Renogy Solar Suitcase

[Bcborn]

Originally Posted by Marine359

The only wires remaining in the tongue junction box are for brakes and clearance lights, neither of which uses battery power.

All other wires are routed back up through the floor to the 12v disconnect. From there, the leads are routed to bus bars.. note a single white 6awg gnd wire goes from neg bus bar to chassis gnd. I hardly ever use the 12v disconnect switch. If I want to shut down the 12v circuit, I simply click the battery I/O switch. In the picture, the battery is off. If it were on, you would see a voltage display on the battery.

I'm not seeing how you rerouted the red junction box positive wires to the Red Buss Bar that power the 30 amp (Manual Reset) and 20 Amp (Auto Reset) Circuit breaker for tongue Jack, Slide Motor, Converter and Fuse Panel.

[Marine359]

You pull those wires out of the junction box and stuff them up the loom that goes through the floor of the pass thru to the disconnect.

[Bcborn]

Jim thanks for the feedback. For the interim before Lithium's go in, I don't want to have to run wire that's not needed afterwards.

What did you do about the two circuit breakers under the trailer?

On my 2017 2106 the 30amp is inside the junction box and it feeds the 20amp that is outside the junction box.

Here is what I'm thinking interm;

Run the positive #10 from the controller to the OEM I/O via my 20Amp resettable Fuse.

Run the negative #10 from the controller to the new negative buss bar mounted above the OEM I/O.

I will leave everything in the junction box till I go Lithium and no longer need power in that box.

Run a new #6 negative from the frame where the battery negative attaches and run it up into the passthrough with the current I/O wires and terminate at the new buss bar.

[No1Hunter]

Jim,

First, thanks for being a great resource and letting us bounce questions and ideas off you. It really helps!!!

I have been looking into the Husky C-Line LiFePo4batteries and saw you chose to use 1/0 cables from the battery to your buss bars to handle the max battery and inverter output requirements. Are these the cables that came with the battery (I see a cable is included)?

It also appears there isn't any Bluetooth connectivity. Is that correct?

[Marine359]

Hi Bob,
The cables that came with my Bigbattery Owl from Bigbattery.com (not Husky) were not heavy enough gauge. So, I purchased custom made 1/0 cables from Batterycableusa.com. You can make cables yourself, but for a 1/0 cable, the cost of tools, cables, and terminals exceeds the cost of buying them custom. My battery does not have Bluetooth, but I do have Bluetooth from my shunt and my solar charge controller. I’ve recently seen the newer Renogy 200ah LiFePo4 is available with Bluetooth option. If the price is right, you may want to take a look at it. I think it’s on Amazon for about $1,000. That saves on the $125 for needing to buy a shunt, and saves some on cable cost. If buying that battery, I would install a “everything” 250amp battery disconnect between battery and bus bars.

Good luck with your install. Let us know how it shapes up, and show some photos. Valuable stuff for others.

[BobC]

I don't know anything about the C Line batteries but, before you buy any batteries, I suggest that you go to Will Prowse's website and watch his Youtube reviews on LiFePO4 before you buy anything. Will is well regarded.

He generally does a complete teardown and often finds hidden flaws in batteries that otherwise seem to be OK. He's also reviewed some lower cost LiFePO4 batteries that are very well built with good performance. Here's a link to his battery teardowns:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...DwE0k40bpXZBQs

If nothing else, you'll learn about what to look for.

[Marine359]

Will is pretty good at analyzing builds, but is biased.

Case in point: He reviewed Bigbattery and said it was the best thing since sliced bread. So, I went and bought one. Six months later he panned Bigbattery and told his audience to never buy one because one of the cells in his failed and leaked in his Bigbattery. The battery tested great when he got it. He FAILED to tell audience that any LiFePo4 battery maker could get a cell that tests well during assembly, but fails later down the line. And I’m not so sure that he might of abused the battery electrically. All the battery makers buy cell from the same three Chinese companies. Even though Bigbattery gave him a free replacement (he didn’t pay for the first one either), he still slammed Bigbattery. He then had the nerve to tell audiences that he still uses his Bigbattery to open his gates. I thought Will was way off base in continuing to slam a manufacturer that is one of the most highly rated for QC. IMO, there’s something else going on with Will. Maybe because Bigbattery focuses more on industrial and off-grid, and not so much RV market. Anyway, I’ve read others complain about their LiFePo4 purchases. But my Bigbattery has been totally bulletproof. Bottom line, don’t trust any YouTuber, as 100% of them have bias. Do your own research, and buy American assembled if possible.

[Bcborn]

Finished the wiring today for the new Victron Smart Solar Controller.

Ran new 6AWG wires up from the junction Box under the trailer to power fuse panel in pass through. Moved Inverter wiring from battery to fuse panel.

The MC4 connectors at Controller are so I can switch between RV Lead Acids (shown connected) and my Portable Lithium Trolling Battery with the Renogy Alligator Clips.

The resettable fuses allow me to cut power to solar and battery when switching over.

Once I switch over to Lithium, I will eliminate the battery leads on the tongue.

[Marine359]

Sweet Lyle.

[RonW58]

Hi Jim, Lyle, Are either of you working off wiring diagrams you can share, my head is just spinning reading your threads. Thanks Ron

[Bcborn]

Originally Posted by RonW58

Hi Jim, Lyle, Are either of you working off wiring diagrams you can share, my head is just spinning reading your threads. Thanks Ron

Ron, Sorry no drawing, check out my album, it may provide additional insight.

The info from Jim was of great benefit as it provided additional clarification as to what I was looking for. Jim removed the Lead Acid Batteries from the tongue and all wiring. I'm still running the Lead Acid Batteries on the tongue and will do so for at least another season.

I didn't go with the shunt as my next Lithium purchase does not require a shunt as the Lithium from Renogy can get the same info from their bluetooth dongle or wired battery monitor. The Shunt in Canada is $170

If the battery does not have this capability the shunt is a wise option.

I'm picking up the Victron MPPT 75/15 Smartsolar Controller tomorrow. Will post installed pictures shortly so you can see how the 4 wires that are dangling are connected.

[Marine359]

Sorry Ron. No wiring diagrams.

[Bcborn]

Originally Posted by Bcborn

Ron, Sorry no drawing, check out my album, it may provide additional insight.

The info from Jim was of great benefit as it provided additional clarification as to what I was looking for. Jim removed the Lead Acid Batteries from the tongue and all wiring. I'm still running the Lead Acid Batteries on the tongue and will do so for at least another season.

I didn't go with the shunt as my next Lithium purchase does not require a shunt as the Lithium from Renogy can get the same info from their bluetooth dongle or wired battery monitor. The Shunt in Canada is $170

If the battery does not have this capability the shunt is a wise option.

I'm picking up the Victron MPPT 75/15 Smartsolar Controller tomorrow. Will post installed pictures shortly so you can see how the 4 wires that are dangling are connected.

Controller Installed

[Marine359]

Nice clean job Lyle. Bravo!

[Bcborn]

Originally Posted by Marine359

Nice clean job Lyle. Bravo!

Thanks Jim,

I'm going to change out the two battery leads into the controller from the MC4 clips for more flexible wire. I used 8AWG heavy strand copper and I had to trim a few back to fit them into the controller. Besides that Victron doesn't give much seat area for a good tight fit and I'm worried these wires may come loose changing out the battery (Lithium/Lead Acid).

[Marine359]

Before you buy more wire, have you tried using a ferrule on the stranded 8awg? I tried it on a 6awg and it wouldn’t fit, but it might work for 8awg. For that size wire, you do need the right size copper ferrule, and a ferrule crimping tool.

[Bcborn]

Originally Posted by Marine359

Before you buy more wire, have you tried using a ferrule on the stranded 8awg? I tried it on a 6awg and it wouldn’t fit, but it might work for 8awg. For that size wire, you do need the right size copper ferrule, and a ferrule crimping tool.

Did not try using a ferrule, never used them. I don't have a tool for ferrule's either.

The controller says its for up to 10AWG wire. Their right no room for next size up. I looked for 8AWG pin connectors locally, found nothing. I did find 10AWG pin connectors in my search.

I would need a couple feet of Red and Blk (1 foot on each side of MC4) to change out the two leads. This time I will do those two leads in 10AWG. The stranded marine (numerous strands) tinned copper seems pretty flexible, will see if I can get some by the foot.

Have to look at the two MC4 connectors and see if I can loosen them up a bit as they are so hard to get apart.

[creativepart]

Isn’t that a 15 amp solar controller? 10 gauge wire can carry twice that amount of current. Why go even higher gauge?

[Bcborn]

Originally Posted by creativepart

Isn’t that a 15 amp solar controller? 10 gauge wire can carry twice that amount of current. Why go even higher gauge?

Your correct, I had 8 gauge on hand so thought I would use it. Didn't have any 10 gauge long enough for my runs. Now I will back track a bit to make it more user friendly.

[No1Hunter]

Originally Posted by creativepart

Isn’t that a 15 amp solar controller? 10 gauge wire can carry twice that amount of current. Why go even higher gauge?

I was thinking the same thing and in fact, the drawing from Winnebago shows the wiring from my 30amp solar controller to the battery is 10 gauge.

But, like Lyle said, if you have it, and it fits, might as well use it. Better to overbuild for the future than have to redo it all.