Thor Forums

[DenverTransplant]

Originally Posted by Oneilkeys

It has been my experience with two converter chargers in my 2014 Vegas and 2016 Axis that they do not work well - if at all. The converter charger is supposed to charge your batteries at 14.1v if they are seriously discharged until they get up to about 50% charge. Then it should drop down to about 13.5V until the batteries are fully charged. Finally it should drop the charge down to about 13.1v to keep the batteries charged and not boil your batteries. You can easily test if your charger is operating thus way with a volt meter. I have one permanently connected to my batteries. Neither of my OEM converter chargers ever got out of the 13.5v mode. If yours does not drop down to the 13.1v "float" mode, over time it will boil over your batteries and destroy them. If it does not charge at 14.1v when you batteries are below 50%, it takes a long time to recharge your batteries. I replaced my converter charger with a Progressive Dynamics 4655 which is a direct replacement and it works as it should.

I did the same thing in our ACE 30.1 The Progressive Dynamics unit just slid into the power center in the same spot the WFCO was. We had a WFCO in our old travel trailer and it wrecked a pair of fairly new Interstate 12 batteries.

When we changed out the power converter in the ACE, I also changed out the Harris batteries, that weren't taking much of a change at less than a year old, with a pair of Interstate 6V batteries. Got 225 amp-hour capacity vs. the 160 that the Harris batteries claimed (and never delivered). The Harris batteries probably got quite a bit of abuse and no maintenance in the RV dealer's lot.

My current project is to add a 1500 watt Windy Nation VertaMax inverter to the ACE. It will go in a storage compartment nearest the batteries, next to my solar charger. I plan on just plugging my shore power cable into the inverter while camped rather than going to the cost and complexity of a permanent connection to the breaker box. I just have to make sure that the converter breaker is off while on inverter and train DW that you cannot use the microwave, coffee maker and hair dryer at the same time. The hardest part of the project is DW training.