Battery/Inverter Upgrade - 1

[dreamchasers]

A few Poggers are aware that January was a very busy month with numerous upgrades to my coach. All upgrades are aimed at increasing reliability and managing obsolescence issues. With Country Coach being auctioned off within the next few weeks, the timing is perfect.

The first upgrade is the replace my worn and tired batteries. All batteries were first removed, then the inverters, then the case was removed for sandblasting and repainting.

I will post several post to show pictures of work. The forum only allows five pictures per post. I think?

6020
The picture above shows the inverter bay with batteries being removed. Note the Freedom 2500 inverters, the original inverters

6021
After removing all batteries, I glanced up under the top of the battery case. You can see by the rusted bolt, the battery case was a failure about to happen. The rusted bolt is one of the 12 volt taps that goes through the case and provides 12 volts to one of the inverters. Not good!

6022
All the batteries and inverters removed. Years of charging flooded batteries have taken its toll.

6023
The battery case is stripped and almost ready for removal.

6024
Battery case being removed. Case is half way out. This sucker is heavy, so have plenty of help.

More pictures to come.

Hector

[HarborBus]

Looks like your doing a great job Hector. the compartment isn't as bad as I would have imagined after 15 years. Looking forward to seeing the finished product. Carry on.:D

[dreamchasers]

6025
After the inverter case was removed, the rear of the case was rusted also because of a water leak.

6026
After sandblasting and painting the case look good. Here is a shot of the new Magnum Energy inverters being fitted.

6027
All battery cables were upgraded to Excelon welding cable with MIL spec heat shrink. Note the original Country Coach on the right with the light duty lug using electrical tape of heat shrink. The new lugs were heavy duty clad coated copper. Very nice!

6028
Battery case was "dry fitted" in the inverter bay.

6029
Here is a shot of the battery case, mounted, with new inverters being mounted.

[truk4u]

Nice job Hector!;)

[dreamchasers]

6030
The finished product. All new inverters, Magnum Energy units. New Lifeline batteries installed in a fresh case. The inverters work great and came on line with no troubleshooting.

6031
The East Texas Electrical Inspector cam by to inspect the on going work. We were ticketed for not having a permit for the modification. Also, he checked our handy work for accuracy. He gave us an approved POG inspection sticker. (Most know Loc as a fellow Pogger who happened to be in the neighborhood.)

I am sure a few articles will result from all these upgrades. I will post about the other upgrades as time permits.

Hector

[MangoMike]

Hector,

Nice job on the upgrade.

I especially like the attention to detail in the Excelon welding cables.

Mike

[phorner]

Hector,

Your upgraded compartment looks great!

Did your new inverters have the same "footprint" as your old Freedom 25's?

[Pete]

Hector, it looks great!
As usual, inspector "KILOWATT" shows up AFTER the work is done!

[Denny]

Hector, Great job!

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Very nice Hector, thanks for the picture post.

*

[tdelorme]

First class, Hector, looks like the quality of work even Kevin would approve.
Now load up and burn some diesel.

So, Mike, is Friday night still Margarita Night? Thought so.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Great job Hector. Is it possible the corrosion was in part a result of lead acid batteries being in there at one time?

[dreamchasers]

Paul,

The footprint of the Magnums are simular, but not the same as the 2500s. As I recall, the Magnums are a little larger in all dimensions, however, they fit my applications fine.

Jon,

I agree that some of the rust in the battery case was caused by flooded batteries gassing while charging in the past. What a mess! The rust on the rear of the battery case was from a small leak in my shower drain that was corrected during this upgrade.


I let the coach sit for a couple of days with minimum loads and the battery voltage was at 12.6 Volts when I plugged in the power. Previously, the coach could not sit for more than 8 hours without the battery voltage dropping to 12.0 volts. When I checked the batteries I removed, two batteries measured 80% available, the remaining six were from 50% to dead.

It was time for new batteries.

Hector

[phorner]

Hector,

What about monitoring the new magnums? Could you use any of the hardware/wiring from the old inverters or did you need to replace all of that as well?

Once again, great job on the upgrade, and thanks for taking the time to document with pictures!

[sawdust_128]

Hey Hector,

That is a great looking job. One question. Did you use any kind of a special paint for the battery cage? I was toying with the idea of pulling my batteries, cleaning the holding area and spraying it down with either truck bed liner or undercoating.

I had some second thoughts about this because I could easily see that increasing the friction to make sliding batteries around nearly impossible.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated?

[garyde]

A nice project. How about the monitors inside the coach. Did you replace the monitors and the wiring to them.
Isn't it just like an inspector to show up after all of the work is done.
Good job.