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This coach has the 165w solar option and the 10 cubic foot 12v refrigerator. My limited experience boondocking with a lead acid battery made me decide I didn't want to try and manage the state of a lead acid battery while trying to keep our food cold. The refrigerator manual said it could take about 3 hours at 11 amps to cool the refrigerator. I normally start the fridge the night before we leave and load it the next day. 33 amp-hours would leave the dealer furnished group 24 lead acid battery depleted to a useless state.
The only change I made to the coach was to lift the wires from the battery, re-terminate the ground on the new battery and re-terminate the two positive wires on a 4-way switch. The switch is mounted to a piece of acrylic that is inserted next to the new battery and both fit in the battery box.
The GD furnished solar charge controller has a lithium setting. I haven't changed my converter (yet) because I didn't want to tear into a brand new coach.
The switch can disconnect the battery entirely (I found lead post adapters so I could hook my Noco portable charger to it), connect the battery to the solar controller only, connect the battery to both the coach and the solar (OEM setup) or connect the battery to only the coach (and the converter if the 120v breaker is on).
Per the manufacturer's cut sheet this battery voltage would be about 12.0v at 14 amp-hours remaining capacity, so there is much more usable energy available than the dealer furnished battery.
In my opinion the new battery has the best battery management system on the market.
I'm now confident that I can reliably refrigerate our food while travelling.
9/15/22 - Today I removed the long aft pass-through storage barrier and found a Progressive Dynamics PD9260-C converter mounted to the floor (even though my trailer paperwork showed a WFCO model and serial number). The PD OEM model I found has a connection port for "PD92201 Converter Status Remote Pendant" (a $16 item) that gives charge mode status and allows me to force the mode to boost at 14.4V). All I want to do is force the battery to a full state of charge before travelling with the refrigerator running. The solar charger can do this while camping or in storage if weather/site conditions permit. Most of the time while camping my voltmeter reads 13.25 volts likely because the converter which is not designed for lithium thinks my battery is fully charged and the converter provides a low amperage float charge. I have seen it at 13.6V and even 14.4V. At 13.25V my battery is only ~70% charged and recharges very slowly. With the pendant I will be able to force 14.4V and higher amperage (not sure for how long). For $16 I'm going to try that rather than spend $300 on another converter.
10/9/22 - Back from a two week outing during which I installed the charge wizard pendant. I'm happy with the results. I drilled a hole under the hutch drawer slide. The pendant cable reached to the converter. Now with one press I get boost mode (14.4V). After 4 hours it drops to 30 hours of normal mode (13.6V). When I see it drop to storage mode (13.2V) I set it back to normal. The night before I move I set it to boost. I attached 3 additional photos.
12/22/23 - The following comments don't fit a boondocking use case where time to full charge matters. I am usually on shore power.
I've written to Progressive Dynamics and received charge rate curves for my lead acid battery 12v converter and a lithium battery.
Every night before bed I use the charge wizard pendant to force the converter into "normal" mode (13.6v). I never let the converter drop back to "storage" mode (13.2v) and a button press every 24 hours prevents that. The night before I move, I force the converter into "boost" mode (14.4v) and after 4 hours it drops back to "normal".
It occurs to me that if my lithium battery failed and I was travelling, I may have to buy the most readily available lead acid battery rather than pay three times as much for a sub-standard brand of lithium battery. The converter I have is adequate for both battery types.
The only change I made to the coach was to lift the wires from the battery, re-terminate the ground on the new battery and re-terminate the two positive wires on a 4-way switch. The switch is mounted to a piece of acrylic that is inserted next to the new battery and both fit in the battery box.
The GD furnished solar charge controller has a lithium setting. I haven't changed my converter (yet) because I didn't want to tear into a brand new coach.
The switch can disconnect the battery entirely (I found lead post adapters so I could hook my Noco portable charger to it), connect the battery to the solar controller only, connect the battery to both the coach and the solar (OEM setup) or connect the battery to only the coach (and the converter if the 120v breaker is on).
Per the manufacturer's cut sheet this battery voltage would be about 12.0v at 14 amp-hours remaining capacity, so there is much more usable energy available than the dealer furnished battery.
In my opinion the new battery has the best battery management system on the market.
I'm now confident that I can reliably refrigerate our food while travelling.
9/15/22 - Today I removed the long aft pass-through storage barrier and found a Progressive Dynamics PD9260-C converter mounted to the floor (even though my trailer paperwork showed a WFCO model and serial number). The PD OEM model I found has a connection port for "PD92201 Converter Status Remote Pendant" (a $16 item) that gives charge mode status and allows me to force the mode to boost at 14.4V). All I want to do is force the battery to a full state of charge before travelling with the refrigerator running. The solar charger can do this while camping or in storage if weather/site conditions permit. Most of the time while camping my voltmeter reads 13.25 volts likely because the converter which is not designed for lithium thinks my battery is fully charged and the converter provides a low amperage float charge. I have seen it at 13.6V and even 14.4V. At 13.25V my battery is only ~70% charged and recharges very slowly. With the pendant I will be able to force 14.4V and higher amperage (not sure for how long). For $16 I'm going to try that rather than spend $300 on another converter.
10/9/22 - Back from a two week outing during which I installed the charge wizard pendant. I'm happy with the results. I drilled a hole under the hutch drawer slide. The pendant cable reached to the converter. Now with one press I get boost mode (14.4V). After 4 hours it drops to 30 hours of normal mode (13.6V). When I see it drop to storage mode (13.2V) I set it back to normal. The night before I move I set it to boost. I attached 3 additional photos.
12/22/23 - The following comments don't fit a boondocking use case where time to full charge matters. I am usually on shore power.
I've written to Progressive Dynamics and received charge rate curves for my lead acid battery 12v converter and a lithium battery.
Every night before bed I use the charge wizard pendant to force the converter into "normal" mode (13.6v). I never let the converter drop back to "storage" mode (13.2v) and a button press every 24 hours prevents that. The night before I move, I force the converter into "boost" mode (14.4v) and after 4 hours it drops back to "normal".
It occurs to me that if my lithium battery failed and I was travelling, I may have to buy the most readily available lead acid battery rather than pay three times as much for a sub-standard brand of lithium battery. The converter I have is adequate for both battery types.
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