Cajunwolf
Solar Enthusiast
I think you have hit the nail on the head.... At this point I knew what was happening...
These were thermal breakers and one of the problems with thermal breakers is the intentionally create a current choke point designed to heat up a piece of spring steel... The spring steel heats up, The temper changes, a disconnect takes place the problem is is their intentionally making the connection worse in order to affect this temperature change
To make matters even worse the lugs really aren't appropriately sized for moving 300 amps or in your case 400 amps
So I figured it was time to do this right I pulled the breaker from service and doubled up on the 1/0 gauge wire, keep in mind 21/0 gauge lines is the equivalent of a 4/0 gauge line as they have the same cross section
So I ran 2, 1/0 gauge wires to the inverter negative and then on the positive side each one of them had a 200 amp ANL fuse
Now I can effectively hit the battery with 400 amps and since I already knew that I could operate on 200 amps even if one line went down there was enough there to operate best part is the ANL fuse has a significantly wider connection point than any breaker I've ever seen and they're cheaper and way more reliable
Needless to say I haven't had any issues... I have even ran the A/C for a small period of time
@ds0078 I mean, four batteries in parallel, each with its own 200amp BMS, should be able to handle that load. That's 800AH, dang. Four batteries at half draw putting out 100amps each comes to 400amps. I've run your load on some cheap 100AH batteries hastily duct-taped together with decrepit wiring hanging in the bilge and questionable fuses/breakers in a pinch. LoL, I had an old twin screw with two Detroits, 6-71s. Would you mind keeping this thread updated as to what you find? That or shoot me a PM.
I've been following these threads because I just purchased 3-12V 200AH Chins batteries and waiting on UPS. Why? I know three fellow RV'ers here in Houston who have had Chins since April or May and are as happy as a pig in a poke with them. I know a fellow in Galveston who has a 300amp in his sailboat, same. I read that some folks have had bad luck here and in other forums, but no matter the product, you will have some bad with the good; nothing is perfect. Also, I'm a retired old fart and on a limited budget. With that being said, I plan to hook them up in parallel for 600AH at 12VDC. I'm powering a 1988 28-foot class C RV on an E350 chassis; she's not big, and my most significant load will be the overhead A/C at 9-13 amps/, which will be intermittent. The rooftop is primarily for when plugged into shore power. I have a 6k BTU window unit in the back for running on batteries. It draws max 3-4 amps/400watts. I also have a small microwave but low power.
It looks like I might be the next Chins lab rat.
After reading all of these posts and others, I want to run the batteries to a heavy busbar and from there to the inverter via fuse/breaker. The only drawback I see is using three fuses, one for each battery. Costly but beats a choke point. Thoughts?
Being I have the batteries out of the way, I'm looking at inverters 3-3.5kw PSW, charge controllers, panels, and chargers, along with fuses and breakers. Any suggestion would be appreciated. It's not that I'm needing 3 to 3500 watts, but I have it if I do. The RV has a 30A 120 VAC (3600 watts) electrical system.