inverter/charger. Same power cable run back up to the panel - easy hanging the wire from the aluminum overhead stringers. I am happy to only have the one leg switched and inverted since it was easy to swap a couple of circuits between legs so that everything I want inverted is on the one leg and I don’t have to worry about shutting things off on power failure such as the water heater. There two reasons, though, that I don’t recommend the Magnum. The first is that it does not have the “lithium battery restart” circuits for lack of a better name. If the BB shuts down for some reason (total discharge, over/under voltage, etc), the Magnum charger cannot restart it. It insists on 10 volts or so before it will charge and the BB insists on sensing reasonable voltage before it will come alive. I have to reconfigure the standard converter or other charger to wake the batteries up. This made harder by the other flaw (feature?) of the Magnum which is that it shuts the pass through AC down when an error is detected also. So the RV goes total dark until things are reconfigured because the second leg relies on the neutral to be passed through in my implementation (I will fix this). I have had errors like this three times in about 1 year of use which makes them hard to track down. Of course they almost always happen in the middle of the night while raining or snowing. I do have a BB rma planned when I return from this trip. So basically I don’t think that the Magnum handles failures gracefully enough. Of course, I have no experience with the Victron units in similar circumstances but plenty of the people here do. Good luck with your install.