dwhyte Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 (edited) I'm replacing my original sunrader charge convertor with a progressive dynamics 4045. The 120/12 volt wiring is pretty straight forward, but I'm getting confused with the battery isolator solenoid wiring, and how exactly to connect the convertor to the batteries. The convertor has two wires that the manual says to connect straight to the house battery, which I'm assuming is the method used to charge the battery when connected to shore power and to draw power for boondocking operations. My question is in regards to the wires coming from the battery isolator solenoid. The original setup had a wire coming from the post as the house battery cable running into the convertor. In the picture you can see the large wire that ran to the house battery, and the smaller wire that ran to the convertor. Does the progressive dynamics convertor also connect to the solenoid, or is this just an outdated design? If it does connect, where? I can't figure out a place where it would. Edited July 25, 2013 by dwhyte Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 I'm not sure I understand the question. You've got an truck battery and a "house" battery. The relay in the photo connects the truck battery to the "house" battery in parallel when the igniton is on so both charge from the alternator. When the ignition is off, the two batteries are isolated. The wiring of the converter hooks to the house battery. Where you hook it in is your choice. I'd pick the shortest wire run. The postive lug on that relay that runs to the postive battery terminal on the house battery makes a longer wire run when drawing power from the battery. Thus hooking the converter directly to the house battery is probably the best way to go. Nothing "outdated" with the relay. It provides a simple and reliable way of separating the batteries so you can't accidentally drain the truck "cranking" battery. Yes, there are more convoluted "smart" relays and power centers with built in switch-overs. They are nice when they work and also more problematic to diagnose when they don't work. As I recall, the PD4000 series power-centers do not have any built-in isolator or switch-over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwhyte Posted July 25, 2013 Author Share Posted July 25, 2013 I think you answered my question even if you didn't understand it. The more I thought about it the more I figured that the isolator didn't need to be connected to the charge convertor at all. I think the old one was connected the way it was because at some point the old owners didn't have a house battery installed, so the running truck powered the 12 volt appliances like lights. The previous owners did a lot of interesting (dumb) wiring in this thing, so I can never tell what is factory and what is "aftermarket" Thanks for the response! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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