Front Bay Positive Bus Bar

[TheMcLellans]

Good Morning -- I am doing some basic electric work and have been looking at the positive bus bar in the front Bay of our 2022 GD303RLS. The left 5 terminals are all connected with a bar (copper bus bar). The sixth terminal at the far right has two heavy black cables (foreground of photo temporarily disconnected) and red wire above, This terminal (sixth to the right) appears to be full independent of the other five posts. Does any one have details on the purpose of the sixth post to the far right? And why is it independent of the other five? Has anyone mapped these terminals and their use?

[howson]

TheMcLellans

That's a bank of circuit breakers. See https://gdrvowners.com/forum/solar/r...4482#post94482 as your 303RLS may be wired the same way.

Howard

[Country Campers]

As pictured in the link above the far right bottom black wires are 1-power coming from the factory disconnect switch, 2-power from the converter. The red wire coming out from the top of the breaker goes to the slide out controllers. Also worth noting the gold side of the breaker is the power side, the sliver side is the load side (learned that a while back).

Brian

[WondersAwait]

As previously linked, there should be a diagram that shows what the connections are. Here is the one from my 303.

Also I believe that the wire going to the in-wall slide outs use that terminology for a reason and that is only the wardrobe slide for our 303s. The kitchen and dinette slides are through-frame and on a different panel; off the top of my head I believe those are wired into the DC sub panel that is next to the AC breaker panel.

[gtippett]

Hey Everyone, does anyone have a quick explanation of the wiring in the image that WondersAwait posted. I have the same schematic and have been reviewing it as I make some changes to my electrical system as well. Or if you can just answer the following questions 😁

My thoughts are that everything on this bus bar has constant power except for anything connected directly to the converter. I'm I correct?

I have read that the battery disconnect has to be on for the system to charge from the solar controller and the truck. But looking at this, with the 303 Reflection, it doesn't; it has a direct connection to the battery. I'm I correct?

Does anyone know why the power from the disconnect returns to the bus bar afterwards?

Why is there two battery leads?

Last thought here, why are the 4 lugs to the right separate from the remaining lugs to the left.... or are they? Sorry, slightly confused on this one. 🤔

If anyone can shed a little more light on this it would be greatly appreciated.

[Country Campers]

gtippett

One battery lead would go the the factory disconnect, the other would be the main feed for the rest of the bus bar. Power returns to the bus bar to power the in wall slide as well as to allow charging power from the converter/charger. Prior to the 12 v dc fridges these where found to be wired many different ways. The 2 breakers to the right are separate because one gets power from the solar charger, the other is the return from the disconnect switch.

Hopefully that helps you out,

Brian

[Yoda]

Good Morning -- I am doing some basic electric work and have been looking at the positive bus bar in the front Bay of our 2022 GD303RLS. The left 5 terminals are all connected with a bar (copper bus bar). The sixth terminal at the far right has two heavy black cables (foreground of photo temporarily disconnected) and red wire above, This terminal (sixth to the right) appears to be full independent of the other five posts. Does any one have details on the purpose of the sixth post to the far right? And why is it independent of the other five? Has anyone mapped these terminals and their use?

Mark - from what I can tell the schematic is mostly correct, except you will find the lower black wire (far right) goes to the main positive feed terminal on the 12V side of the distribution panel and not directly to the converter - at least on my unit. If you open your distribution panel you should see this wire. My converter was then tied into that same terminal. To charge you batterys the disconnect switch must be "ON" On is red key in and turned so it can't be removed. Also as you can see there are numerous circuits that will still be hot even with the disconnect "off". Those are the parasitic drains the kill batterys during storage. You need to remove a battery cable to fully disconnect the trailer.

Hopefully this additional information helps.

Keith

[Yoda]

Hey Everyone, does anyone have a quick explanation of the wiring in the image that WondersAwait posted. I have the same schematic and have been reviewing it as I make some changes to my electrical system as well. Or if you can just answer the following questions 😁

My thoughts are that everything on this bus bar has constant power except for anything connected directly to the converter. I'm I correct? Possibly, except for anything not connected directly to the copper bar or through the circuit breakers.

I have read that the battery disconnect has to be on for the system to charge from the solar controller and the truck. But looking at this, with the 303 Reflection, it doesn't; it has a direct connection to the battery. I'm I correct? Yes the disconnect switch must be on for charging from the converter or tow vehicle. However over the years I have seen several different ways on the solar, either to the buss bar (copper strip) or directly to the battery.

Does anyone know why the power from the disconnect returns to the bus bar afterwards? It actually does not. Far left bottom red wire goes to the disconnect switch, That power feed comes back as a black wire far right, the second black wire goes to the distribution panel (and converter). Those connections are independent (do not connect to) the copper buss bar. They just happen to be under the same housing attached to the black plastic connection block.

Why is there two battery leads? The schematic does show two battery connections (don't know why) , but in Mark's photo (attached) there is only one. That is the large red wire to[ left that is attached to the copper buss bar

Last thought here, why are the 4 lugs to the right separate from the remaining lugs to the left.... or are they? Sorry, slightly confused on this one. 🤔 The four copper colored lugs to the right are actually the lugs connected to the circuit beakers that then feed power elsewhere from the silver lugs below. Whats hard to see are the small self resetting circuit breakers . The silver fifth lug top row is not connected to the buss bar. This is a separate circuit breaker. The empty copper lug below is where the two disconnected black wires attach. One coming from the disconnect switch and the other feeds the distribution panel, or converter

If anyone can shed a little more light on this it would be greatly appreciated.

Ill take a stab at some of your questions. I posted the answers into your quote. Also in most cases GD used specific color coding on thier wires for the full circuit (12v) and colored romex (120V) at least that is what I have found. I learned a lot of this from my Victron install posted here https://gdrvowners.com/forum/solar/51363-yoda-s-victron-multiplus-and-solar-install-just-hope-i-don-t-mess-up/page11

Folks if I have this wrong, please correct - just going from what I have seen here.



Keith

[Jlawles2]

As previously linked, there should be a diagram that shows what the connections are. Here is the one from my 303.

Also I believe that the wire going to the in-wall slide outs use that terminology for a reason and that is only the wardrobe slide for our 303s. The kitchen and dinette slides are through-frame and on a different panel; off the top of my head I believe those are wired into the DC sub panel that is next to the AC breaker panel.

Dave,

I believe only the newer units got the wiring labels as my 2021 303 does not have that tag in it. I think it has a lot to do with the 12V refrigerators and the breakers for them.

[gtippett]

Awesome thanks Yoda, your responses helped a lot. Based on those responses. I put together the following image with explanation below.
All boxes can be considered a separate circuit, that may be suppling power to multiple circuits (like the Green Box). There is no connectivity between the boxes except for the green and blue boxes as noted below.

Green Box – Constant Power

1. The first top lug is the first battery connection to feed this circuit.
2. The right 4 red lugs are feed by top first red colour lug (first battery connection)
3. Bottom left lug feeds the battery disconnect with 50amps. This one also charges the battery from the converter.

Blue Box – Fridge Power

1. fed thru a connection to the bottom left lug in the green box. This one feeds the fridge with constant power. I would assume that the bottom left lug in the green box has a circuit breaker set at 50amps. The fridge is set at 30amp, which is quite high compared to the furrion literature, which I think is 20amps. Not sure how that “manual reset breaker works”.

Yellow Box – Solar Controller

1. Provides a dedicated connection (always on) from solar controller to battery. That is why I have two battery connections.

Orange Box – Solar Controller

1. Only provides power to the in wall schwintek slide. I guess this simply makes wiring that slide easy…

[KSC_Travels]

HI Folks. A general curiousity question here. I believe that the circuit labled "Bargman" is the tow vehicle 12V+ power connection. If so, shouldn't the breaker be oriented the opposite way than shown in the diagram? That is, the red dot should be on the bottom post in the diagram as that would be the "source" and the top post would be the "load" for this circuit?

PS.. WondersAwait - thanks for posting this diagram. Like Jlawles2, my 2021 did not come with this diagram (nor the 12V fridge or solar for that matter).

Cheers!

[TheMcLellans]

Mark - from what I can tell the schematic is mostly correct, except you will find the lower black wire (far right) goes to the main positive feed terminal on the 12V side of the distribution panel and not directly to the converter - at least on my unit. If you open your distribution panel you should see this wire. My converter was then tied into that same terminal. To charge you batterys the disconnect switch must be "ON" On is red key in and turned so it can't be removed. Also as you can see there are numerous circuits that will still be hot even with the disconnect "off". Those are the parasitic drains the kill batterys during storage. You need to remove a battery cable to fully disconnect the trailer.

Hopefully this additional information helps.

Keith

Thanks Keith et al... This helps a lot and confirms my expectations. I am installing a new Victron Multiplus II with a new LiPO4 300ah battery. Once I pulled the back cover off the original battery disconnect, I could see the idea behind the feeds from the front bay power bar. Also when I pulled the DC panel, I could also see the the two (+) feeds --- one from the old charger and one that leads back to the front bay power bar. My Victron is going into the front bay, so I will be creating a reverse flow feeding the DC panel from the front bay power bar. I just completed pulling my 220v lines - one from my EMS to the Victron and the other from the victron to the AC distribution box. I am awaiting arrival of all my DC cables and then will pull it all together.

[howson]

TheMcLellans -- you're aware the Chins is capable of a 2560W output, right? With a 3000VA Multiplus you'll not quite get the full capability out of the inverter (if needed) due to the battery not quite being able to hit 3000W. There's also the limitation of losing the Multiplus' ability to surge for short periods of demand--again due to the battery specs.

An ideal solution (if you wanted to tap into the full potential of the Multiplus) is two of those Chins in parallel--you'd have more than enough!

Not being critical of your choice, just hoping you're aware of the spec and what it means. This could be a deliberate choice on your part (and there's nothing wrong with that!).

Howard

P.S. I got the number for the battery from https://www.deepcyclebatteryshop.com/tags/chins/

[TheMcLellans]

Thanks Howard. Yes, this is a minimal install. We realize that yet another Chinns would be perfect and maybe come spring I will add that -- easy enough to do. So my install is done (for now) and it is operating with out a hitch. Have run it in Charge one and in Inverter/Charger. Happy with the new Victron Connect App -- quite good. Really happy with the layout I ended up installing. My backer board is a sandwiched 1/4" luan with a 3/8" play over laid. The 3/8" sits on the metal frame of bay and is fully bolted thru to the basement - super strong.

We still run with an RV fridge (Norcold) although if it goes out again(we have had the cooling system replaced 3 times under warranty) , I will switch to a 12 volt compressor system. Inverting is mainly for TV. Tea and coffee maker and any other minor things - so really minimal demand. Had to hunt for Victron settings for the Chinns. Ended up using the setting recommended here https://youtu.be/UdhvY2uS8Ck adjusting for size and max charge amperage. BatteryCablesUSA was my great supplier of all my 4/0 cables. Super fast in make up and delivery. Highly recommend them. Now with my new disconnect, I will likely remove the old battery cutoff.

Next project was LED lighting in the front bay and basement area. This was done by tapping the motion activated light already in both areas.