Better late than never!

[markopolo]

Any imbalance should be apparent if you measure the voltage of each individual 6V battery. Record that info now so you can compare it to measurements taken after the balancer gets installed.

[sctucker]

Originally Posted by JohnnyCLE

Thanks for the links!

Attached are photos of the Victron shunt and temperature probe installs. The monitoring units are tucked away in the driver's side wheel well cabinet as I will be accessing via bluetooth.

As pointed out by others with the original wiring there is no way to accurately monitor the system using a shunt. The factory wiring has two ground points and current for both the 24v and 12v loads will be shared by both grounds.

Even after installing the balancer I continued to have issues with my system. Ultimately I rewired everything to be a 24v system with a single ground under the hood. The batteries are wired as 4 sets of 2 battery 6v pairs in parallel, those sets are wired in series to form the 24v bank. My Victron shunt is under the hood where the single ground is now located. I also dumped the balancer and installed a Victron 24-12v converter.

Now all the batteries are sharing the total load and only a single 24v monitor is needed.

[JohnnyCLE]

Thanks for your post! That is very interesting. Is there a thread which describes your solution in more detail.

I understand that as part of the balancer install the "Smart Solenoid" connection was taken out, did you eliminate this complexity as well?

Are all of the 24v connections through the original 24v junction box in the back?

Did you use one of the "Balancer" / "Battery" front / back wires to connect the front batteries and the other to bring the ground forward or just ground off of the forward pair and use the other wire to bring the 24v to 12v connection forward to the original 12v take off?

Was this done as part of swapping in a set of batteries.

Perhaps I will have a lightly used Victron 712 for resale soon.

[sctucker]

Is there a thread which describes your solution in more detail.

Not really. Search for "Balancer" and you will find old threads on the subject.
Here's one with a lot of good info: https://www.classbforum.com/forums/f...blog-3678.html

I understand that as part of the balancer install the "Smart Solenoid" connection was taken out, did you eliminate this complexity as well?

I'm not aware there was ever a "Smart Solenoid." The dealer installed the balancer so not sure if they removed something else as well.

Are all of the 24v connections through the original 24v junction box in the back?

Yes

Did you use one of the "Balancer" / "Battery" front / back wires to connect the front batteries and the other to bring the ground forward or just ground off of the forward pair and use the other wire to bring the 24v to 12v connection forward to the original 12v take off?

I used one of the wires to connect the 2 front batteries(which are in parallel) in series with the other battery sets. I used the second wire to connect the converter 12v out to the existing 12v input connection under the hood. In my case the converter is installed in the drivers side wheel well compartment so I had to reroute one of the cables to terminate there instead of the back battery compartment.

Was this done as part of swapping in a set of batteries.

Not really. After the initial issues and the balancer install I found both the front batteries were bad. Once the batteries were replaced everything might have worked as advertised but I just didn't feel the whole design made sense and went ahead with the rewiring. Initially I used the balancer as a converter and have since replaced it with a true DC-DC converter. I've been in this configuration for a couple of years now with no issues.

[JohnnyCLE]

Thanks, that was very helpful.

Help me make sure I understand the need to rewire into pairs and then connect into one series string vs leave the two series strings as is and replace the 12v tap with a 24v to 12v converter - was it to make sure wire lengths were more closely matched for the series string and for those batteries in the rear compartment. Obviously the two forward batteries would remain distant and there would be some charge voltage drop getting to them.

Are you still using the ZLPower Inverter/Charger with no temperature adjustment to charging voltages and a timer based absorption period?

[sctucker]

If you keep the two 24v series strings you will still have two ground points so no way to use a shunt. One string grounds under the hood and the other one in the back. I also felt the batteries would be more likely to stay balanced with fewer batteries in series.

I have a Microgreen inverter/charger and haven't made any changes. I very rarely use it for charging though. The UHG and solar generally are adequate to keep things charged. I can't even remember the last time I plugged into shore power.