Converter - Have you upgraded?

[BrucePerens]

On my trailer these are just paralleled with +12V. This can theoretically result in overcharge, but in practice probably doesn't. It's a combination of the tow vehicle output voltage (my Jeep gets up to 15 volts) and the voltage drop through all of those wires on the way to the battery. If you have space for another fuse left on your new fuse panel, route through that rather than connecting it directly to positive, and put in a 15A fuse.

[tentcamper]

Bruce, I like your thought of fusing the TV battery wire at the converter. It will add a little additional protection to the TV wiring and adds a test point. Also, it gives a simple method to disconnect the tv battery wire from the converter while connected to the TV, if the converter becomes an issue. It should be less than 30 minutes of work?

Will have to look at the converter next time out. I will fuse it based on the wire size of the trailer TV battery wire. I'm thinking in worst case the trailer will be pulling 10 amps for the fridge and maybe 10+ amps recharging low batteries.

I don't have much voltage drop. I ran 2 #12 wires in parallel from the TV battery through a 30 amp self resetting breaker to the 7 pin connector and have grounded the 7 pin connector to 3 locations on the TV. My biggest drop is the connector contact loss.

[Mainemoosepies]

Today I achieved my goal of swapping out the old OEM WFCO 8955 converter to the Progressive Dynamics PD4655.

It was a real PITA and while it is supposed to be a smooth swap it doesn't fit quite the same and I still have to figure out how to get it back in the power center. The clips that secure the circuit board in place are broken.

When the shore power is hooked up the following is working

Air Conditioning
Lights
Outlets
Bathroom Fan
Fridge

I still had 2 mystery wires. After discussions there was a thought that perhaps they go to the tow hookup and charged the battery when towing. However, when I hooked up the tow vehicle today everything functioned including the converter charging the battery.

I capped the wires off prepared to say the heck with it. Since I have no clue what they go to I clearly don't need them. I've spent too much time on this...I'm done, over it, FINITO! I went inside and pouted a bit then eventually I started studying the old WFCO board set up. Both the wires came from the battery so it was providing power to "something". They were wired into the +/- battery lugs on the circuit board. Then it dawned on me the one thing I knew worked but had not yet tested with the new setup.

THE POWER JACK!

I remembered (on pg2) tentcamper made a comment about the wires possibly being for the power jack. Since I had no paper work to refer to and my fuse panel showed there was a 30amp fuse connection I assumed that wasn't the issue.

So like a little kid who just figured out their algebra homework I went out in the pitch dark to test the theory.

The mystery wires were already disconnected and capped off so I went to see if power jack worked and "sho nuff" there was no go go juice.

I went back into the camper to reconnect the wires. I doubled up the neg wires to the neg battery lug on the circuit board.

I tried to insert the positive wire to a fuse but its too big - 8AWG. Not to mention there is an existing 30amp ATC fuse already listed as "power jack". So for the sake of the test I doubled up the positive wires to the +battery lug.

Went out to the back of the camper and hooked up the wires to the battery and inserted the 30amp fuse then ran to the front of the camper flipped the power switch for light and boooyah! Let there be light! Just for kicks I flipped the switch for the height adjustment and...yes! Let there be elevation!

I let out a big ol Woohoo! The neighbors must've thought I have finally cracked up hehe.

Mystery wires solved!

So now that I know what they go to - how do to I eliminate having to double up on the positive battery lug on the circuit board since it is just for the power jack can they stay or is there a convoluted setup necessary?

[rickst29]

Originally Posted by BrucePerens

I bought the "Boondocker" from "Best Converter". What I got looked nothing like the photo on their web site at the time, and looked exactly like a Parallax converter with a "Boondocker" label stuck over the Parallax one and, if you believe them, some different stuff in the ROM. But I really can't tell. Features in the manual on the web site including lights for burned out fuses were not present. The unit cost at the time about $100 more than the equivalent Parallax unit new on eBay. Prices may be closer now.

I am kind of dubious about "Best Converter" and would suggest you buy a Parallax or Progressive Dynamics converter from another dealer.

Slightly to my surprise - when I called Progressive Dynamics with some questions about the "PD-4655-MBA/L", they recommended bestconverter.com as a highly favored dealer. I ordered one to replace a "Boondocker", which couldn't be programmed for Lithium or provide a pendant to enforce extended "boost-mode" operations. (I will be using the Pendant with my LFP battery pretending to be an AGM - and not switching the board to run in to single-stage 14.6V "Lithium mode").

The Boondocker replaced an original WFCO, and it was sort-of-OK, but not smart enough to reach 100% charge during trips.

My "PD-4655-MBA-L" is actually a "PD4655TV" (replacement section only, with no box or DC board.) The board is only 7" long, with about 2" of empty space on the right of the plastic "base assembly. It ios built with dual fans. "Programming" consists of only two DIP switches - The Lithium versus multistage switch, and a separate switch to select AGM versus SLA (while running multistage).