EVC house battery charger/converter

[fastcj]

I recently bought a 99 Eurovan camper. I noticed low voltage issues with the auxiliary battery. I finally determined that the shore power was not charging the battery at all, even though it was providing power to the 110 AC outlets. The aux battery does take a charge from the starter battery while driving, which indicates the solenoid is working. So, it looks like it's time to replace the charger, which I assume is the original Magnatek. (I haven't pulled it out yet).

What do folks recommend for a modern replacement charger? The ProMariner ProSport sold by GoWesty has some bad reviews. I've got a 12v 65ah battery.

I am wondering what your thoughts are on adding solar power and an inverter for 110 AC off the battery?

[steve2sloth]

Hi there! This all sounds very familiar. When I got my EVC the shore power was not charging my house battery though it was charging from driving. A mechanic found a short in the wire just behind the shore power plug on the side of the van. Very poor wire crimp insulation. He found it by noticing a very small grey discoloration coming off the top top of the shore power plug cover, like a smoke stain.

With that fixed I got a cheap new 100ah flooded house battery which worked ok for a while til I started wanting more power for an electric fridge that I swapped in. I've got a post with pics of that project... doesn't look stock AT ALL but it's hassle free and keeps my food colder. That led me to put 3x100w solar panels on the roof, solar charger in the closet, a 200ah AGM battery, and some other doodads. Having just completed all of that work I can't say if it was all worth it.

To me, the fridge and bigger battery are huge improvements and I have no regrets. The solar setup on the other hand makes the popup heavy, but still manageable, and takes up some closet space... yes it works great and I have no power issues anymore (I don't use an inverter yet but I plan to put one under the bench seat) but honestly the car alternator produces so much power that I'd have plenty if I ran the motor for an hour, probably driving somewhere, and it would be cheaper and less work. Hard to say, but I wanted a project so I got one

[mstroob]

I replaced the Magnatek with a intelligent charger from Progressive Designs. I am pretty sure I used the PD9245. It takes a bit of disassembly to get to the Magnatek but nothing difficult. I referred to https://1705.net/converter-upgrade/ which provided quite a bit of detail on the job. I recall that I needed to drill some holes in the floor for mounting the new unit, but other than that, really straight forward. With the cost of batteries, I wanted to have an intelligent charger and this one seems to do the job well. Some have gone the combo charger/converter route which is a bit more expensive but for some, it had some advantage. I chose to locate a separate inverter next to the fridge. Good luck. The Magnatek looks like WWII surplus when along side a modern charger.

[fastcj]

I found the description of the Progressive Dynamics converter installation too. It sounds like you are happy with yours, so I will probably go that route. I have also determined that my battery is toast. As best I can tell, it is 5 years old. (I hate it when they don't scratch out the little date decal numbers)

[fastcj]

I installed the Progressive Dynamics PD9245 today. I followed the instructions from the blog mentioned above: https://1705.net/converter-upgrade/

Even with those detailed instructions I was baffled for a while by two problems: 1) the wire from the charger doesn't go straight to the battery, and 2) there is an extra wire that didn't make sense.

That there wasn't any continuity between the house battery and the charger turned out to be because I'd taken off the nut on the insulated bolt that holds multiple hot wires together. In my van this was screwed into to the leg of the black bracket that holds the furnace above the charger. This did not need to be taken apart, just unscrewed from the bracket, so the bracket can be pulled out. Thankfully, David the Eurovan Hacker provided instructions for the removal of the extra wire for "filtered" power from the old Magnetek to the fuse panel and the placement of a bus across all four fuses instead of just three. I never would have figured that out on my own.

I ended up pulling the rear black furnace bracket out too. I needed to drill new holes into it to remount the 110 AC outlet on the inside of the outlet. The outlet is now forward facing rather than rear facing. I also routed all the wires inside the bracket leg and this cleaned up the wires in the area where the sprayer hose hangs. I can now pull the hose out much further as it is no longer getting hung up on electrical wires [what a poor design!].

Now my battery is getting a full charge from shore power and all the systems appear to be working.

[JasCosta]

Thank you for the great pictures and explanations!

We recently purchased a 2002 EVC, and are looking to upgrade the AC to DC charger/converter as well. How do you determine the size of the replacement charger/converter?

It appears that the old unit is 20 Amps, while the replacement unit is 45 Amps. Does this present any problems, and/or how big could you go with the replacement unit?