Solar confusion

[Rocinante]

Heading out sounds like a great plan.

Meanwhile, if you replace your trailer's stock Parallax 7355 converter with a Progressive Dynamics 4655, you can stop worrying about turning the battery to "Store" when plugged into AC power. The PD converter is a smart 3 stage unit that will not damage your batteries, unlike the stock PLax unit. That PLax unit has two strikes against it. First, as has been noted, it can boil your batteries. Second, it's a very slow-charging unit. The PD unit charges faster and is much safer for your batteries.

As for why AS installs a crappy PLax converter vs. the PD unit, it's most likely all about the Benjamins. Nobody makes a purchase decision based on a converter, and the PLax unit probably saves them money...

Anyway, I made this upgrade and now I only turn the switch to "Store" if I'm trying to eliminate potential drains on the battery when the TT isn't plugged into AC power.

[dkottum]

As for changing converter/chargers, I probably will when the factory one wears out. For now, using the solar charging and the battery disconnect in "STORE" when on external power we are getting along.

The reason is simply cost, the idea of replacing something that works to get a minor improvement in function bothers me, not good economics and perhaps wasteful.