'78 31' Sovereign Converter

[johnnywood]

Hey there,

My Sovereign came with two plastic battery boxes and the blue plastic box in between them has a Magnetek 6332 (32 amp) mounted in a cut out in it. Is this an OEM part?

There are only 3 hot 'out' wires coming out of the converter and also, the fuse ratings are all wrong.

It has breakers on the 120v input side marked for general appliances, microwave and even the air conditioner.

My meter reads 12v dc when plugged in and it hums nicely. I was able to test most of my 12v circuits with it like the lights and bath fan.

I'm slowly getting to know this trailer and I'm enjoying every moment of it. Except the smell.

Thanks everyone

[johnnywood]

Well, I figured the DC side of the wiring out and tested it. It looks like it wasn't original after all. All the inside lights and fans are working and I even wired it up so the running lights turn on. Now I can see which bulbs I need to replace. The Magnetek converter's fan comes on after 10 minutes of having all the lights on. I'm going to assume that eventually, I will have to buy a modern one.

[HiJoeSilver]

It's not original, the original was a UNIVOLT. looked like the one in this ad Univolt III, Auto Battery Charger/Power supply, Model #35
Pretty easy to upgrade them with modern versions, and the modern ones are smaller, lighter, and take care of the batteries better. Can't say for sure unless someone already rewired some of the trailer, but I don't think any of the 120v connections would be used in there, except for the 120v being supplied to the box. The 3 hot outs are probably a positive and negative 12v to supply the 12 volt buss and a small gray wire that feeds the tank level monitor section that indicates 120v available.
All the rest of your 12v distribution should be in that little access panel above the converter. Which if it is like mine may be quite a mess. If it's got inline glass fuses, maybe not so bad.
All your 120v will be through the main circuit breaker panel either in the rear left of the trailer for rear bath, or mid left of the trailer for the center bath.
Did you get a service manual with the trailer?

[johnnywood]

Hey HiJoe,

Thanks for the input and the link. Everything helps.

No, I didn't get a service manual with it but I was looking some up on the internet wondering which one to get.

-johnnywood

[HiJoeSilver]

Johnny,
Glad I can help a little bit. My '79 though shorter had pretty much the same setup as yours. On the univolt there are the 3 wires out that you mentioned, 2 of them are the positive and negative main leads, the big ones that supply the power to the 12v distribution and battery. The small one (probably gray) provides the signal to the tank monitoring panel part that says AC available. There's no easy way to maintain that functionality when you get a new converter, so most people do away with that aspect, not really useful anyway. The gray wire goes through a fuse that goes to the panel directly and isn't connected to the rest of the 12v distribution.
In my trailer, same univolt and 12 volt location. The 12v was still mostly in the panel above the univolt, but it definitely wasn't original. Fuses had all been replaced with resetting 12v circuit breakers, and were bussed in a way that was difficult to understand. Including some exposed copper bus bars. I replaced it all. I took out the univolt, the box around it, and redid all the 12v circuits with blade fuse panels for the 12v portion as well as all the trailer umbilical fuses. I used 50A 12v resettable breakers (Amazon.com: Blue Sea Systems 285-Series Surface Mount 50A Circuit Breaker: Sports & Outdoors) on the positive and negative wires from the battery. I used this panel for the 12v distribution http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sea-Syste...+systems+panel; and this one for the umbilical fuses, http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sea-Syste...5X0Q110K7D49MH
This let me get everything nicely cleaned up and organized.
After taking the univolt box out as part of a full montey, that let me get rid of the hole in the floor, and install and seal some aluminum behind the front vent port to close any leak paths.
Can't believe I don't have a picture, I'm 4 hours from the project but heading back there this week, i'll try to get some pics. In the process of replacing the skins in the trailer, so some is still partially disconnected.
Using the new fuse panel allowed me to set up new dedicated circuits for the refrigerator 12v, the breakaway switch, solar input from the solar controller, and a few other things. All the main 12v lines remained essentially the same, and get their own nice fuse spots. So far the manual has helped most with figuring out how all the electrical circuits are supposed to be connected, allowing me to understand the system, and make it work better. Figuring things out like that the 12v from the trailer umbilical can get fused into the positive and negative section of the fuse block, even though it seems backwards with the current flowing into the panel vs out for all the loads, it doesn't really make a difference to the electrons.
I'll try to take some pictures of the manual electrical that you might find helpful and PM you to send them to you.

[johnnywood]

Thank you sir!

Did you keep the location of your batteries right there on each side of the converter at the nose behind the gaucho area?
I saw a restoration thread from another Sovereign Brethren where he put the battery (single) outside on the tongue on a fabricated a bracket.

Thank you

-johnnywood

[HiJoeSilver]

Typing on phone so shorter. I only have one battery on the curb side of the inverter, I kept it in the same place, had to replace the plastic battery box. It's possible to relocate but then you have to figure out a good way to seal up those battery doors on the outside, seemed easier this way. If plastic box doesn't rest directly on floor it needs wood under it to support it or plastic can crack , not repair I want to do again. If you wanted to seal the doors you could put some AGM batteries where the inverter was and put new one to side. You could also go with putting batteries on tongue, but with how propane tanks are located you'd have to work on the fit.

[johnnywood]

Originally Posted by HiJoeSilver

After taking the univolt box out as part of a full montey, that let me get rid of the hole in the floor, and install and seal some aluminum behind the front vent port to close any leak paths.

Hello Joe,

What is that vent in the floor for? Was it to keep the converter cool? What did you do to not need it anymore?

Both of my plastic battery compartments vent from the top of their hatch doors outside so, do I need this floor vent anymore?

I'm using the converter that came with the Sovereign but, eventually I'll move up to the latest and greatest. Even then, would it be ok to cover the hole up?

In my trailer, same univolt and 12 volt location. The 12v was still mostly in the panel above the univolt, but it definitely wasn't original. Fuses had all been replaced with resetting 12v circuit breakers, and were bussed in a way that was difficult to understand. Including some exposed copper bus bars. I replaced it all. I took out the univolt, the box around it, and redid all the 12v circuits with blade fuse panels for the 12v portion as well as all the trailer umbilical fuses. I used 50A 12v resettable breakers (Amazon.com: Blue Sea Systems 285-Series Surface Mount 50A Circuit Breaker: Sports & Outdoors) on the positive and negative wires from the battery. I used this panel for the 12v distribution http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sea-Syste...+systems+panel; and this one for the umbilical fuses, http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sea-Syste...5X0Q110K7D49MH

I would love to see this, It would give me a bone to chew on for a while. Any pictures available yet?

Thanks for your help.
-johnny

[HiJoeSilver]

Just got some for another post I'm working with, look for TARH2O post on replacing fuse block. http://www.airforums.com/forums/f37/...ml#post1631330

Here is a before and after shot of my 12v distribution.




Right now the converter isn't connected, usually connected to top and bottom center since it has its own fuses.

This was all moved from the top center below the window, to the lower curb side outboard of the battery. The battery box is just to the left of the two circuit breakers.

[HiJoeSilver]

Links to the pics so you can see bigger.
http://www.airforums.com/attachments...inal_thumb.jpg

http://www.airforums.com/attachments.../12v_thumb.jpg

I tried taking pics of the manual pages but you can't read them because the print is so small.

[HiJoeSilver]

Here's a photo that will give you an idea of the after with more of the front. The big blue box was originally to the left of the battery box. The converter usualy sits on the floor right in front of the fuse panel in the lower right picture. Right now it's moved so I can work around. Replacing all the inner skins. Excuse the mess, I've got a million things going on in there right now.
Note the separate fuse box for the trailer/tow vehicle wiring to the left. The circle to the far left is for access to the soldered wiring of the trailer umbilical. It gets covered by a solid cover that would go over a 2 switch plate box you would see in your house. Imagine 2 wall switches with no switches in it. Nice and clean and makes future access easy in some off event I need it.
Rectangles to the left, top will be a normal 120v outlet that will be inside the cabinet for whatever comes up, charging things etc, bottom will be a dedicated 120v outlet for the ac/dc converter, it's got it's own dedicated line from the 120v breaker box.
Originally the front cabinet had no access in the bottom half. Top had tambour, bottom was all blocked off. Bottom center was taken up by blue box, bottom right was just empty but blocked space. Thought I'd put the space to use. New cabinet will have access bottom right and center. Bottom left is blocked by end of goucho, but will be accessible from the center bottom by reaching in.

[johnnywood]

That is a great looking set up.
Thanks for the pictures and ideas.

-Johnny

[HiJoeSilver]

Thanks! Lots of work, my OCDism, attention to detail, belief in doing things right, doesn't help. Now if I could only get the trailer not to look like a tornado came through. Sucks garage being 200 ft from the trailer, have to keep a ton of stuff in there for the 10 things going on. Hard to move around some times.

From a previous post:
What is that vent in the floor for? Was it to keep the converter cool? What did you do to not need it anymore?
Yep, warm air from the converter would rise and exit out the vent on the front of the trailer that's behind the propane tanks, would draw fresh air into the blue box through the vent in the floor. New converters don't get as hot, have cooling fans, and that section(bottom right) of new cabinet will have perforated decorative metal screen to allow it to breathe/vent to keep cool.

Both of my plastic battery compartments vent from the top of their hatch doors outside so, do I need this floor vent anymore?
It's not for the batteries.

I'm using the converter that came with the Sovereign but, eventually I'll move up to the latest and greatest. Even then, would it be ok to cover the hole up?
If you're going to keep it confined in the blue box you'll want to keep it for ventilation. Converter has to have some air flow, that's why I got rid of the box and the new converter will be in a place where it can get some fresh air. Considering the size difference and freed up space from the new converter , seemed like the best option for me. You may want to just keep using the box and put the converter in there. Depends on your desires.