99 replies to this topic

[lonepinetech]

I had noticed the following on my 2013 Fleet and retested it again today to confirm...

 

While my truck is running my stock Sure Power 1314A engages bridging the truck and camper batteries together. If I enable my solar system On and turn Off the truck, the 1314A remains engaged and the solar system then shares the charging of the truck and camper batteries. Not excited about that...

 

If the solar system is then turned Off or a significant load (ie furnace or fridge) is turned On, then the common batteries voltage drops and the 1314A finally disengages.

 

It appears that the 1314A does not sense the truck-side only contacts to determine when to disengage.

 

Have others experienced the same 1314A behavior?

 

Is there a smarter separator/isolator on the market?

 

The 1314a does only sense on the  truck side, when it is opened. Once the 1314a is closed by the charge from the alternator the banks are connected and there are no more sides. The 1314a waits for the system voltage to drop below 12.8 and opens, separating the banks,  keeping the main battery at 12.8, no matter how low the house battery gets. So yes I have observed this behavior and I think it is good?.

[Stalking Light]

When I had the 1314a in my FWC it would engage and then immediately disengage when the house battery voltage was low and I had to charge the house batteries with either solar or shore power to get the voltage back up before I could get any charge from the alternator. I replaced it with an ACR and it will charge the house battery at a lower voltage, plus it allows my solar to charge the truck battery when the house battery is charged. I'm happy with the swap. FWIW

[DaveL]

I just did the same as Stalking Light (thanks to all who shared about switching out the units!) & it finally charges off the alternator correctly. Love the bonus of charging the truck battery with my solar.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Wander The West mobile app

[Vic Harder]

Bigger wire than the stock 10g helps too.  I'm looking forward to what my 2g will be capable of!

[ntsqd]

No idea how the SurePower works, but there are some misstatements about the Blue Seas VSR (which they acquired by buying BEP Marine). I wonder if the Blue Seas ACR is being confused with the BEP sourced VSR? They do work slightly differently.

 

There are two generations of VSR, the first is a single-sense version in that it only senses voltage on one side. How you wire it determines which battery it is looking at for a charging source. I don't recall our BEP Marine single-sense VSR having any option for an external 'forcing' switch. The next generation, and they overlapped for 1/2 a year or more, is a dual sense unit. These look at both battery banks and will close once either has achieved a full SoC to allow charging of the other bank. We have managed to run our FLA's dry a couple of times and the VSR has never failed to bring them back up, so I'm not sure about the low voltage = no close statement. Again, I suspect that is a function of the ACR and not of the VSR.

 

2 ga. is big enough to self jump-start, but do the rest of the components that would be in such a circuit have enough ampacity?

[Vic Harder]

 

2 ga. is big enough to self jump-start, but do the rest of the components that would be in such a circuit have enough ampacity?

 

I doubt I will want to do self-jump starts often (but that ONE time will be great!).  I bet the 100A breakers on either end of the 2g will trip before the truck would start if the starter battery was truly dead.  Other than those and the ACR, there is nothing else to stop it from working.

[ntsqd]

Set it up so that a set of jumper cables can jumper across those low ampacity components only?

[Advmoto18]

For those that upgraded the wiring from the truck battery to the ML-ACR (Blue Seas 7622) to a heavier gauge, did you run one continuous length of wire from the truck battery to the  ML-ACR bypassing the camper to truck electrical plug?   Assuming the ML-ACR is mounted inside the camper where (or near) the 1314a was located.

 

Thanks!

Edited by Advmoto18, 07 December 2016 - 07:41 PM.

[Vic Harder]

I have a 100A breaker 7" from the truck battery, and another about 12" from the camper battery.  Linked via separately run 2g welding wires (one for power and one for ground).  Only the power wire is fused.  At the truck bed I have an Anderson Power Pole connector.

[craig333]

No ACR but I left the original wiring in place.