New Inteli-Power 9245 Converter/Charger

[scampva]

I recently just purchased a 1984 scamp and working on renovations from it sitting for 10 years. I need to replace the converter/charger. It currently has a 30amp inteli converter in it. Can I replace it with a Inteli-Power 9245 Converter/Charger 45 Amp 9200 w/ Charge Wizard? If yes, will I need to make any other changes when installing?

[RV Doctor]

Scampva. You should be fine to replace your 30A Intellipower to a 45A. Just ensure you keep the pos/neg polarity correct. Pretty simple changeout. Is you current charge converter a deck mount or internal in your power Center? If your current is in your power Center remove it and get 9200 45A deck mount which is outside the power center. Much better ventilation. Normally the PD Intellipower charge converts don’t fail. I always say that “I take out all other CCs and put in the PD! Good Luck! Post a pic or two for posterity!

[V'sGlassSleeper]

Scampva,

I recently replaced my 30A AC/DC Converter Charger in my 1988 Bigfoot B19 and was strongly advised by several fiberglassrv forum members, two technicians, and the manufacturer of the new AC/DC Charger to NOT install anything greater than a 35A AC/DC Converter Charger, as more than 5 AMPs over the original capacity could overload my travel trailer wiring, creating a potential short circuit or fire hazard.

So I purchased and installed the Progressive Dynamics Intelli-Power 4135 pictured here: https://www.progressivedyn.com/rv/po...charge-wizard/

They have great technical support, and the most important thing is to clearly label your old wires before you disconnect them, so you know exactly what they are, what they powered, etc. Or have an RV electrician do it, but (other than replacing all my exterior and taillights and my 7-pin power cord) I have very little RV wiring experience and was able to do most of it myself. I ended up needing to have an RV tech verify that I had the proper grounding because I just wasn't sure about that part, because that did not directly match up with the original trailer wiring (I had to run two new bare copper grounding wires from the new unit and attach them to the chassis) but it turned out that I had actually done it correctly. The RV tech who checked my work said he only installs Progressive Dynamics because they are extremely reliable units and the company stands by their product and will replace anything that is not working properly.

If you have any questions at all, I highly recommend calling Progressive Dynamics. Their product support is outstanding and they will gladly answer your questions prior to your purchasing anything. That's what I did and I am very glad to have not bought anything that would require rewiring the whole trailer. Good luck with your project!

[Alex Adams]

Originally Posted by V'sGlassSleeper

I recently replaced my 30A AC/DC Converter Charger in my 1988 Bigfoot B19 and was strongly advised by several technicians and the manufacturer of the new AC/DC Charger to NOT install anything greater than a 35A AC/DC Converter Charger, as more than 5 AMPs over the original capacity could overload my travel trailer wiring, creating a potential short circuit or fire hazard.

Kinda off topic, but my rudimentary understanding of how electricity works is that the amount of amps a circuit draws depends upon what is wired into the circuit regardless of how many amps the power source puts out. If you have a 20 amp draw on a circuit going to a power source pumping out 100 amps, it is still only 20 amps being drawn. If you fuse a circuit for 30 amps and draw more than 30 amps, the fuse will blow and no harm done to the wiring. In the situation above, the only place I can think of where the wiring may need to be changed would be the charge wiring to the battery, assuming the new converter sends 45 amps and not 30 amps to the battery. Am I missing something?

[Gattopuin64]

the converter/charger in my new 2017 16ft SD/FB is a PD9245C - 45 amp.

It seem that Scamp has up-grade the charger/converter to the 45 amp. So far I have had no problems. The charger and the built-in Charge Wizard is a nice addition. They also sell a Converter Status Remote Pendant so one can monitor the system.

Check Progressive web site or call direct and ask tech support for the recommender size converter/charger

[V'sGlassSleeper]

Certainly, if the original converter charger is a 45 AMP then I would imagine the travel trailer wiring is matched to that capacity, such as with the 2017 Scamp mentioned. The original poster's Scamp is a 1984 and my Bigfoot is a 1988, so these are much older travel trailers and may have different wiring capacities.

Again, I am not an electrical expert by any means, but my understanding from the precautions that I was given is that when people have a trailer wired for 30 AMPs but install a Power Panel (AC/DC Converter) which has more than 5 AMPs greater capacity than their original unit, they often forget about the original 30 AMP total capacity and add additional draws to the power because now they have the illusion of additional capacity when the original trailer wiring is still only meant for a 30 AMP total draw.

Perhaps the forum members who originally advised me on AMP capacity and safety concerns when replacing the AC/DC Converter Charger will chime in to help clarify. Meanwhile, it can't hurt for someone contemplating replacing their Power Panel to contact Progressive Dynamics with questions, because they manufacture some of the best-rated units and were happy to answer my questions, so can certainly be of some assistance to others in finding the most compatible replacement unit for their travel trailer.

Happy Trails!

[ststefan]

It's ok to add additional draws as long as they are wired and fused seperate.

[David Tilston]

45 amps * 12 VDC = 540 Watts.

540 Watts / 120 VAC = 4.5 amps

There are likely some efficiency losses, but any #14 wire is good for 15 amps. Or 3 times more then the converter will draw. If they used anything smaller then #14, I would be very surprised.

The shore power supply will be fused, (breaker?) at 15 amps. 10 additional amps on the 12 VDC side would result in 1 additional amp on the 120 VAC side. If that is a problem, you have much bigger concerns.

[RV Doctor]

Sounds like the potential concern is the converter to battery wire gauge size. If the gauge used in the 1984 Scamp was 10 gauge then the concern would be adding a converter of a higher amperage output could “overload” the 10 gauge (30 amp max) supply wire to charge the battery. If this was the concern, I can see why they would have discouraged more than a 5 amp increase in Charge Converter output. Although not textbook or perfect it certainly wouldn’t overload the circuit as the wire gauge determines the overall current supplied to the battery. Ideally it would have been a good idea to pull larger wires for faster charging current. That said, most new trailers which use typically 60-80 amp charge converters have #8 wire between the charge converter and the battery. #8 wire is rated to carry 40 amps at the distances we are speaking of. Point is that going from a PD9130 to a PD9245 is a very small change in overall charge capacity anyways. Once again, the wire size to the battery remaining #10 ga or 30 amps wouldn’t harm a thing. As others have mentioned here, if additional circuits are added, they would be fused at the power Center. The increase of the charge converter by 15 amps would neither overload the travel trailer wiring, Create a short circuit or a fire hazard. PD charge converters are fused outputs and along with the existing, properly fused circuits in the travel trailer, protect all wiring.

[David Tilston]

Thank you Tony. In your experience, how often would the charger get to 45 amps? I am assuming that the battery would have to be rather large, and flat dead.

[RV Doctor]

Hi David. Absolutely! If the battery at the A frame was 100 percent dead, the 45A charge converter is going to give it all it can take as determined by the wire gauge. Also, once power is applied to the dead battery, it’s voltage will rise quickly and thereby drop the charge rate. However the charge rate is still going to be determined by wire ampacity and gauge. Also, while some of the charge converter’s available power is going to the battery, there is also available power for interior circuits such as lighting, furnace, water pump etc. The charge converter can put out only so much power but the wire size and fused branch circuits determine what happens.
Example. I’ve installed hundreds of solar panels and have wired them to the solar controller and batteries with 10 gauge cable. 10 gauge for 30 amps. Mostly, the charge current is about 6-10 amps on an average 150W panel. Today, many solar systems are wired with 4 gauge cable carries approximately 80-100 amps on the distances involved. Most of the currents on a lot of these systems are up to 30A usually. The systems are typically around 30 amps which would be adequate at #10 wire but #4 wire is installed with little or no derived benefit. Manufacturers have adopted factory installations of #8 wire to give some increased capacity but still will handle 40 amps.

[ststefan]

I switched out our 30 amp charge converter to a 45 amp and added 6 gauge wires for charging. I also added a new 12 volt fuse box for the additional circuits. I didn't like the thin wiring in the boler for the fan so I also added 10 gauge wires for the max fan.