Cleaning up factory wiring

[memilanuk]

So... after spending what seemed like too much time removing cable clamps in awkward locations and *gently* slicing the tape holding wire bundles together... I've got a much better idea of what wires were going where, at least in terms of the factory wiring. Some of it makes sense now, and some of it... still doesn't.

I'm in the process of adding lithium and solar to a slide-in truck camper. I've got a whole lotta Victron stuff ready to go in - MultiPlus 12|2000|80, SmartSolar 100|50 MPPT, Orion 12|12|30, Lynx distributor, etc. The plan was to tap the #10 gauge 30 amp line for the 'house' DC distribution panel off one end of the Lynx, rather than use up a slot for such a small load.

Seems like there's a whole lot of wire that could be cut out of the OEM install, and not hurt/change anything significantly:

(the rolled up black & red wires are all the excess from the factory solar pre-wire)

Schematically, this is what it looks like:

(the upper right corner is where it lands in the house distribution panel)

Since I'm going with a DC-DC charger, fed separately by a dedicated #6 AWG line from the truck battery/alternator to a fused spot on the Lynx, I should be good to lose the one 'short stop' auto-reset circuit breaker that ties that in.

And since I have a whole big DC bus bar system with a dedicated Blue Sea battery disconnect and class T fuse, I probably don't need the old plunger style battery disconnect, or the umpteen feet of wire running back and forth between it and the short stop CBs and the DC distribution panel.

The install manual for the distribution panel (Progressive Dynamics PD4000 w/ 4045 converter) shows an option for having a jumper between the 'BATT +' terminal and 'DC DISC' terminal, if you aren't using a battery disconnect. I called PD, and the person I talked to said (they thought) that was to bypass the battery and feed the DC ckts from the converter... but that's not the way it's wired from the camper manufacturer. Right now, the black wire w/ white tape bypasses the battery disconnect, so the battery stays 'hot' from the charger even when the disconnect is off. The house DC loads are off, though.

I'm thinking that when I lift the leads and mothball the OEM charge converter in place, I may just put a jumper back in there, so when the main battery disconnect is off, *everything* is off, as expected. Probably keep one of the auto-reset CBs in line from the bus bar, just in case.

Unless there's something I'm over looking here...

 

[memilanuk]

BTT

 

[K8MEJ]

I don't know what you're asking. Please try to succinctly restate what you're looking for.

In my all Victron system, I used a 65 amp smart battery disconnect between my Lynx distributors and the existing DC fuse panel in the coach. I completely remove the existing PD dc converter. I kept the existing battery disconnect, but used small guage wire to remotely control the smart battery disconnect to power off all DC loads fed from the existing fuse panel. Some DC loads and sources are connected directly to the Lynx Distributors (i.e. inverter, MPPTs, etc) and a smaller fuse panel connected at the end of one of the Lynx Distributors for the electric brakes breakaway system, cooling fans, etc.)

I would suggest removing as much excess wire as you can to help with the voltage drop.

I don't know if that helps, but then again, I'm not sure what you're asking

 

[memilanuk]

Okay... the simplified version:

See all that wire, circuit breakers, and disconnect switch in the top pic? All that (excluding the coil of red & black wire) is the left hand side of the diagram in the second pic. I want to get rid of pretty much all of that, with the possible exception of one of the circuit breakers, to protect the wire coming from the new bus bar (Lynx distributor) to the existing house distribution panel.

Slightly more detail as to the 'why':

The middle CB won't have a function any more, as I'm disconnecting the wire from the 7-pin connector coming from the vehicle. It's being replaced with a #6 AWG wire (fused) coming from an Orion DC-DC charger to the Lynx distributor.

The OEM plunger style disconnect is being replaced by a Blue Sea disconnect and a 300A class T fuse between the new LFP batteries and the Lynx distributor. The ridiculous loops of wire going back and forth between the batteries, CBs, disconnect switch and the distribution panel are all going away, replaced with a much shorter run (maybe 2 feet, rather than 15-20) of the same size wire (the load panel hasn't changed size).

The OEM distribution panel, for whatever reason, has two spots to land a hot (positive) wire. One goes thru the disconnect, and says 'BATT +', and the other bypasses the disconnect and goes directly (I presume) to the loads from the converter. Optionally, the manual discusses, but does not show, a jumper between the two spots for landing the hot wire(s).

I'm proposing to make and install said jumper (since the factory presumably threw it away), to better accommodate the new system. Alternately, I may not even need to do that, as the OEM converter will be disconnected and mothballed in place - so all I really need is a wire direct to the 'DC load' terminal.