moving the converter

[ninerip]

Hi - I was wondering if someone could help me figure out my electrical set up...or point me to a forum post that has the answer.

I'm in the process of replacing the flooring in my 86' Sovereign and building a desk up front. I want to move the converter and inverter that sit on the inside of the battery boxes to the outside of them (for desk chair leg room).

This is the layout:


The inverter on the right has plenty of cord to be moved to the right side of the battery box.

The converter on the left doesn't have much wiggle room at all. In the pic below you'll see the white & black wire going up into the wall off of the silver box. This is what's limiting me from moving it to the left.

My question is can this wire be spliced and extended - and if not what are my options? The other question is where does it connect to? Thanks for the help...



As a side note - I have replaced the entire trailer with LED lights and most of the power consumption will be using laptops and monitors. Are there any things to look out for when using somewhat sensitive electronics with older electrical equipment?

[BradB]

I would replace that converter now while everything is nicely exposed. It's heavy and noisy and a new one will be much smaller. You may not even need to move it then.

[BradB]

To answer your question though, it would be easier to simply install new wire up to the fuse block (which is where that wire goes) than to splice it. Remove the screws from around the fuse block and there is much more space to do that.

[idroba]

Yes, replace the old monster, not very good technology Univolt converter with a new 3 stage converter/charger. I suggest a Progressive Dynamics PD 9245 or PD 9255. Smaller, lighter, quieter, better charge control and voltage regulation.

You can probably eliminate the silver box with the switch in it too, if you wish. That was used to turn off the original noisy Univolt when people were sleeping on the front couch. A new converter/charger generally never needs to be shut off.

You can also extend the 12 volt wires to the new location as needed. Use about #6 wire.

[nm1oqrz]

The black and white wires go up into the fuse area. The black wire as all of the wires has a red fiberglass sleve over it and you can see it atteched to the fuse block. The white wire also goes to the fuse area but it is attached to the grounding block that is in the left corner of the fuse area. As others have said I would replace both of these and not try to splice them. Any good boat store will have the wire and the black one need a ring lug attached to attach it to the fuse block. West Maring has the ring lugs and also a big crimper for attaching them. The white one (12VDC ground) will attach to the grounding block into the same hole once the original one is removed. There is also a small black wire coming off the converter that goes to the AC power on indicator light on the control panel. Don't forget to move the bare copper wire also
if you replace the converter (recomended) you will loose the power on light function.
Replacing the big wires is easy as you just slide them down the inside skin to the opening at the floor. Good luck
Happy camping nm1oqrz