Power Converter Upgrade

I put the 9200 in my TM. It has the intelli-charge built in and I could not be happier.

Wayne - I am in Vegas. To bad I am over four hours away or I would buy it off you.

I was looking at the Xantrex Freedom HF1800 more and I really like it. It is MSW but thats all I really need. For a little over $400 plus install parts I could have an 1800w inverter, 3 stage 40A battery charger, transfer switch, and a digital voltmeter on the remote mountable display / selection panel. It would take a little work to wire it in but it wouldnt be too bad. The 2/0 battery cable would be the hardest part...and (2) golf cart batteries would be a must. Do I need 1800w of A/C, no, but smaller model is only a 20A charger and not much cheaper.

Does anyone have an opinion on this unit?

Thanks for the replies and I checked out the links, good stuff

Josh

Update:

I installed my new inverter / charger about a month ago and got to try it out this past weekend. I went with the Xantrex Freedom HF 1800W which is only MSW but at a decent price point. As part of the upgrade I installed (2) 6V golf cart batteries in the rear compartment replacing a single group 27.

I used the molded battery box recommended by others on this forum that just barely fit into the rear compartment where the old battery box was. I simply cut a piece of plywood to fit over the hole from the recessed battery box. Then I cut a hole in the new battery box and plywood for ventilation below. As for the upper existing vent I was able to lower it about a 1/2" and put it right into the top / side of the new box. Lowering only 1/2" allowed from me to not make another hole in the TM.

I also installed the inverter in the rear compartment to limit cable lengths. The batteries are in a new box with its own ventilation so I was not too concerned about fumes. I connected the inverter to the batteries with 3/0 type SC cable, very similar to welding cable going through a fuse of course. I used compression lugs for all connections and heat shrinked them making for a clean install. The DC wiring was a mess so I spent a lot of time cleaning this up as well but it is now very clean.

Since this unit has a transfer switch built in I decided to use it for my receptacles. Since the unit needs 30A A/C for charging and pass thru to receptacles I replaced the 15A GFI breaker in the TM panel with a 30A and ran #10 wire back to the new unit. The receptacle circuit now gets connected directly to the new inverter. This was easier than I thought because the inverter has a 15A breaker built in and a GFI receptacle installed. I connected my TM receptacle circuit to the thru wiring terminals on the inverter GFI thus giving me the 15A and GFI protection I needed. I completely disconnected the magnatech from the system

The final step was to run the cable for the remote control panel and install it next to the existing TM gauges at the sink. I simply cut an opening and installed here.

The unit has a true 3 stage charger and can put out up to 40 amps in bulk mode. It is nice because it tells which mode it is in right on the screen. I drained my batteries to only 12.35V from the night so it kicked out of bulk mode rather quickly and went into absorption mode. It seemed to charge the batteries faster than the old magnatech. The unit also has adjustable charging max current that can be changed from 2A, 10A, 20A, 40A which I thought I would never use. While camping this weekend I brought the Honda 2000i for power which has always been able to run the magnatech and the hair dryer in the morning. Sure enough I plugged the TM in and the charger started up but when the hair dryer was used it put the generator in overload mode a minute later. I reduced the current to 2A while the hair dryer was on and had no issues. Simply changed it back to 40A when the hair dryer was done. The panel also displays voltage and current usage. Pretty cool.

The MSW inverter is supposed to draw less than an amp when on but serving no load which I still need to verify exact numbers. The TV / DVD had no issue with it being MSW which was my main concern. Everything else seemed fine on MSW but we will have to wait and see. The big downfall is the unit is that it is not a true PSW. The unit transferred from shore to battery power fine and I was happy with that. The only thing I don’t like is that when shore power is plugged in the unit comes on and will automatically switch to battery if unplugged thus running down the batteries in idle until you turn it off or it drains the batteries. There is a work around which is a couple simple steps on the keypad to disable the inverter function which works without issue. It’s just something else to remember at the end of the trip.

I am pleased with the inverter charger so far and would recommend it. I did notice that trying to power my 1000W waffle maker in the morning with 12.3 V (no load) on the batts shut the unit down because of under voltage. I guess my new 6V GC batteries cannot put that much current out without dropping below 11V triggering a shutdown. Next time out I am going to measure the voltage at the batteries when powering a big load to confirm it is not a voltage drop issue. If any has any experience with large load and GC batteries please let me know.

Let me know if there are any specific questions.

Josh

Thanks, the factory wiring was a mess. I actually am able to put more things in the back storage with the 2 GC batteries than the single battery factory setup. The 2 batteries use the space efficiently and the battery box top is nice and flat to store things on. I store my lantern (in case) and linx levelers on top. Before there was an air vent hose coming out of the top of the batt box making storage tough.