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OK, you make some good points Kayak. I have little experience with MHs and am exploring selling our 20' trailer and buying a View. All of my experience with DC refrigeration, solar power, batteries and chargers comes from boating a lot of which was at anchor where I depended on batteries, solar and sometimes a generator for my power needs. Our trailer camping is almost exclusively dry camping and we use about 10 Ahs daily for LED lights and cell and tablet charging.
I have long suspected, mostly because they use the word "converter"not "charger", that most RV converters are simple single voltage regulated. That is why you can't get more than 10A from your PD9245.
I am happy to learn that at least the PD9145ALV puts out 45 amps, but since it is advertised as a Li charger, it is probably not a three step.
Given that PD probably doesn't make a real three step charger then there are others that you can use. The IOTA series of DLS chargers with their IQ module is a good choice. It comes in 15 to 90A ratings.
And finally you can dump a lot of amps into a 50% depleted battery with the right charger. On my boat I had two GC batteries as my house bank and a G31 as my starting (coach) battery. I left them all on together when I charged. With a Xantrex 100 amp inverter/charger I usually saw 90+ amps initially which then quickly dropped to about 75 after fifteen minutes as the batteries built up charge. It took about 2 hours to get them up to at least 90% which is all you can expect to do in a short time, and the current dropped to about 20A. The final 10% is better done with solar over a full day.
And finally, finally yes use the right gauge wire. If your batteries are 15' from the charging source then 8 gauge will drop 0.9 V. With a single voltage regulated charger like the PD9245 then you will get very little amperage. It may start at 13.6 but the voltage drop is 0.9 if it really could supply 30A then the real voltage seen at the batteries is 12.7 thus very little charging. It finally settles down to about the 10 A you measured at a 0.3V drop.
So in this case use at least #4 wire and #1 with a 75A IOTA or similar charger. It is almost a crime that RV builders install crappy converters with wiring too small. Even more criminal when they start installing DC compressor fridges and obviously have no understanding of the battery charging issues that causes.
In summary, anyone who has a DC compressor fridge and dry camps should replace the PD with a decent three stage charger and upgrade the wiring.
David
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