keys to upfitting lithium/solar/inverter to an older coach

[tex4judy]

With help from Avanti and many others on this forum, we've come down this path ourselves.

One thing to add: Nations has done some work with Lithionics Batteries and Xantrex Inverters. They have a "package" that they bench tested for us with the understanding that we wanted to run an air conditioner while driving. (If we need the AC at night, we'll park where we can plug in - the price of no generator.)

Our AC is a 11,000 BTU from Camping World with a relatively low 45 LRA.

I know there is strong support on this forum for Magnum and Outback Inverters; and that Xantrex raised some eyebrows in the recent past. However, in one independent bench test there were some conditions where the Xantrex outperformed their competition.

I agree with Avanti about the price of being on the leading edge. For us it has been time consuming and expensive. But definitely interesting.

[booster]

Originally Posted by tex4judy

With help from Avanti and many others on this forum, we've come down this path ourselves.

One thing to add: Nations has done some work with Lithionics Batteries and Xantrex Inverters. They have a "package" that they bench tested for us with the understanding that we wanted to run an air conditioner while driving. (If we need the AC at night, we'll park where we can plug in - the price of no generator.)

Our AC is a 11,000 BTU from Camping World with a relatively low 45 LRA.

I know there is strong support on this forum for Magnum and Outback Inverters; and that Xantrex raised some eyebrows in the recent past. However, in one independent bench test there were some conditions where the Xantrex outperformed their competition.

I agree with Avanti about the price of being on the leading edge. For us it has been time consuming and expensive. But definitely interesting.

I think it would be interesting to hear what areas the Xantrex did well in. At least for me, the concerns about the Xantrex had to do with it's method of charge control, which currently is using a % of its capacity rating as the transition amps out of absorption. That issue is also true for almost every other charger made, so not unusual. Beyond that, I don't really think the Xantrex is a bad unit.

[avanti]

I put a 2000 watt Xantrex inverter/charger into our old rig. It worked well, but there were several negatives:
--It was noisy--fan ran all the time, whether needed or not
--The control menus were inconvenient and hard to use
--It was not designed for service--basically you replace the whole thing.

All things considered, I find our current Outback to be much superior. In fairness, though, I am comparing across generations (almost a decade apart), so it may not be completely fair.

OTOH, they honored their warranty to the letter:
After almost two years of service, the muffin fan started to get noisy. I called Xantrex to ask them for a part number--I was just going to replace it myself. They said "unit is not repairable, but I see yours is still under warranty. We'll send you a new one", which they promptly did! Kind of crazy, but impressive.

[tex4judy]

So, I am not an engineer and am still learning a lot about what the electrons are up to in these systems. But, Our Xantrex inverter/converter was shipped to Lithionics and they hooked it up to the batteries we were receiving. When they were not happy with the final charge voltage, they contacted the Xantrex engineers and they re-programmed the card so the converter would work with the lithium batteries. Adam Nations set this up for us.

Needless to say, I appreciate that level of attention. We also hear that this package of products may be purchased on a large scale by a "large" RV company.

Very soon, I hope to have the alternator, batteries, and inverter/converter linked and then the solar panel / shore power. Our construction barn has two skylights and it will be interesting to see if the solar panel will keep the batteries topped off during the rest of the project.

Suggestions for the wiring part of this project are gratefully received. Yes, will use tinned "marine" style stranded wire for the largest gauge wire.

[hockeydan]

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