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Old 08-13-2018, 09:49 AM   #1
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Installing Shunt in 2017 Adventurer?

My 2017 Adventurer has 4 AGM batteries in the easy to reach battery compartment. I've looked at the inside top of the batteries and am familiar with how the cables are managed.

I'm going to install a ME-BMK (Magnum Energy Battery Management Kit) and know where the shunt is connected between the chassis ground and the last negative battery post. But I'm not sure where to find a handy mounting location. This location will dictate the length of cabling I need.

I know once I get into the project I'll figure it out. I was just curious if anyone had already done this project and could tell me what you did - maybe with a photo??

Thanks

PS. The deep cycle 12-v batteries in my RV weigh 70lbs each. So, I want to do this project without struggling to remove the batteries, if possible.
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Old 08-13-2018, 03:22 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by creativepart View Post
My 2017 Adventurer has 4 AGM batteries in the easy to reach battery compartment. I've looked at the inside top of the batteries and am familiar with how the cables are managed.

I'm going to install a ME-BMK (Magnum Energy Battery Management Kit) and know where the shunt is connected between the chassis ground and the last negative battery post. But I'm not sure where to find a handy mounting location. This location will dictate the length of cabling I need.

I know once I get into the project I'll figure it out. I was just curious if anyone had already done this project and could tell me what you did - maybe with a photo??

Thanks

PS. The deep cycle 12-v batteries in my RV weigh 70lbs each. So, I want to do this project without struggling to remove the batteries, if possible.
"know where the shunt is connected between the chassis ground and the last negative battery post. "

Most RV's don't have a single direct cable from the battery bank directly to chassis ground. The negative cable (or cables) go to various places in the RV. Then may be a cable that goes to chassis (frame) ground in addition to the other cable(s).

Bottom line: Absolutely all negative loads need to be connected to the RV side of the shunt with a single large cable from the shunt to a single negative post on the battery bank. If you have any other cables attached to any other battery negative post it needs to be relocated to the RV side of the shunt.

If you don't do this, the battery monitor will not see all the current and will give an incorrect reading.
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Old 08-13-2018, 03:35 PM   #3
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Thanks Al, I was aware of that. When I looked into the battery compartment it looked like one 02 gauge cable came off of the farthest neg post and disappeared behind the battery. I assumed (hoped) that it was then terminated on a chassis rail. But it was rainy and I didn't crawl under the coach to check that out.

If it's not laid out that way, I'll add a neg buss bar and connect all the negs to one side and the shunt to the other side and then on to the battery.
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Old 08-13-2018, 04:48 PM   #4
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creativepart, looking at the drawings there are 3 ground wires connected to the battery bank.
1) ground for inverter
2) ground for the coach loads
3) ground for the solar panels
There is also a temperature sensor on the negative post but it does not pull any current.
You will have to combine the two large and the one not so large on the load side of the shunt. Then run two large cables from the feed side of the shunt back to the batteries.
Sorry don't know for sure the size of the large cables.
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Old 08-13-2018, 10:13 PM   #5
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Grant, why two cables from the shunt to the battery?
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Old 08-13-2018, 11:28 PM   #6
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Mines not the same layout, but I peeled all the misc cables off the batteries and located them to isolated marine stud bolts and did distribution from there. That gives you one cable from the stud to the shunt, and another from stud to battery. I did the same with +12, sonthere are only two wires on the battery making a very sanitary and functional battery bay
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Old 08-15-2018, 04:30 PM   #7
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creativepart, if you look close at the jumper cables between the batteries they are smaller (size 1) than the cables going to the inverter and coach loads. By using two cables one on each end of the negative chain and one on each end of the positive chain it somewhat equalizes and reduces the current flow in each jumper cable.
Looks like when Winnebago started adding large inverters they connect the inverter on one end of the chain and the coach loads on the other end.
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Old 08-21-2018, 12:54 AM   #8
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You never ever want to “equalize” batteries through cable loss. The batteries should be matched to charge and draw equally from a MATCHED and balance set of batteries. When I rewired my batteries and inverter, everything, including the jumpers between the batteries were done with 4/0 Super Excellene. The whole point is one cohesive 12v source that can deliver 200A to the inverter when asked without dragging any parallel stack harder than the other
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Old 08-21-2018, 11:41 AM   #9
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Grant - I'm still at a loss as to why I'd run two separate neg cables back to the battery from the shunt. I plan to attach all 3 neg cables from the "last" battery in the chain to the left side (load) of the shunt and then run one short 02 cable from the right side lug on the shunt to the final battery stud.

In looking at multiple other installs of the shunt on YouTube I've never seen anyone run more than one neg cable from the shunt to the battery. So, I'm confused about your comment.
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Old 08-25-2018, 09:50 AM   #10
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creativepart if you are going to use one cable to your four battery bank connect it between the two middle batteries. Here are a couple of links talking about connecting batteries in parallel.
It all as to do with current flow, resistance and balancing the current flow.
Battery School | Batteriesnorthwest.com | Connect Your Batteries for Optimum Efficiency
https://www.impactbattery.com/blog/t...s-in-parallel/
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Old 09-01-2018, 04:43 PM   #11
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Thanks Grant.

I've spent some time looking at the battery bank and the wiring chart. I see the two separate cables you're talking about.

I plan to combine them on the feed side along with the solar panel controller ground. And then run two wires back from the load side to the two batteries originally cabled to ground.

I have to phone Winnebago Support because I found an anomaly in the Inverter "REMOTE" wiring. There is one remote and one wire that terminates in an RJ11 plug that plugs into the "Remote" port on the inverter. Then once I install the BMK there is a similar wire from the BMK controller that plugs into a "Network" port on the Inverter.

But my coach has wires connected in both the Remote and Network ports - and get this - BOTH of the wires have a tag on them that says REMOTE.

I disconnected the wires and only one of them is connected to the actual Remote in the coach. I'm wondering if the second Remote wire is a back up. That wire would be just about impossible to replace between the inverter and the remote. The wires are identical except that one has an additional light blue tape marker and the other a dark green tape marker.

I have noticed the the Ethernet cables installed behind the HDMI Matrix each have one extra unconnected cable and that all of the cables have a colored piece of similar marking tape. The markings on the Remote cables look very similar.

I'm going to unplug the unused REMOTE cable and plug the BMK into the Network port as per normal. But I will speak to WBGO first.

Here's a photo - see the two cables with REMOTE tags in blue:
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Old 09-04-2018, 11:53 AM   #12
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I called WBGO Customer Service today to ask about the two cables marked REMOTE and they said the 2nd Remote cable that is plugged into the "Network" input runs to the Cumins EC-30 controller for the Auto Gen Start feature. That makes sense. So, that's good. I'll use the splitter included with the Magnum BMK to attach both cables to the network port.

I also inquired about needing to run two neg cables from the Shunt to the Battery bank but the guy I spoke to, Tommy, did not have an answer to this question. He was not familar with a Shunt or how it is wired. I'll try asking Magnum.
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Old 09-04-2018, 12:54 PM   #13
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After posting the above result of phoning WBGO CS for info on this I downloaded and read the EC-30 installation manual and it shows no provision for connecting it to the Magnum Inverter. So, I think Tommy might have been guessing on his answer. It does seem like a good answer but I just have doubts about his answer to this question.

Anybody? Bueller? Anyone?
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Old 09-09-2018, 10:38 AM   #14
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After a lot of planning and reading threads and watching YouTube videos I completed the install yesterday.

There's not a ton of room in the battery bay of my 37F and the 01 gauge cables are pretty tough to work with - even flexible cables aren't very flexible at that gauge.

Grant pointed out above that there are two main ground cables coming off of the batteries. One - on what I refer to as battery #3 - goes directly to the inverter. Another on battery #4 goes to the chassis ground.

"Normally," in a parallel setup there would be short cables tying all the neg posts on all 4 batteries together and all of the take off cables for the chassis and the inverter would come off of one negative post on battery #4 - the last battery in the chain.

I was prepared to wire the shunt and cables just like WBGO did - but ran out of space to do so.

So, I ended up putting all negative take offs to the load side of the shunt and then ran one cable from the battery side of the shunt back to battery #4.

It looks correct. It seems to be working correctly. And I was able, with some effort, to complete the project.

I still don't know why there is an extra REMOTE cable that was seemingly not used for anything and plugged into the NETWORK port on the Inverter. I tried using a combiner so I could keep it plugged in along with the new Battery Monitor cable that is supposed to be plugged into the NETWORK port. But when I did so the BMK produced an error. So, for now the extra REMOTE cable is just unplugged.
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Old 09-09-2018, 08:43 PM   #15
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GREAT!!
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