2015 Roadtrek Agile SS - Inverter/Charger and Solar ???s

[Rugert73]

I too have the 2015 SS Agile. Your inverter is indeed the Powerstar, here is the manual

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/04...SER_MANUAL.pdf

I know this because I think it just died....will post another thread!

The manual they gave me when I bought it was for a Tripp-Lite, I was a bit confused.

My Agile does have a propane generator (was an option), solar (which was never originally connected properly). The 2015 did not have the 2nd alternator option.

It also has a battery separator - a separate solenoid to protect the charging system and to assist starting the engine. Others smarter than me should chime in, but my understanding it prevents the chassis batteries from draining the engine battery, but both get charged when engine is running.

John

[rowiebowie]

Welcome to the forum Rugert73!

[MobileCabin]

I could not find a thread on DC wiring so I will stick this question here since I have a 2015 Agile. A year or so ago I replaced the inverter/charger with a nice Magnum. To shorten the downtime I pretty much swapped them using a lot of the existing wiring. Now I would like to tune the wiring to properly connect the shunt. For simplicity I would like to have the shunt on the front batteries where it is easier to keep clean.
The existing wiring is essentially this:

I was considering a couple options but when I looked under the van I found at the half-way point the (+) cable from front to rear battery banks splits. It goes on to connect to the rear bank but also feeds what I assume to be the DC circuit box and another to the Onan. So as to not mess with this, would the battery banks be balanced if I just added another cable from the (-) on front pair to the rear (-) like this?


Stay healthy,
Pat

[MobileCabin]

Hello,

I am on the last phase of enhancements before using the van after a few years of storage. Now it is time to change the house batteries from the 4 golf cart setup to a couple lithium. The current setup has worked fine so far, even beyond expectation. But now I want to move to a couple lithium batteries stored inside next to the inverter/charger.

The current placement of the existing batteries has two in the front engine compartment and two underneath the rear of the van. They are connected to the house DC system and the inverter/charger through 4/0 cable going front to back.

Is there anyone who is familiar with the way Roadtrek wired the system at this time in 2015? I do not have a Facebook account so that user group is out of my reach.

What is easy to see is the 12v from the van going to the separator on the firewall from beneath the driver seat. From there to the pair of batteries in the engine compartment and then down and back through a 4/0 cable to an area covered by a heat shield. From the rear is another 4/0 cable going from the rear battery pair toward the front.

The output from the solar controller are a couple cables that follow a bundle of cables from the circuit breaker box that appear to be going up to the roof and most likely to the disconnect switch on the other side.

Short of pulling off the wall panels, I am not sure what is going where. Are there DC (+) and (-) busbars somewhere?

What I want to do is replace the separator with a DC-DC Converter and the existing solar controller with one that will handle lithium.

A couple options I see are:

1) keep it simple and ignore existing wiring
-replace separator with something like the popular Orion-Tr Smart DC-DC Charger Non-Isolated
-replace in-place solar controller with the popular SmartSolar MPPT 75/10, 75/15, 100/15 & 100/20 for my 3X100 watt panels

issues:
- is it too hot to have the DC-DC charger in the engine compartment?
- might it get too hot to have that solar controller in in the existing wall cabinet?

Pro:
-simple and fast to implement

2) minimize all the “needless” 4/0 cable and multiple controllers
- if I knew the wiring, might I get rid of the 4/0 going to the existing batteries and connection to the house power and replace with 4 or 6 AWG just to feed the house DC and from the solar and DC-DC charger back to the lithium. The 4/0 cable will just be needed between batteries and inverter/charger.
- install near the batteries something like the REDARC BCDC 1240D dual battery charger (as both the DC-DC charger and solar charger)

issues:
-need to know how I can remove the 4/0 from the front to the mid-section of the van and then an easy replacement with small AWG cable from the van battery feed beneath the driver seat back to the battery area.
-need to know how to remove 4/0 cable from rear batteries to the mid section of the van that I assume feed the van’s DC system. Then a simple feed from rear batteries to that mid-section connection to the van’s DC system.
-address any issues with the DC related to the Onan generator
-need to know how best to extend solar output cables to the rear of the van

pro:
-cleaner system

3) and the best...someone knows what I should really do

Stay healthy,
Pat

[booster]

Originally Posted by MobileCabin

Hello,

I am on the last phase of enhancements before using the van after a few years of storage. Now it is time to change the house batteries from the 4 golf cart setup to a couple lithium. The current setup has worked fine so far, even beyond expectation. But now I want to move to a couple lithium batteries stored inside next to the inverter/charger.

The current placement of the existing batteries has two in the front engine compartment and two underneath the rear of the van. They are connected to the house DC system and the inverter/charger through 4/0 cable going front to back.

Is there anyone who is familiar with the way Roadtrek wired the system at this time in 2015? I do not have a Facebook account so that user group is out of my reach.

What is easy to see is the 12v from the van going to the separator on the firewall from beneath the driver seat. From there to the pair of batteries in the engine compartment and then down and back through a 4/0 cable to an area covered by a heat shield. From the rear is another 4/0 cable going from the rear battery pair toward the front.

The output from the solar controller are a couple cables that follow a bundle of cables from the circuit breaker box that appear to be going up to the roof and most likely to the disconnect switch on the other side.

Short of pulling off the wall panels, I am not sure what is going where. Are there DC (+) and (-) busbars somewhere?

What I want to do is replace the separator with a DC-DC Converter and the existing solar controller with one that will handle lithium.

A couple options I see are:

1) keep it simple and ignore existing wiring
-replace separator with something like the popular Orion-Tr Smart DC-DC Charger Non-Isolated
-replace in-place solar controller with the popular SmartSolar MPPT 75/10, 75/15, 100/15 & 100/20 for my 3X100 watt panels

issues:
- is it too hot to have the DC-DC charger in the engine compartment?
- might it get too hot to have that solar controller in in the existing wall cabinet?

Pro:
-simple and fast to implement

2) minimize all the “needless” 4/0 cable and multiple controllers
- if I knew the wiring, might I get rid of the 4/0 going to the existing batteries and connection to the house power and replace with 4 or 6 AWG just to feed the house DC and from the solar and DC-DC charger back to the lithium. The 4/0 cable will just be needed between batteries and inverter/charger.
- install near the batteries something like the REDARC BCDC 1240D dual battery charger (as both the DC-DC charger and solar charger)

issues:
-need to know how I can remove the 4/0 from the front to the mid-section of the van and then an easy replacement with small AWG cable from the van battery feed beneath the driver seat back to the battery area.
-need to know how to remove 4/0 cable from rear batteries to the mid section of the van that I assume feed the van’s DC system. Then a simple feed from rear batteries to that mid-section connection to the van’s DC system.
-address any issues with the DC related to the Onan generator
-need to know how best to extend solar output cables to the rear of the van

pro:
-cleaner system

3) and the best...someone knows what I should really do

Stay healthy,
Pat

Roadtrek changed stuff a lot over the years and times, but the easiest part of the question is that the original wiring setup was very poorly designed with two battery pairs on each end with looooogn cables in between them giving you guaranteed imbalances for charging and discharging. The front batteries are also in a much hotter area than the rear. Front batteries in any split system like that have been reported not to last as long as the rears.


They all probably are connected to chassis ground so no negative cable between them, just a positive because the alternator would go only to the front set. If you have a second alternator you probably have as big as a 4/0 positive cable between the battery pairs and to the inverter from there. It would be foolish to replace the 4/0 with a small cable and serve no purpose except to give you more voltage drop to rear and poorer charging.


Putting lithium inside you should be able just take out the front batteries and connect the alternator to front battery cable to the connecting cable to rear and use that for charging the new batteries.


Be aware that the lithium may take way too much current for themselves or the alternator so a B to B charger probably should be used to limit current. Too hot under the hood and too wet likely too for a B to B.

[MobileCabin]

booster,


Thank you for your input. I agree on the issues with the DC-DC charger in the engine compartment. Back inside near near the battery is best. But in order for this to work, there has to be a dedicated feed from the Sprinter to the DC-DC charger. That is where I have that issue with the 4/0 cable going from the front batteries to "somewhere" in the hidden middle region of the van.


A possible option is to to use part of the 4/0 cable from the front batteries. With the front batteries and separator removed, connect the 2 cables feeding the separator thus joining the 4AWG (I think) from the Sprinter to the 4/0 cable going to the rear of the van. Unfortunately, until I really know how things are currently wired by Roadtrek, I would have to cut the 4/0 just before it is hidden and aggressively cap and seal off the part going into the hidden zone. Then splice another cable that would feed the DC-DC charger. That should be electrically correct, just ugly.


I will try harder to ramp the height of the van so I can safely crawl under and explore that hidden zone. Hopefully is will become obvious how to easily disconnect that front cable for a cleaner reuse.

[booster]

Originally Posted by MobileCabin

booster,


Thank you for your input. I agree on the issues with the DC-DC charger in the engine compartment. Back inside near near the battery is best. But in order for this to work, there has to be a dedicated feed from the Sprinter to the DC-DC charger. That is where I have that issue with the 4/0 cable going from the front batteries to "somewhere" in the hidden middle region of the van.


A possible option is to to use part of the 4/0 cable from the front batteries. With the front batteries and separator removed, connect the 2 cables feeding the separator thus joining the 4AWG (I think) from the Sprinter to the 4/0 cable going to the rear of the van. Unfortunately, until I really know how things are currently wired by Roadtrek, I would have to cut the 4/0 just before it is hidden and aggressively cap and seal off the part going into the hidden zone. Then splice another cable that would feed the DC-DC charger. That should be electrically correct, just ugly.


I will try harder to ramp the height of the van so I can safely crawl under and explore that hidden zone. Hopefully is will become obvious how to easily disconnect that front cable for a cleaner reuse.

The 4/0 from the front has to come out somewhere around the rear batteries and inverter as that is what it pretty much has to connect to. The inverter and rear batteries may go to a tie point someplace (Roadtrek seems to like the two screw to body with one post type to do a binding post. It should be red but maybe sprayed with undercoating. It could also be connected to a fuse or circuit breaker.


Start working from the back of the van tracking the big cables from each. They and one from the front should meet up in some matter. Maybe all at the same time, maybe two the other one someplace else, but it very, very unlikely the connections would be inaccessible. They may not be easy to get to but it should be able to be done, I think.


In the future you may want to use that 4/0, very expensive cable for a charging from a second alternator so much better to leave it in place and use it.