Understanding 2004 Eagle electrical system.

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Toddhom

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I recently purchased a 2004 Eagle. The prior owner didn't use shore power nor did they have their truck battery hooked up. The camper has a Sharp 80 watt solar panel charging an Optima D34M battery that was installed at a later date. The only power requirements the camper has are the existing lights and an exhaust fan I just installed. The solar panel system is simple. The wires from the panel go to an ASC controller that then goes to the battery. Now here's the part I don't understand. This camper was never set up for solar. The solar battery is installed behind the ice box. They did this because the camper is "pre-wired" for a refrigerator. They used the unused refrigerator wiring to supply 12 volt power to the fuse buss at the refrigerator 25 watt fuse location. I'm wondering why they didn't just connect the power from the battery to the top of the fuse buss at the same location where the truck battery connects to the fuse buss. I'm not sure what will happen when I connect the truck battery. I'm also certain I will be putting in a larger solar panel system because I want a refrigerator. I'm going to need the refrigerator fuse location when I install a refrigerator. Also if I hook up the truck battery wont it end up over charging my solar battery? I hope this is written in a way that can be understood.
 
Um, a bit confusing. I think you want your truck battery to charge the camper battery when you are driving. You'll probably want an isolater (a lot of Blue Sea users on this forum including me). Now, what to do w/ the solar. If your Eagle is like mine, the camper battery is under the bench seat. You'll need all that area where the current battery is for your refrig (assuming you'll put it there).

I'm guessing they wired it the way it is for easy install of the solar. I'm not sure how many amps a solar panel puts out but when you hook up your truck system 25A probably won't work and the fuse will blow (esp. when the solar and truck are both charging the camper battery). I can't remember what amp fuses I use but it seems like it's more than that plus you need rather think guage wire from truck to the camper battery.

If you have the right isolator, etc. you won't overcharge the camper battery and it'll protect your truck battery from discharge.

You're going to need to do some new wiring and most of it isn't difficult except for figuring out how to get he solar wiring to the new location for the camper battery via the controller (which you can put under the bench seat or other location where you can see it).

I'm not sure if that helps at all.
 
I don't think my camper was ever designed to have a solar panel or an auxiliary battery. Looks to me like the 110 and the 12 volts systems are completely separate. There is no kill switch or battery separator. Looks like the 110 has only one interior receptacle and nothing more. It gets its 110 power from the shore power connection on the outside of the truck. The 12 volt fuse block however has 6 separate fuses for lights, furnace, refrigerator, etc. I want to hook up my truck battery to the camper and I'm not sure how I should do that seeing as how the only battery I have now is the one powered by the solar panel.
 
You should have a converter. Take the 110 and converts it to 12v. Easy to check, plug in, make sure the main power switch is on see if the lights work. Mine also wasn't designed for solar or camper battery but it was easy enough to wire.
 
I also need to understand how, that if I plug my shore power in will it charge my auxiliary battery.
 
Craig 333,

Not sure I have a converter although you would think so. What does it look like? Anybody in the Los Angeles area who understands this stuff that could help me to understand it.
 
Unless it was shell you should have an Iota DLS-30 converter which also charges the battery (how well depends on if it has the IQ4 module).
 
Do you have a 110 cord in a compartment on the outside of the camper? Is there a red pull/push switch low on the cabinets near the entrance door? If so that is the main power switch and I am pretty sure there will be a power converter.

The converter is usually mounted behind the cabinet panel on the driver side. In our camper if I lay down on the floor and look up under the cabinet I can see the converter to the left of the fuse box which is mounted in the the cabinet inside the sliding doors at the bottom (need a flashlight).
 
I had a long talk with Aaron at FWC. He is really a great guy who spends time with you. My truck does not have a converter. It’s as I’ve described. 2 separate systems. One 110 and another for 12 volt. The 110 is energised by the shore power connection and powers one 110 receptacle. The 12 volt is powered by the auxiliary battery. It is wired to the fuse block in a really funky way. It sounds what I need to do is buy a battery separator. Runs the wires from both the truck and auxiliary batteries to the separator then from the separator to the fuse block. Do people think I should also buy a converter to allow the shore power to supply 12 volts as well. What devices do people recommend?
 
I do have a toggle switch at the entry door but it seems to control the power to the rear light. I don’t think it’s a kill switch.
 
Toddhom,

Depending on how you plan to camp, it may be cheaper to add a 110 v Ac to 12 v DC converter and a battery separator than upgrading your solar to say a minimum of 200 W with a good controller and a 100 Ah LiFePO4 battery

The places we like to camp typically have no power available so we have 200 W of Solar (which I plan to upgrade to >300 W) and a battery bank with about 100 Ah of usable power. That is typically sufficient for a few days of camping even in cloudy/shady conditions without draining the batteries down too far. Our refrigerator is 3-way and on most trips only running on propane.

However, whenever we camp in an established campground with 110 V power available we plug the camper in and we switch the refrigerator over to 110 v. I have the IQ-4 dongle on the DLS-30 110 v Ac to 12 v DC converter but I don't trust it as much as I do my Victron Solar controller so I don't plug the camper into 110 v for long periods of time.

I have upgraded most of the interior and exterior bulbs to LEDs so the main 12 v power draw sources are the Fantastic fan, heater fan, refrigerator fan, water pump (which we only turn on when using water) and the remaining 12 v fluorescent lights. We tend to not run the fans much. I plan to replace the fluorescent fixtures with LEDs soon.

The key for us to confidently operate mainly on 12 v is having the solar and battery capacity along with the Victron battery monitor. We can ration power if we notice we are pulling more power than the solar is making up each day.

Most of the time the camper is not connected to the truck 12 V (truck has a different kind of battery so I like keeping it isolated from the solar charging). I do have a pigtail connector setup that I can use to readily connect the camper to the truck and I have a BlueSea ACR installed in the truck.

Regards,

Craig
 
At the very least for now I would like to hook up my truck battery to the camper and install a separator. Any recommendations.
 
My Eagle is a 2002. The wiring for the camper is pretty simple. Battery is placed under the bench at the front passenger side. The truck is connected to the battery through an isolator located on the wall next to the battery. The wiring from the truck is 12 gauge romex from the truck battery routed along the firewall then down underneath the truck to a (I think Marinco) female connector installed in the side of the truck bed, passenger side. The male connector is attached to 12 gauge romex that goes through the side of the camper to the isolator, then to the battery. The connection to the fuse panel from the battery is dorky but may be factory: 12 gauge romex through the front wall of the camper, across to the driver side where it reenters the camper and comes out inside the cabinet, over the propane box, and finally connects to the fuse panel. The prewiring for the fridge is coiled up in the fridge compartment and may be heavy enough for a compressor fridge (looked like 14 gauge to me). It might work to connect the solar to the feed from the battery to the fuse panel and you figure out where to put the controller since it sounds like the solar is already in that neighborhood. I chose to bring the solar down off the roof to a plug near the battery so I could put the controller next to the battery and have the "factory" wiring do the distribution. It isn't as pretty as running the solar through the roof and down the inside of the camper to the battery, but it works. I kept the 110V circuit separate but put an outlet in for a fridge (I put in a 3 way). There was no converter in the camper to convert 110V to 12 V.
 
Toddhom said:
I don't think my camper was ever designed to have a solar panel or an auxiliary battery. Looks to me like the 110 and the 12 volts systems are completely separate. There is no kill switch or battery separator. Looks like the 110 has only one interior receptacle and nothing more. It gets its 110 power from the shore power connection on the outside of the truck. The 12 volt fuse block however has 6 separate fuses for lights, furnace, refrigerator, etc. I want to hook up my truck battery to the camper and I'm not sure how I should do that seeing as how the only battery I have now is the one powered by the solar panel.
Click to expand...
I doubt it as I'm not sure there was much solar used in 2004 and certainly mine doesn't have the wiring (2002). As someone else mentioned, that switch near the back door is for the outside light. I have one outlet too and frankly, don't use it much. I wired some usb ports to the camper battery and put them into the front of the bench seat. I put a cigarette lighter outlet too; so many things plug into those. Oh, if you have a 3-way refrig and are plugged into shore power, you can switch the frig to 120V. If you use the 12V setting your battery will be dead in a short time; refrig pulls a lot of power. I've never tried switching it to 12V while driving (charging the camper battery while the refrig is discharging); might work if the battery can be charged faster than the refrig draw. With your solar you might be good. Lots of postings on how to do the truck to camper battery already so I won't comment other than to say use really thick wire to the camper, use an inline fuse, ground it all and get a good battery isolator.
 
Toddhom,

https://www.bluesea.com/support/articles/58/Battery_Isolators_and_Automatic_Charging_Relays

and

http://info.waytekwire.com/blog/battery-isolators-vs.-automatic-charging-relays-acrs-thursday-throwdown

I replaced a Surepower isolator with the 7622 in my truck. I normally keep it disconnected. Mainly because the battery in the truck is a 12 V regular FLA and the camper batteries are 12 V AGM Deep Cycle with different float voltage.

I like that I can jump start the truck from the camper battery bank if I need to by use of the manual switch which I mounted low in my dash just below the headlight switch and above the emergency brake release.
 
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