I am contemplating adding either a Victron 15 amp dc to dc battery charger or a Victron IP65 charger 15 amp to my existing RV setup. I have a Travel trailer I pull with a Nissan Titan that has a power outlet in the truck bed that can provide 400 watts of AC and is controlled by a dash switch. It would be fairly easy to just plug in the IP65 charger and run a wire to my trailer to be able to just hit the switch when driving and supplement my power to my batteries. But maybe I would be better off for some reason to get the.dc to dc charger and run my own wire from the battery of the truck to the back and then connect my trailer to supplement my power? I realize that with the IP65 charger I am converting from DC to AC back to DC and the efficiency is not what a dc to dc charger could provide but the end result seems to br 15 amps dc going to my batteries either way or am I missing something? Who knows, maybe the Alaska Summer sun will provide all of the solar power I will need…..
Victron dc to dc or IP65 charger?
- Thread starter JimmyMac
- Start date
In my F-350 I have the factory inverter, rated for a max of 400 watts. It's a MSW inverter, not PSW (pure sine wave). Some electronics work with it, some don't. The output of the inverter changes depending upon if the vehicle is moving or not. It's odd but the inverter puts out 400 watts when in park, but only 300 watts when in drive. I bring this up as it's something you should verify with your inverter.
400 watts at 120vac is just a bit over 3 amps. That's not much. However, the IP65 charger can go as low as 4 amps on the DC side, so you can throttle the device back to fit what you think the inverter can actually handle.
I lean toward using the Victron DC-DC charger. Keep in mind that the amp rating is on the output side, not the input side. The input amps will likely be higher than 15, perhaps up to 20 amps, so plan your cabling with that in mind.
My RV does not use the charge from the 7-pin for my LiFePO4 battery bank. The 640 watts of PV on the roof keeps my batteries charged just fine.
400 watts at 120vac is just a bit over 3 amps. That's not much. However, the IP65 charger can go as low as 4 amps on the DC side, so you can throttle the device back to fit what you think the inverter can actually handle.
I lean toward using the Victron DC-DC charger. Keep in mind that the amp rating is on the output side, not the input side. The input amps will likely be higher than 15, perhaps up to 20 amps, so plan your cabling with that in mind.
My RV does not use the charge from the 7-pin for my LiFePO4 battery bank. The 640 watts of PV on the roof keeps my batteries charged just fine.
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Thanks so much! I never thought about the possibility that the truck inverter could be MSW and not pure. The dash switch says 400 watts on top but 150 on the bottom. I am going to head to Alaska in June and I do have 840 watts of solar on the roof charging 3 100ah Rebel lithium batteries. I guess I should assume there will be enough sunlight during the Summer months up there to take care of my power needs. This is the second time you have helped me on this forum, so thanks again.
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