Has anyone done 2000 Watt Inverter with 200AH Lithium install on Imagine 2800BH.

[mhaasser]

Hi everyone, we are looking to update modify our Imagine 2800BH to 2000 watt inverter and 200AH Lithium. Just wondering if someone has done this to theirs and if you could share pictures and locations of where you place the parts. We are looking at new Batteries, but a friend is updating his trailer from 2000 watt to 3000 watt so he is selling us his old Charger, and Inverter and we will fill in the rest of the parts. Thank you. I think there are a number of Imagine trailer that would be close to the same as the 2800BH as well, I would be excited to hear your experience as well.

 

[RV Sailor]

We installed the 3000 inverter charger because it allowed us to electrify ALL of our 110 outlets in our 2500RL.
The Victron 3000 /. 120 charger multiplex is a great piece of technology and worth the $1200. You’ll probably wish you’d done that in a year after having the 2000 inverter. 120 charger and automatic relays all confined in one unit

Our batteries and inverter/ Charger along with solar controller located in basement.

https://www.amazon.com/Victron-Multiplus-3000-120-50-VE-Bus/dp/B01AD2MJSK

 

[el Rojo]

I agree with RV sailor on the Victron multi-plus inverter charger being the Cadillac. We now have a Magnum 3000 watt but before we had a 2000 watt Xantrex and for us we had plenty of power. We had the frig and water heater on gas and only use the inverter for the microwave, induction plate and TV. We never ran the microwave or induction plate at the same though to preserve battery voltage.

Red

 

[rmcrowe]

We installed the 3000 inverter charger because it allowed us to electrify ALL of our 110 outlets in our 2500RL.
The Victron 3000 /. 120 charger multiplex is a great piece of technology and worth the $1200. You’ll probably wish you’d done that in a year after having the 2000 inverter. 120 charger and automatic relays all confined in one unit

Our batteries and inverter/ Charger along with solar controller located in basement.

https://www.amazon.com/Victron-Multiplus-3000-120-50-VE-Bus/dp/B01AD2MJSK

I agree 100% on the Victron Multiplus. Very well worth it. I have a 2500RL as well, I did my install a bit differently - I put the solar controller, 280AH LIPO4 batteries, and multiplus in the space behind the TV (that was not being used). It was a PITA to do - but I'm happy with the end result and I feel good about leveraging that wasted space

 

[BeerBrewer-MGRV]

I agree 100% on the Victron Multiplus. Very well worth it. I have a 2500RL as well, I did my install a bit differently - I put the solar controller, 280AH LIPO4 batteries, and multiplus in the space behind the TV (that was not being used). It was a PITA to do - but I'm happy with the end result and I feel good about leveraging that wasted space

Do you have any pictures of the install? If so, I'd love to see them.

 

[rmcrowe]

Do you have any pictures of the install? If so, I'd love to see them.

I have been meaning to do a thread about about the install, might be useful for other 2500RL owners. I will put something together soon, I don't want to hijack this thread (any more than I have already).

 

[RV Sailor]

That changed with the 2021 2500RL when they redesigned the TV area and increased counter space plus an additional window

 

[mhaasser]

Thanks for all the comments. If Money was no object I would be all over the MultiPlus-II 12/3000/120-50 2x120V Inverter/Charger for our 50A trailer, and at least three Batteries. This new Multiplus device is sweet. For now we are not looking for that steep of a price tag. I have access to a Friends 2000 watt Xantrex, and 45 amp charger as he is updating to the to the Victron 3000i since he is connected at home and is tired of blowing his breakers in the house. I would like to see pictures of the install behind the TV on the 2500RL. Hi-Jack away as more pictures of installs will help develop a plan for my install.

 

[rmcrowe]

Thanks for all the comments. If Money was no object I would be all over the MultiPlus-II 12/3000/120-50 2x120V Inverter/Charger for our 50A trailer, and at least three Batteries. This new Multiplus device is sweet. For now we are not looking for that steep of a price tag. I have access to a Friends 2000 watt Xantrex, and 45 amp charger as he is updating to the to the Victron 3000i since he is connected at home and is tired of blowing his breakers in the house. I would like to see pictures of the install behind the TV on the 2500RL. Hi-Jack away as more pictures of installs will help develop a plan for my install.

Sounds like you have a good plan that will work well. You can always upgrade at a later date if you feel the need.

I will include a few shots of my install here, though I plan to do a more complete write-up of this (hopefully before I forget a lot of the details!) sometime soon.
Since I can only attach 5 per post, I will start with the finished shots. As part of this install I also replaced the mount for the TV with one that has a lot more range. I'm very happy with it - it gets the TV much closer to square with the sofa whereas the original was always at an odd angle. I actually did the TV mount before I did the solar - in doing that I realized the entire area behind the TV was completely empty save a few wires.


You can see the multiplus here - I made an access hole for it, it's usually covered with a screen for airflow. Sometimes you can hear it but generally speaking it's pretty quiet most of the time. It doesn't bother me or my wife.



This shows the TV swung out in front of the sofa



You can see that I replaced the paneling behind the tv - had I been smarter I would have carefully pulled out the original panel and re-used it. But it got sacrafically cut when I mounted the TV mount there before doing the solar - so it had a big hole in the middle of it and was scrapped. Getting the replacement panel would not have been expensive, but shipping it to California my dealer wanted like $300. Since its behind the TV most of the time anyhow, I wasn't worried about it and got something that was close enough at a big box store.




From the other side. You can see another access panel (doesn't need airflow so no screen) the battery and some other stuff is behind that. With both open its tight in there but I can get to everything needed. If I have to pull the entire panel it takes maybe an hour or so.

I added additional 120v since I was in there anyhow, and the electrodacus BMS, and more USB connections. I have a little router mounted permanently there and it runs off usb power too. There is also a battery cutt-off and a 120 main breaker.



I will follow with one more reply and a few more pics.

 

[rmcrowe]

This shows the basic inside of spot behind the TV. The walls were too thin to support the equipment so I built a plywood frame and attached that in there for more strength:
Here you see most of the components but they are not yet connected. There is a 280AH battery that i purchased the cells from alibaba and put together myself - The battery barely fit and I don't think I could have got that much power in any other form-factor there.



The almost finished front of the system:


Finally the solar panels being placed on the roof (sorry - this one is sideways - not sure how to rotate an image here):


I put on 4 200 watt rich solar. I have seen 700 watts of real power through this thing (I'm running a Victron MPPT 100/50 so 700 watts is the max it will make).

I was pleased overall with the results - the space behind the TV is very conveniently located right above the power center, so the wires there (DC and AC) were super easy to run). It also has a chase that leads up to the attic through the right rear side of the cavity so the solar wires were pretty easy to fish as well. The battery and inverter were close so short runs of that 4/0 cable.

And this is pretty close to the axles on the unit, so it rides well. At the time I was pulling with an F150 and I was always very close on payload weight, so getting the batteries off the front of the trailer was viewed as a good thing. I now have a F250 so that's not an issue anymore, but I might do it the same way anyhow.

Hopefully this helps someone with ideas. I do plan to do a more proper write-up of this install sometime, but I've been busy.

 

[RV Sailor]

Sounds like you have a good plan that will work well. You can always upgrade at a later date if you feel the need.

I will include a few shots of my install here, though I plan to do a more complete write-up of this (hopefully before I forget a lot of the details!) sometime soon.
Since I can only attach 5 per post, I will start with the finished shots. As part of this install I also replaced the mount for the TV with one that has a lot more range. I'm very happy with it - it gets the TV much closer to square with the sofa whereas the original was always at an odd angle. I actually did the TV mount before I did the solar - in doing that I realized the entire area behind the TV was completely empty save a few wires.


You can see the multiplus here - I made an access hole for it, it's usually covered with a screen for airflow. Sometimes you can hear it but generally speaking it's pretty quiet most of the time. It doesn't bother me or my wife.
View attachment 33403


This shows the TV swung out in front of the sofa
View attachment 33402


You can see that I replaced the paneling behind the tv - had I been smarter I would have carefully pulled out the original panel and re-used it. But it got sacrafically cut when I mounted the TV mount there before doing the solar - so it had a big hole in the middle of it and was scrapped. Getting the replacement panel would not have been expensive, but shipping it to California my dealer wanted like $300. Since its behind the TV most of the time anyhow, I wasn't worried about it and got something that was close enough at a big box store.


View attachment 33404

From the other side. You can see another access panel (doesn't need airflow so no screen) the battery and some other stuff is behind that. With both open its tight in there but I can get to everything needed. If I have to pull the entire panel it takes maybe an hour or so.

I added additional 120v since I was in there anyhow, and the electrodacus BMS, and more USB connections. I have a little router mounted permanently there and it runs off usb power too. There is also a battery cutt-off and a 120 main breaker.

View attachment 33405

I will follow with one more reply and a few more pics.

Great job. Well thought out

Where are the batteries?
Do you have a battery monitor? Or do you BT everything. Do you use the Dongel? Do you have control panel for Multiplex?

Our new 2500Rl did away with the big cabinet. Tv is on a great arm to see from theater chairs.

 

[rmcrowe]

The battery is enclosed in the plywood box on the left side of the enclosure. I have a slightly better picture since you cant see the cells at all in the prior photo:



The threaded rod with the springs is designed to keep the cells under constant pressure - something the manufacturer recommends doing. I'm not sure how well I executed that but I think its in the ballpark. You can see the slots cut into the plywood side and thats where the terminals (copper) came out of the battery. (can see them in prior photo I think)

For the BMS I am using the Electrodacus - it manages the Victron equipment for LVD/HVD and low temp protection. You can see it in one of the pictures in the upper left corner of the facia.

I chose not to go with a panel for this - I just use my phone and I do have a battery monitor (bmv712 I think) that is mounted right above the control center. (conveniently also very close to the rest of the equipment)

 

[rmcrowe]

Great job. Well thought out


Our new 2500Rl did away with the big cabinet. Tv is on a great arm to see from theater chairs.

Yeah, I like that new design - I would have traded that rather than have a place for the batteries, but I was a year too soon

 

[RV Sailor]

Yeah, I like that new design - I would have traded that rather than have a place for the batteries, but I was a year too soon

How were you able to get the 8 gauge solar cables into the Victron controller. It is a poor design for this
Otherwise a top notch piece of equipment

 

[rmcrowe]

How were you able to get the 8 gauge solar cables into the Victron controller. It is a poor design for this
Otherwise a top notch piece of equipment

Honestly I don't remember having much of a problem with the connectors. I think I heard somewhere on the web that people were having issues, but I wonder if they did a redesign of that. Mine were just fine.

 

[Mattoest]

I don't have pictures with me, but I have a 2400BH and, to save space and weight in the pass-through, I placed my setup under the lower bunk at the very end of the trailer. I installed a Victron Multiplus 3000, Victron MPPT Solar controller and three Lion Energy UT 1300 batteries. I built a 1/2" plywood box that exactly fit the space and wrapped it in felt to make it snug and eliminate vibration noises. The outdoor kitchen gives (relatively) easy access to run the wiring out of the passenger side of the box and then down through the existing hole in the floor that the water heater feeds come through. From there you can run the shore power line into the box and the 120v and 12v lines up to the power panel under the tv. From there you can run the solar up to the nose where the roof entry gland solar wiring connects to the trailer power at the 7 pin connection junction box. I did not have to drop very much of the underbelly and after a few choice words, managed to get it all run through in an afternoon.

 

[looknow12]

I have a 23BHE and I'm wondering if anyone has added an inverter and possibly solar to that smaller travel trailer. When I spoke to the dealer, they suggested installing the equipment under the dinette seat (where the shoe storage would be). I guess under the bed might work too.

If anyone has done this work, please let me know and send pictures.

Thanks

 

[Florida Buffalo]

We went wild with our installation of solar and lithium on our Grand Design Reflections 315 RLTS Travel Trailer. We put in six 100 Watt BattleBorn lithium batteries, four 320 Watt solar panels, Victron 3000 Watt Multiplus, 150/100 MPPT, VE Bus Bluetooth Dongle, 712BMV battery monitor and 2 MicroAir AC Easy Starts. We are backing this up with a Champion 3500 Dual Fuel Inverter Generator. I am a very handy guy, but I would not have been able to do the installation by myself. I hired a magician by the name of Mike Perdue with The Dry Campers. We scheduled installation at an RV Rally in north Florida last year. Mike hid all 6 batteries behind the 3 drawers in the bedroom and balance of electronics in the cabinet under the coffee station in the kitchen. Please review the Youtube videos (links attached) showing how he did it. If you can go big, I would whole heartedly recommend. We have boondocked several times in Florida while running AC for hours with just solar and stored batteries. Looking forward to touring the country for several months a year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipZzXA9EmRI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EEo2Svb96A

Happy Trails,
Jeff

 

[4fun_timers]

Not perfect and still not complete but a few pictures of our 2000watt inverter/charger(100A), 200AH Lithium add.

This works great for us. I do not have charging from my truck as the small solar setup has filled the gaps.. We do run the 15Kbtu AC off the inverter for 30 minutes or so during stops which did require a micro air easy start... I ended up over the 5' wire limit (per GO Power) for 2/0 AWG cable by 1' so I need to change the inverter cables to 4/0. The cable does start to get warm after 30 minutes of high current. I can still touch but plan to replace in the next week or so.

This takes up 1/2 of the under bed floor storage. I did lose about 6" of under bed storage tray travel which hasn't been an issue.
Tank heater controls were a quick add when needed during a winter trip.... Top right just below the shock mount is my Solar Charger BT Module.




I put the displays for the inverter/charger, battery monitor, and EMS in the under TV storage area, behind the glass.




Intake I added at inverter inlet. End of bed.




Where I still need to add a grill at the inverter discharge. Side where you have a door.




2 Solar panels.

 

[4fun_timers]

A slight mess (just returned from 1200 mile round trip) but my solar charger is to the left of the towel rack about 5". Its only 20A so no heat during full load.




Power consumption with AC on. No other loads, fridge was on LP.