2nd 2600RB- victron charger/converter- running wires? 2000w or 3500w for my purposes?

[Davidandkim]

Just picked up our new used 2600RB. Our old one was written off (tree in the provincial park, it was wide enough on the ground, but it arched over...) . After much searching, the 2600RB is still the right trailer for us. We love it

On my old one I had installed a 700w inverter/charger. I'd disrupted some of the internal wiring so that it only fed some outlets (it obviously wouldn't power the microwave for instance)

This time I'm thinking of installing one of the Victron converter/chargers. Likely the 2000w one. I have a Honda generator in an aluminum box on the back for charging. hint- running it while driving might not be authorized, but after a few hours, your battery is charged with no annoying generator noise. I needed a separate charger to charge the 300ah lithium battery I have fully. I think the 2000w will be enough. The 3500w- I wouldn't mind paying the money, but the cables are stupidly expensive. My reasoning is- I don't have access to a 50amp circuit to charge with, often its the 15amp circuit from an extension cord from the house. Running the a/c on the generator (not a very common occurrence at all) was possible. While dry camping, when needed, it usually is on for under an hour at the end of the day to cool the inside. It was always touch and go. I discovered that at 10 000 feet in Colorado, it wouldn't start- its cool at 10000 feet usually anyways. I think its because the generator didn't develop enough power in the thinner air. The multipass says it will supplement the current. The 2000w should be enough for that. The 3500w would run the a/c, but I think my battery would only be good for about 3h at that rate.

I only have one 300 ah lithium battery. It has enough storage, but I noticed in the old one that when the new water pump I put in turned on, the lights would dim. I'm wondering if it can discharge the power it has quickly enough? Is that a thing?

My setup is to have the lithium battery beneath the bed. Then the inverter/charger in the front compartment, just behind the wall at the end of the underside of the bed. I hope that will keep the noise of the fan out of the inside, at least a bit more.

Making the 12v cables, for me, is messy. I'll sort it out and order them to the right length. I can figure out the routing of the 12v cables easily enough.

Its the 110v cables that I need to figure out how to get from the front understorage area where the converter is to the circuit breaker/fuse panel. I've seen some excellent videos on how to connect it once I get there. But finding the route..... With my old trailer I'd asked for a wiring diagram from Grand Design. They wouldn't supply me with one. One of their reasons was that the routing changed from time to time.

I'm thinking I could easily run the wires to the wall between the bedroom and the sink, inside, behind/under the cabinetry. The obvious question- how to get from there to the front compartment?

Does someone know how the floor joists are oriented? (side to side or front to back). If front to back, then I could fish it through. I doubt that though. Should I go straight down to the underside of the trailer, and then back up into the under bed area? I'm a bit reluctant to disturb the coroplast. Would I be better detaching it, then putting the wire between it and the frame, and then up into the front compartment?

Its only 3 feet at the most, but its tricky. Any thoughts on the best way to do this?

 

[traveldawg]

"......I only have one 300 ah lithium battery. It has enough storage, but I noticed in the old one that when the new water pump I put in turned on, the lights would dim. I'm wondering if it can discharge the power it has quickly enough? Is that a thing?...."

It likely isn't the battery. The pump is on what all the other circuits are on and likely passes through the same fuse as other devices. To keep the lights from dimming put the pump on a dedicated 12v line (fused) from the battery or 12v distribution block. A lot of us have done this on a variety of models.

"...I discovered that at 10 000 feet in Colorado, it wouldn't start- it's cool at 10000 feet usually anyways. I think its because the generator didn't develop enough power in the thinner air..."

If it is a Honda generator, they sell different sized jets for about 8,000 feet (at least I think it is 8000; could be more). Mine still start at 9000 feet, not sure I ever tried at 10,000.

Sorry - no help with running wires in your rig. It sounds like you have a good plan.

 

[Davidandkim]

Thanks- that is a relief about the battery. I was doing some too complicated figuring for me on internal resistance.....

The generator ran just fine at 10 000 feet, but it didn't have enough power for the a/c. BTW it takes some significant effort to tow your trailer that high.....

 

[Riverbug]

I'm thinking I could easily run the wires to the wall between the bedroom and the sink, inside, behind/under the cabinetry. The obvious question- how to get from there to the front compartment?

Does someone know how the floor joists are oriented? (side to side or front to back). If front to back, then I could fish it through. I doubt that though. Should I go straight down to the underside of the trailer, and then back up into the under bed area? I'm a bit reluctant to disturb the coroplast. Would I be better detaching it, then putting the wire between it and the frame, and then up into the front compartment?

Its only 3 feet at the most, but its tricky. Any thoughts on the best way to do this?

The joists will run side to side between the outside I-beams. There are holes in the cross members along the outside. I don't know where your power center is located but personally, I would run wires down into the belly from behind the power center location, up to the front where the wires come up from the belly behind the convenience center (water system/city water location). From the front storage area, you can go directly through the wall (thin paneling) into the under-bed area. I think it would be less hassle to drop the Coraplast along one side and front to run wires than it would be to run wires behind everything inside and then still have to get them into the storage area without boxing it in along the wall or something like that in the bedroom. Just my $.02.

 

[Rovers]

There is an excellent video on the Explorist.life YouTube channel showing how to run the 110v cables from the current location of the converter to the pass through in a model similar to your 2600RB. I used their method to run the 110v cables from the circuit panel under the pantry area, out through a rather large hole in the floor where all the cabling enters the coach, along the frame rail and then up through the floor under the bed in our 2400BH. Our coach has a similar layout to yours at least from the pantry/kitchen area to the under-bed storage.

Here is my routing: Shore power comes into the circuit breaker.
- Remove incoming shore power from breaker and route into a junction block.
- From the junction block run 10/3 marine cable through hole under the pantry, along frame rail and up through the floor under the bed
- 10/3 cable from junction block runs into INPUT of the Victron
- 10/3 cable from OUTPUT of the Victron runs back to the circuit panel in the original breaker the shore power ran into previously. All your 110 outlets will be powered from your inverter and/or shore power (the Victron and other inverter/chargers have built-in transfer switches) just like they would be if your were plugged into shore power without the inverter.

I put my inverter/charger under the bed to minimize cable runs. If you choose to put your Victron in the pass through you’ll run the 10/3 further to the front with a hole drilled in the floor under the pass through and then route the 12v cables from the battery bank. You’ll need to drop the coroplast on the passenger side of the coach to run the 10/3.

There is a 12 volt junction block on the passenger side frame rail just past the point where the A-frame meets the side frame rails; the tongue-mounted battery positive wire is attached here. For your 12 volt circuits you only need to run a 12 volt positive line from where that positive line was attached to a 12 volt buss bar or distribution box under the bed or wherever your buss bar/distribution box is locate (remove the original 12v positive line that came from the original tongue-mounted battery.) That junction block is already grounded to the frame so no further ground lines need to be run to here. Run a ground line from the junction box back to the Lynx distributor or 12v buss bar to ground the 12v side of the system. Be sure to ground your solar charge controller and Victron to a suitable frame member such as the metal frame under the bed in the pass through.

This is what my setup looks like under the bed. 400aH of battery, Lynx distributor, Victron charge controller, and an inverter/charger that will be replaced with a Victron MultiPlus II this Spring. With a SoftStart on the AC I can run from the batteries and the 2000 watt inverter long enough to cool things down (about 20 minutes until we’re at 50% of charge.) 800 watts of solar on the roof replenishes the batteries reasonably quickly with decent sunshine.


Hope this helps!

Bob

 

[DarrellGKing]

Just picked up our new used 2600RB. Our old one was written off (tree in the provincial park, it was wide enough on the ground, but it arched over...) . After much searching, the 2600RB is still the right trailer for us. We love it

On my old one I had installed a 700w inverter/charger. I'd disrupted some of the internal wiring so that it only fed some outlets (it obviously wouldn't power the microwave for instance)

This time I'm thinking of installing one of the Victron converter/chargers. Likely the 2000w one. I have a Honda generator in an aluminum box on the back for charging. hint- running it while driving might not be authorized, but after a few hours, your battery is charged with no annoying generator noise. I needed a separate charger to charge the 300ah lithium battery I have fully. I think the 2000w will be enough. The 3500w- I wouldn't mind paying the money, but the cables are stupidly expensive. My reasoning is- I don't have access to a 50amp circuit to charge with, often its the 15amp circuit from an extension cord from the house. Running the a/c on the generator (not a very common occurrence at all) was possible. While dry camping, when needed, it usually is on for under an hour at the end of the day to cool the inside. It was always touch and go. I discovered that at 10 000 feet in Colorado, it wouldn't start- its cool at 10000 feet usually anyways. I think its because the generator didn't develop enough power in the thinner air. The multipass says it will supplement the current. The 2000w should be enough for that. The 3500w would run the a/c, but I think my battery would only be good for about 3h at that rate.

I only have one 300 ah lithium battery. It has enough storage, but I noticed in the old one that when the new water pump I put in turned on, the lights would dim. I'm wondering if it can discharge the power it has quickly enough? Is that a thing?

My setup is to have the lithium battery beneath the bed. Then the inverter/charger in the front compartment, just behind the wall at the end of the underside of the bed. I hope that will keep the noise of the fan out of the inside, at least a bit more.

Making the 12v cables, for me, is messy. I'll sort it out and order them to the right length. I can figure out the routing of the 12v cables easily enough.

Its the 110v cables that I need to figure out how to get from the front understorage area where the converter is to the circuit breaker/fuse panel. I've seen some excellent videos on how to connect it once I get there. But finding the route..... With my old trailer I'd asked for a wiring diagram from Grand Design. They wouldn't supply me with one. One of their reasons was that the routing changed from time to time.

I'm thinking I could easily run the wires to the wall between the bedroom and the sink, inside, behind/under the cabinetry. The obvious question- how to get from there to the front compartment?

Does someone know how the floor joists are oriented? (side to side or front to back). If front to back, then I could fish it through. I doubt that though. Should I go straight down to the underside of the trailer, and then back up into the under bed area? I'm a bit reluctant to disturb the coroplast. Would I be better detaching it, then putting the wire between it and the frame, and then up into the front compartment?

Its only 3 feet at the most, but its tricky. Any thoughts on the best way to do this?

If you see FB posts, here's mine from when I did it:

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I went below the frame, just above the chloroplast...