For those of you looking at various electrical upgrades I thought I'd share my experiences and wiring diagrams which might prove helpful.
By way of background I had a strong desire to do more dry camping and a need to reupholster the couch which was original to my 93" B190. So I figured while the couch was at the local upholstery shop I'd make a few upgrades to the electrical system.
When I started my B190 had a stock Magnetek 6332 converter and Interstate C50-XHD house battery under the hood. My generator also was not working and had not been started for at least 6 years.
So I knew I needed to add battery capacity and have a source of charging the batteries when not connected to electricity. I also realized that the old Magnetek converter would need to be replaced to a three stage charging system to support AGM batteries I would place in the interior of the B190. I also decided to repair the generator rather then go to an external Honda or Yamaha generator and eventually decided to add a solar array to the roof even though this was not part of my original plan.
I also want to thank all of those who provided expertise and guidance as I embarked on this series of enhancements! My numerous posts in this forum and the helpful advice I received document a lot of my machinations regarding converter upgrades, trimetric installation, battery selection, generator repair and numerous other topics.
So in the end I ended up implementing the following upgrades so this represents an "as built" view of what I did.
To do all this I decided to implement these upgrades in phases since I planned to start them in the fall, store the B190 in a cave over the winter and complete the upgrades in the spring before I left for my summer adventure.
Phase 1 consisted of:
- 1. Upgrading converter to a Progressive Dynamics 4655 3-stage converter
2. Installing a battery selector switch, 120 amp circuit breaker and 4 12v plugs in a Blue Sea 360 Panel
3. Adding Trimetric RV 2025 Battery Monitor
Phase 2 consisted of:
- 1. Installing 3 Diehard Platinum Marine 1 Group 31 AGM batteries: 1 behind drawer under the couch and 2 under the stove positioned vertically on there side.
- 1. Installed a Blue Sky 3000i solar controller and 2 manual reset circuit breakers to isolate the solar controller from the solar panels and the new battery bank.
2. Mounted 2 Kyocera KD 140 watt 12v panels on the roof. This was actually done by a local RV dealer repair shop using Stickyfeet 3M VHB mounts and the prewired solar wires installed by Airstream.
CLICK THUMBNAILS FOR LARGER VIEW OF DIAGRAMS
Phase1 Wiring Diagrams:
Phase 2 Wiring Diagrams:
Phase3 and Final Wiring Diagrams:
Solar Panel Installation Layout
Here's a list of major components used by phase:
Phase 1 components:
- 1. Progressive Dynamics 4655 kit from http://bestconverter.com
2. Blue Sea Custom 360 Panel consisting of a 9001e battery selector switch, 120 amp Blue Sea Series 285 circuit breaker and 4 12v plugs from http://bluesea.com
3. Adding Trimetric RV 2025 Battery Monitor from http://bestconverter.com
- 1. 3 Diehard Platinum Marine 1 Group 31 AGM batteries from http://sears.com. Look for sales I picked them up for $55 a piece less then the list price of $289.
- 1. Blue Sky 3000i MPPT solar controller from Northern Arizona Wind and Sun the link is http://www.solar-electric.com
2. 2 Blue Sea Series 285 manual reset circuit breakers. A 25amp breaker between the solar panels and the solar controller. A 30amp breaker between the solar controller and the battery selector switch. Both were obtained from http://bluesea.com
3. 2 Kyocera KD 140 watt 12v panels from Northern Arizona Wind and Sun the link is http://www.solar-electric.com
4. 20 Stickyfeet 3M VHB solar panel mounts from http://rvsolarstore.com
I hope this information will prove helpful and will answer any questions anyone has. I'm no electrician but I've been around the B190 electrical system quite a bit with these modifications
Mike