Replacing the WFCO 8955 Converter

[DavidEM]

This is what WFCO says about their 8955 converter:

"The WF-8955 model provides 55 Amps and a clean, constant 13.6 VDC nominal output, for reliable operation of electronics and appliances. Automatic three-stage charging extends the life of your battery with output voltage modes of 13.2 VDC range “float” mode, 13.6 VDC range “absorption” mode, and a 14.4 VDC range “bulk” charge mode. "

You can't have a "clean, constant 13.6 VDC nominal output" and also have a three step charging profile going from 13.2 to 14.4 V.

My own experience is that it is a simple fixed voltage output charger. Why? Because with my house bank discharged to 50% and at about 12.2 V when the converter was turned on it quickly dropped from 30+ A to 15 A in about 30 seconds as the battery voltage rose to 13.2V. A true three stage charger would have raised the voltage to keep the charging current up.

So I am going to replace it. Progressive Dynamics says that their PD4655V is a direct replacement for the WFCO and with the Charge Wizard feature it is a true three step charger. This should let me run the generator for maybe an hour and replace about 40 amp hours (In my experience, even good three step chargers rarely put out their full spec current for long).

I understand that it is a direct drop in replacement, keeping the WFCO breaker and fuse panels. Any one done it and know if it works that way/

David

[16ACE27]

Originally Posted by DavidEM

You can't have a "clean, constant 13.6 VDC nominal output" and also have a three step charging profile going from 13.2 to 14.4 V.

David

You might want to look up the word "nominal". The WFCO charger is a 3 stage charger and I see all 3 stages displayed on mine. They have been known to fail so maybe that is your issue which would indeed require a replacement charger.

[DavidEM]

Originally Posted by 16ACE27

You might want to look up the word "nominal". The WFCO charger is a 3 stage charger and I see all 3 stages displayed on mine. They have been known to fail so maybe that is your issue which would indeed require a replacement charger.

Ok, I do understand the meaning of "nominal". How does yours show the 3 stages? AFAIK, mine has no such indications.

David

[16ACE27]

With a permanently installed Volt/Power/Ammeter in the RV. I see 14.5 VDC when the batteries have been used for boondocking, then 13.6 to 13.8 VDC a little while latter depending on the beginning SOC, then a float of 13.1 VDC.

[Judge]

My 2020 Magntiude came with the WFCO WF-9855. I replaced it with the Progressive Dynamics PD9260. It has four charging modes and it works great. I wanted the equalization mode since I am still running flooded batteries. It is also very quiet having a variable speed cooling fan.

[DavidEM]

Originally Posted by Judge

My 2020 Magntiude came with the WFCO WF-9855. I replaced it with the Progressive Dynamics PD9260. It has four charging modes and it works great. I wanted the equalization mode since I am still running flooded batteries. It is also very quiet having a variable speed cooling fan.

Did you do the replacement yourself. If so was it a simple plug it in and bolt it down in place of the WFCO unit?

David

[Judge]

Originally Posted by DavidEM

Did you do the replacement yourself. If so was it a simple plug it in and bolt it down in place of the WFCO unit?

David

I did.... I do all of my own mods. It was pretty much plug-n-play. Hardest part was taking bed off to gain access to it. I also added the Charge Wizard Remote. I mounted that above the power distribtuon panel under the bed.

[javelin]

Originally Posted by DavidEM

Did you do the replacement yourself. If so was it a simple plug it in and bolt it down in place of the WFCO unit?

David

Like Judge I also replaced the OEM WFCO converter with the remote charge Wizard control pendent, but I used the Progressive Dynamics PD4655V model. The actual guts exchange was smooth as I recall, but I had some issues with the power cable size and lug size differences between WFCO and PD plus the WFCO fuse panel had the nice feature of LED’s that light when a fuse blows which the PD did not. I also had to mod the phone jack connection for the charge wizard control connection. I can’t say if the current PD models will present the same issues I had because I replaced my converter in 2013 and honestly don’t recall the things I did. However, i did a brief write up at that time of what I went through doing the conversion which I am attaching for your reference. I apologize in advance if it is not very clear, but it might help others (with ACE ?) doing this conversion. As I recall since the PD fuse board has the phone jack connection for the remote charge wizard, and I kept the original WFCO fuse board, I had to add my own RJ11 phone jack and mount it somewhere in the converter. It was back in 2013 and I will see if I have any pictures of the conversion. If I find any I will attach as a follow up. Hope this helps someone out. I have been happy with the PD unit and the charge wizard also lets yo see (via flashing LEDs) which charge state you are in and it also allows you to force the converter into a specific charge state.


My write up (for myself) back in 2013:


Progressive Dynamics Converter Upgrade:


Model PD4655V
Date 7/23/2013

• I modified the converter board by adding a RJ11 jack onto one corner and then changed the RJ11 plug on the end of the remote Wizard pendant control to match the jack.
• The Prog Dynamics fuse board is equipped with a 4 wire connector and LED with control switch which wires to a matching 4 wire connector on the converter board.
• To convert the old WFCO converter to the new Prog Dynamics converter requires the disconnection of AC and DC wiring......no problem. A plastic retainer strap is screwed down using the original converter board screws. The new converter slides into the cavity and snaps onto the retainer strip on two plastic snap pins.

I did note two things:

1. The DC output wiring from the old WFCO converter is 8 AWG while the same wiring from the new Prog Dynamics converter is 10 AWG. For a 2 foot connection this is likely not an issue for a 55 AMP 12VDC feeder but the connectors on the new fuse board are slightly smaller too.
2. Also noted that the original WFCO fuse board has heavier duty cable connectors than the new fuse board and it also has LEDs that will light when a fuse blows (opens) and its associated load is turned on. The LED will not light if the fuse opens and the load is off. The old fuse board does not have the charge wizard switch and LED though so I will have to use my RJ11 mod on the new converter board.

The DC cables feeding the coach are likely 6 AWG or larger and the red positive cable was too short to connect to the new Prog Dynamics fuse board connector (smaller and oriented 90 degrees to the old fuse board connectors).....so I left the old fuse board in place and used it instead of the new board. This allows me to easily convert back to the old converter board if required in the field. Note: the fuse board will pop out by pushing a tab at the bottom of the fuse board which releases the bottom and it tilts out from two tabs at the top of the board.

• The remote pendant was mounted beside the Progressive Industries power monitor remote on the side of the bed (sticks on with a sticky tab so removal of the pendant in future will likely damage the wood veneer. The pendant telephone wiring was fed through under the bed platform and then through one of the converter air vents and plugged into the charge wizard RJ11 jack that I mounted onto the converter board. It seems to work well.

Further Note: I have observed that when the converter is not AC powered and the coach battery is turned on at the door, (allowing 12VDC back to the output side of the converter) the pendant unit on the side of the bed actually starts to blink even though no current is charging the battery. Perhaps this is a warning that the DC side is powered and there is a warning not to disconnect the remote monitor.

[javelin]

No original old upgrade pictures to add, so I took some new ones. I tried to show the add on RJ11 jack which I scrounged from somewhere (some old POTS phone cct board is likely) and mounted it with a small right angle bracket on an open corner of the new PD converter board. Pretty sure this is a mod and not original to the PD board (done in 2013). I don’t recall the exact mod/connection details done, but it was not too involved if you have any electrical experience and use safe procedures. Hope this helps someone a bit.

[javelin]

I did not want to drag out this old 2013 upgrade description of my OEM WFCO 55 amp converter to the new Progressive Dynamics PD4655V, but I wanted to clarify that I incorrectly said in my original post that the new PD converter fuse board did not come with blown fuse indicator LEDs, when in fact it does have them. I found my original old WFCO converter board and the new PD fuse board in my spares stock and took some pictures FYI; attached if anyone is interested.
The power cable lugs on the new PD fuse board are mounted 90 degrees to those on my original WFCO fuse board which made connecting the new fuse board more difficult to do with limited original coach wire length and bending my original heavy gauge wire gave me concern that potential stress on the new fuse board might damage it. That is why I kept using the WFCO fuse board. The pictures also show that this PD4655V converter board came with the charge wizard capability built in......and the proprietary connector/cable is also shown with the fuse board; green Wizard LED and a small micro switch mounted on the fuse board is used to force charge states if required. This Wizard cable connects to its mate terminal strip on the PD converter board. You can see this four pin converter board connector on my previous posted pictures. I purchased the remote charge Wizard control in 2013 (so it could be mounted on the side of the bed base for easy access, but don’t recall what connector it originally came equipped with). I have never had any issues with this PD4655V converter board or the remote charge wizard pendent. While we don’t boon dock often, I still use the original Harris coach batteries that came with the ACE; water levels in the batteries have remained stable over those years; coach and chassis disconnects are on all camping season; typically always on shore when not driving. Maybe a testament to how well the PD4655 has been helping to maintain things since 2013.

[javelin]

It helps to upload the pictures too.

[DavidEM]

I finally got around to replacing the WFCO 8955 converter. If you recall, no matter what WFCO and others may say, that converter in my MH acts like a fixed voltage output charger, ie no three step charging.

So I replaced it with a Progressive Dynamics 9260 which is a newer stand alone charger (I will use that term to distinguish it from the WFCO power center which includes their charger). PD sells a "drop in" replacement, the PD4655V which includes a new fuse board, presumably just to have a socket to plug their dongle into. I didn't want to go through the effort of reconnecting every DC circuit so I went with the PD9260 which has a socket on the back for the dongle cable.

This charger is definitely not a plug and play model. It takes hacking to make it work, skillful hacking I might add but hacking just the same. The mounting holes do not match the WFCO's so I had to drill into the WFCO plastic case and screw it down with self tapping screws.

The other issue was the dongle plug socket. It is right at the back and with the dongle cable in place it would have caused the converter to protrude too much as it would be up against the back of the WFCO power center. So I was able to cut a hole in the back in the right place for the cable to fit through. I removed the grill cover and duct fitting right below it so I could get to the back and push the cable through. I mounted the dongle in the lower left of the converter where the ground and neutral cables tie in. If I ever have to use the dongle (which I really don't plan to do, then all I have to do is unscrew two screws and drop the converter cover.

Electrical connect up was straight forward. The PD charger comes with an AC plug that I cut that off, stripped back the insulation and had black, green and white wires which I connected to the appropriate busses. The DC side was just as easy. I had some black and red #6 cable so I cut and stripped the ends and attached them to the PD charger and the WFCO power terminals.

So, how did it work. My battery was down only 5 amp hours or so and with the old WFCO converter it would only charge a few amps in that state. When I turned the power on to the new PD converter it immediately showed 15 amps and slowly dropped to 10 and then 5 as the battery voltage rose to 13.9 and continued slowly rising. That is how three step chargers are supposed to work.

So I am very pleased with the results. With the battery down 25% or more I expect to get 40-50 amps to recharge the batteries quickly.

David

[ducksface]

This is a nice fix.
I'm not sure the average joe needs the boost to the system as I'm semi-sure time is not usually of the essence when charging the batteries from the generator or shore power. Converter not needed when you're driving, converter starts charging the moment you plug in to shore power.

I did a change while I was changing things and installed an inverter so I can run 110v things without the generator running or vehicle running and without shore power. Just me and the battery making the microwave and coffee pot work...silence.

The inverter included a 350amp lithium ready converter/charger and all the logic board/status display/automation/customization I could want. The original converter is still in place, its just bypassed.
My inverter also 'adds' voltage when needed in case the shore power is inadequate. It still charges the batteries at the same time.
It was, in essence, a three wire hookup...and done.

Just a note to those who might not understand the change you made or why you made it.
https://www.amazon.com/Xantrex-815-3.../dp/B006VELG7A