Swapping in Progressive Dynamics converter, with pix

[payaso del mar]

(Or, If the DOLT OF VOLTS can do it, you can too)

 

Our old Carson converter worked fine, but I couldn’t live with the buzz and the heat output. Progressive Dynamics seems to get really good reviews and also seems to be the one converter manufacturer in the USA (totally aside from any discussions on quality in other threads, I like in principle keeping my neighbors employed, especially if it costs about the same).  I’m posting this detail of the swap to encourage you that one need not have Totem’s electrical expertise or JD’s mechanical whizardry and reference library to pull this off without killing oneself or burning the toyhome to the ground. If anyone sees anything I’m doing wrong here, please jump in and correct me....I seem to learn a half dozen new things on motor homes every day since I got this thing!

First step is to disconnect the house battery negative terminals and any source of AC power. Then go to pulling the wires from old converter. There will be one AC wire coming in from the shore power plug and 2-3 or so coming out, and an unknown number of DC wires coming out.

next, track down what each AC wire is and mark it. I identified the "in" wire by plugging the shore power in for a moment after separating the leads widely and using a simple "hot circuit" tester. Then I temporarily connected a plug to each of the AC "out" wires in sequence via wire nuts and checked what was powered up when I plugged it in. In the case of the Bandit, there is one circuit for the A/C and one for the shore-power outlets and the fridge.

 

Then do the same for the DC wires....I used jumper wires from the house battery to test what each one powered.

Next----remove the old unit and check the hole. In my case, the new converter was both taller and less wide than the old one so some hole modification was needed. The white wire sticking up goes to vehicle chassis ground and is connected to the ground bar on new unit.

After the hole surgery.......

 

[payaso del mar]

 

The new unit dropped into place for a test fit.

You’ll find it easier if you feed the AC wires through the back of converter as you work it into place, rather than trying to install em after it’s in.

As long as I was sawing holes and wiring, I installed the charge controller at the same time.

[payaso del mar]

 

The converter doesn’t come with AC breakers so you’ll need to buy a few: a 30 amp main and ones for the branch circuits, usually 15 amp. These snap onto the buss bar (rails in the right half of the unit). Manual sets out compatible breakers, and I had no trouble finding the Square-D "HOM" series breakers at local Ace Hdwe.

The black wire of the AC input goes to the 30 amp main breaker (furthest one left in pic) and this then energizes the buss bar, which in turn feeds the juice to the individual AC circuit breakers. Connect the white and green/bare wires to the appropriate neutral and ground bars, and the AC circuit black wires to the breakers.

[payaso del mar]

 

Note that the AC portion of "converter" section of this unit needs to be wired up to work....you can see the converter section wires coming across the bottom of the unit, just below DC fuse panel. I dedicated one breaker to run only the converter to make diagnostics easier. Again, connect the neutral (white) and ground (bare/green) wires to appropriate bars.

Now plug in for a moment and test your AC circuits. All good? Unplug and on to the DC circuits.

[payaso del mar]

 

The hot side of the DC connections on this unit is connected to wires coming out the back. There are two circuits that are wired with heavier gauge wires than the rest, and this is all I needed for the current electric setup.

First, I connected the negative wires of the DC circuits to the "battery neg" terminal of the unit. I’ll eventually run a separate ground wire from here to the battery negative terminal but didn’t have any white 6 gauge wire around....it works OK now even without, since the unit’s ground bar is connected to chassis, but.....I like lots of grounds.

[payaso del mar]

next, connect the main hot wire from batteries to the "battery pos" terminal.

Finally, crimp the hot side of the 12V DC circuit wires to the appropriate hot wire from back of converter (don’t assume wires that come out highest on back of converter necessarily relate to topmost fuses....this was driving me crazy til I figured out I was powering up the wrong hot wire out).

Almost done....now, what to do with that gap beside the new converter from where the old one was wider? Cut a small hunk of scrap Lexan or sheet metal and use this space for other electrical stuff....in my case, two switches for PV panel disconnects (switches are only rated for 15A so I had to use separate ones for main and aux panels, each about 12 amps output.), a voltmeter, and a switch to turn the voltmeter off.....it puts out so much light that it works as a nightlight.

[payaso del mar]

finally, the DC fuse panel portion is a bit flimsy so some dielectric grease on terminals may not be a bad idea.  for sure hold the adjacent fuses when you pull one.

[zero]

Yes, I like it quiet too.   A buzzing converter or inverter drives me nuts inside an RV.  I put a 45 amp Iota DLS in my RV and love it.  But, rarely use it since we hardly ever camp where there is AC power.