Alright, let's try this now.

This is now with two transfer switches. One feeds the general circuit which includes the television. The other feeds the gfci circuit, which the fridge is on. I also redid the wiring so that the labels will read properly.

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Next I moved on to replacing the inverter. I put it in last week, firstly to make sure it worked, and secondly to make sure my tv antenna worked. See, the last time we took the trailer out to a full hookup site, we couldn't get any reception for the tv. The antenna uses 12 volts, but if I couldn't get a picture at the storage yard that I knew had reception last year, then it would warrant deeper investigation. As it turned out, the tv and the antenna work just fine, we happened to have a spot in a dead zone.

As for the inverter installation, I had premade jumper cables a foot long from 2 gauge welding cable. Soldered terminals with colour coded heat shrink tubing assigns polarity. I discovered my ground strap was gone, so I redid that as well, but made it with spade terminals for easy removal. And while I was replacing my ground strap, I also discovered my negative cable was damaged in the theft attempt. They cut half way through the thickness of the cable, with whatever tool they used, then gave up when they saw the studs inside. Anyway, here it is.

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I'll try to get a close-up pic of the colour coded cables next time.

Next up, the detachable shore power cord. I had to pull the full length of cord out and cut it off about 18 inches long. Removed the old mouse hole. Then I had to strip 6 inches of sheathing, then strip the wires.

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Chose an adapter plate that would cover the old mouse hole. I guess there's more than one size? Anyway, that had to go on first. Fed the wires through the rear cover then installed into the plug. Everything was colour coded.

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Fed the cable back into the hole, started the new stainless machine screws into the holes through the thick rubber gasket. Fit everything nicely, then tightened the screws. Clear rtv silicone around the adapter plate to seal up the gaps.

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With the rest of the cord, and in the rest of the kit, was what I had left to work with to finish the conversion. What it came down to was basically putting a new end on an extension cord, but for 30 amp rv service with a twist lock on it. First, I had to put the handle/cover on the cable, then I had to remove the sheathing, strip the wires, insert and secure into the colour coded holes, then tighten up the handle and cover.

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Leftover cable waiting for the new end
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90% done
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Cable all done.

 

Now for the surge protector. I used the space in the bathroom under the sink, since that's there the cord used to go. I took out the junction box, and used the surge controller in its place, wiring it up as per the instructions.

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It wasn't going to fit very nicely in there, even with the extra 18 inches of cable left over. And I was a bit concerned about water leakage in the unlikely event of an over pressure condition, so I took the cable storage box apart, ran the wires through the recess, and put up one of the box walls back up.

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All that was left was the small display module, that shows the status of the electrical management system. I drilled a half inch hole in the bottom of the "useable" cabinet, ran the data cable through it, and mounted the module on the wall inside the cabinet.

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Since I don't have an operational generator right now, and we won't be going to a full hookup site until at least late August, I won't know if it actually works. But it's cheap insurance, provided I wired it correctly. Actually, if I didn't wire it properly, it won't connect, so at least I'm safe that way. Hehe.

Anyway, that's it for now. I think any more upgrades will probably be two more solar panels, but that won't be for a couple years. Thanks for reading my long, drawn out article.

 

Joe, when I start into solar, I may lean on you a bit for design tips, but that will be a bit into the future, for now.

When we bought our new-to-us 2005 Fleetwood 250RKS last year, that Marinco kit was one of the very first things I did to it. Still one of the best mods.

This spring I added the EMS-HW30C and display. I mounted the EMS in the space that the 30-amp cable previously pushed into for storage, right behind the power panel. The display went on the back wall of the clothes closet that's above the power panel.

The only other thing I have done with the 110-volt circuits is to add a dedicated breaker and pigtail out the back of the power panel for the WFCO converter. I, too, re-labeled the breakers so it now reads correctly.

Eventually, I'd like to replace the WFCO with a Progressive Dynamics unit, but that too, is in the future.

Pop

 

I'm restoring a 1972 Banner Motor home, and Joe looks like the go to guy for this part of my project.......

 

Joe? Be careful of combining an antenna booster with any kind of sat or cable connection. They don't go well together.

The reason is because SAT TV systems supply power on the center conductor of the coax cable to the heads on the dish (12 volts) and a plain old antenna booster like you find in most "OFF AIR" TV antenna systems in RV's have amplifiers of their own that BOOST the signal on the center conductor.

Any such booster should be removed if you are running Satellite TV. They are commonly found as a wall-plate like device where a TV would normally be connected, and run in line with the wire/coax to the ordinary blade-type antenna on most RV roofs.

They have an on/off switch on the wall plate, and a pair of LED indicators (green and red) to indicate if they are turned on.

~ Those two systems should be completely separated

If this means you have to run ONE wall plate for the SAT, and a separate one for the BLADE ANTENNA - that's what should be done, so that the two can never be cross-connected

Otherwise the antenna booster could try to amplify a full 12 volts DC, and that could be seriously bad...


The way the SAT TV system works is to amplify the signal from the satellite (several Gigahertz) so that it actually travels down the coax between the outer braid (ground) and the center conductor - like a microwave wave guide. The actual satellite signal is not on the copper center conductor, but travels instead through the white di-electric portion of the coax, for complicated reasons. High frequency RF is a very strange and weird thing to try to describe....

But the old fashioned BLADE antenna receives a signal directly, and the amplifier tries to increase it's strength...

If instead of a weak signal, the blade amp gets a full twelve volts - guess what happens?

 

Although I never intend to get satellite tv for our trailer, that's good to know. Thanks Dutch.

 

Roger that - I remembered that from back when, and it is very good to know and avoid!

 

I've got a working generator now. An older Generac C4000 with a B&S 8 hp engine.

I fired it up, plugged my trailer cord into the generator, and started the air conditioner. My EMS immediately cut power to the trailer, because the a/c drew too much.

Turns out, the generator carb just needed some fine tuning. I turned the a/c off, started the generator, adjusted the carb, then ran into the bathroom to check the EMS. Everything looks good. Started the a/c, and it ran for however long it was, maybe 10 minutes until I turned it off.

The reason the EMS cut power was because when the a/c cycled on, the generator voltage dropped to below 100 vac, way too low for any sensitive electronics. When the load disappeared, voltage came back up, and the a/c tried to start again, thus the vicious cycle.

But adjusting the fuel brought it up enough that with the a/c on, voltage was around 103-106 vac.

I'll probably get an inverter generator sometime in the future, but for now, I'm good to go. But I've been researching propane conversion kits too, so we'll see.

Plans to use the generator are sparingly.

 

An inverter generator is the way to go. Many of the small generators that you find on job sites warn against plugging sensitive equipment into them like computers or phone chargers. It's one thing to run a grinder, but entirely different to running a computer.

 

Was just talking about this with my wife on my drive home today, since my generator is a heavy bastard. Definitely looking into getting an inverter generator, most likely 2000 watt, and a "hard start capacitor" for the air conditioner.

Really though, for the times I'd want to use the generator, it would only be if it's pouring rain and my solar panels aren't getting any sun. So if I'm only doing that, I could really just get a regular 1500 watt with the 12 volt charging port already incorporated into it. But then, those are still noisy as heck, and I'm back in the same situation I'm in now.