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2) Not sure I get the ground wire breaker thing myself. I haven't seen/done that myself. Vic, A fuse or breaker in the negative wire protects the conductor/wire. There are various scenarios where the negative wire can become a serious hazard. A fuse on the positive side will sufficiently...

You likely are not getting sufficient amperage and/or voltage off of the truck. You need a thick wire for that run. 4 AWG is a good choice. Then you need at least a quality battery separator, such as the Blue Sea ACR, or a DC-DC charger (best option). You really need to install a decent...

Nice truck. Great year Duramax and Allison.

Any ideas about "floating" a battery come from FLA/AGM/GEL batteries, which lose voltage at rest. Lithium batteries don't need a "float" stage. If you want to power your electronics off of solar or your AC charger, etc., that's fine, but you would ideally just charge your LiFePo4 battery fully...

Pick a breaker that fits your individual system and needs. If you are charging straight off of your truck without a DC-DC charger and have a large enough wire, you will likely be pushing more amps than is healthy for your battery. 25 amps is a maximum safe charge to push into a single 100 AH AGM...

Different devices definitely have their own specific threshold of "minimum" voltage. I don't know what type of AC charger you have. If your battery is completely dead, you might need a different charger to try to bring it back to life. Sounds like you need an inline shunt-based monitor in your...

As Vic suggests, run the cables off of the truck battery, or second truck battery if you have one. Don't run directly off of the alternator. Put a breaker or fuse on the + line, at least. Both wires is preferred. 4 AWG is likely plenty, unless you are pushing a ton of amps. You probably...

Vic, I think you are recommending the 285 series breakers? They are very good, as well. I like the 187 series because of the location of both studs on the bottom, as well as the fact that they are designed to be used as a switch, in addition to the breaker functionality.

Good breakdown from Vic. I ran 4 AWG pure copper welding wire, myself. Terminated at an Anderson-style connector driver side front inside the truck bed. Then replaced the stock 4WC wiring inside the camper with the same wire, leading into two Blue Sea 187-series 100A breakers/switches. At that...

Likely a negative/ground issue. I had an issue with a negative/common run in my Grandby. There were multiple wires poorly tied in to a single run. I ended up pulling a lot of it out and re-wiring all of the individual negatives back to a common bus bar behind the fuse panel.

Nice rig!

Durango1's advice is good. You can find all of the dimensions for each truck you're researching online. You'll probably have to build a platform underneath the camper. Definitely check out the Chevy/GMC 3/4 or 1 ton if you're planning on buying a hard-sided camper in the future.

It comes apart easily. New small blocks underneath (plastic scrap pieces work well) and 3M 4200 sealant will get you back in business.

Redarc specifically states that that charger does not work with LiFePo4 batteries. For the same amount of money, you can get a Sterling that is fully programmable.

Note that, as mentioned above, the BlueSea relays will not disconnect the batteries until the Lithium is fairly low, dropping below 13.0V.

Both of the Renogy DC-DC chargers I had would continuously and randomly shut off when trying to charge Lithium batteries. Renogy customer service is terrible. You wait on hold for a long time and just talk to some kid who has no idea what they are talking about and reads back a script from a...

LiFePo4 is definitely the way to go if you can foot the upfront cost for both the battery and getting both chargers inline. Sounds like you have the solar controller situation handled. Do you charge off of the truck as well? If so, you'll have to figure that setup out. Most battery isolators...

Thanks. Thankfully, the smoke smell has almost completely cleared out already.

Thanks Paul. I have been entertaining the idea of installing fuses at both battery terminals. I'm taking this opportunity to "upgrade" quite a few areas of the electrical system in my camper. The main negative line was the ONLY line. It was, quite obviously, undersized for the task. The main...

Thanks. I realized that the DP30 had a negative bus bar on the back. It was already full, which I imagine is the reason FWC decided to splice in so many other lines off of the main negative run. I decided to add a Blue Sea bus bar in the back of the space where the old AC IOTA charging unit was...

The only load at that time, that I'm aware of, was my inline meter. It is not connected anywhere near the area with the issue occurred. The only ground wire running between the battery and the back of the fuse box was the single 14 AWG wire. Very puzzling, I agree.

Good idea. I was very quick to disconnect the battery, but it still took over a minute.

Yes, I am referring to the IDP-30 distribution panel. The main ground wire between the battery and that panel is the wire that had the issue. Thanks for the links. As I stated in my first post, this "main" black negative wire running between the first "ground" terminal block (next to the water...

Neither. I had just parked and was not connected to shore power. I had not turned the DC main switch on yet. However, the battery was still connected to everything before the distribution center, as it always is.

Just had an electrical fire in my 2006 Grandby. Thankfully had just parked, climbed in the camper and popped the top when smoke started billowing out of the cabinets from just about every opening. Main power switch was OFF. Took me over a minute to disconnect the negative battery cable...