Manual Control over the factory ACR: I want to be able to force the camper to stay separated from the truck batteries under certain conditions. I'm currently running 4 AGM batteries total, two in the camper and two under the hood of the truck. Currently I have 180W of solar on the roof and the solar charge controller will bring all 4 batteries up to 14.7V which is great for proper charge/maint on AGM batteries.
When I'm camping in the same spot for several days and not driving the vehicle and there is limited sun I want all the available charge from the solar controller going into the two camper batteries only, with limited sunlight I don't need any current going up to the truck batts. You can force the factory Blue Sea ACR off by disconnecting the ground wire going to the ACR. With the ground disconnected the ACR cannot sense voltage on either battery bank and will go open, thereby disconnecting the battery banks and separating the camper batteries from the truck batteries.
Since I have my ARB fridge located over the access door to the ACR it makes it inconvenient to access the ARC and lift the ground wire.....Time to install a switch. This morning I installed a Blue Sea Manual ACR switch that I can easily access without moving the fridge, with the switch located in this position I can reach into the camper from the door and turn the ACR on of off in needed. The switch just connects/disconnects the factory ground wire going to the ACR.
Another option would be to replace the factory ACR with a Blue Sea M-ACR that has full manual control. With the M-ACR you can use the same switch I installed to force the ACR Off, On or place it in Automatic. With my power usage I don't expect the need to manually combine the truck aux batt with the camper batteries so the factory ACR and my manual switch should do the trick.
The Blue Sea M-ACR Switch. Any switch will do for this application, I already had this switch so I'll use it. I like that the rocker portion is guarded to resist against accidental switch changes and that if I decide down the road to install a M-ACR I'm all ready to go. Here I'm starting to fabricate a mounting plate for the switch, the wood is to thick for the switch to mount into so I'll fabricate a plate to attach the switch to then screw the plate onto the wood.
All painted up and ready to install.
Hole drilled in the wood and all mounted up. Switch is wired up to break the ground going to the ACR. You can see the rest of the factory spaghetti mess wiring here as well lol.
This location is easy to access and out of the way. It's nice having easy manual control of the ACR when needed.
Hodakaguy
When I'm camping in the same spot for several days and not driving the vehicle and there is limited sun I want all the available charge from the solar controller going into the two camper batteries only, with limited sunlight I don't need any current going up to the truck batts. You can force the factory Blue Sea ACR off by disconnecting the ground wire going to the ACR. With the ground disconnected the ACR cannot sense voltage on either battery bank and will go open, thereby disconnecting the battery banks and separating the camper batteries from the truck batteries.
Since I have my ARB fridge located over the access door to the ACR it makes it inconvenient to access the ARC and lift the ground wire.....Time to install a switch. This morning I installed a Blue Sea Manual ACR switch that I can easily access without moving the fridge, with the switch located in this position I can reach into the camper from the door and turn the ACR on of off in needed. The switch just connects/disconnects the factory ground wire going to the ACR.
Another option would be to replace the factory ACR with a Blue Sea M-ACR that has full manual control. With the M-ACR you can use the same switch I installed to force the ACR Off, On or place it in Automatic. With my power usage I don't expect the need to manually combine the truck aux batt with the camper batteries so the factory ACR and my manual switch should do the trick.
The Blue Sea M-ACR Switch. Any switch will do for this application, I already had this switch so I'll use it. I like that the rocker portion is guarded to resist against accidental switch changes and that if I decide down the road to install a M-ACR I'm all ready to go. Here I'm starting to fabricate a mounting plate for the switch, the wood is to thick for the switch to mount into so I'll fabricate a plate to attach the switch to then screw the plate onto the wood.
All painted up and ready to install.
Hole drilled in the wood and all mounted up. Switch is wired up to break the ground going to the ACR. You can see the rest of the factory spaghetti mess wiring here as well lol.
This location is easy to access and out of the way. It's nice having easy manual control of the ACR when needed.
Hodakaguy
