'13 Interstate GL EXT Complete Power Upgrade

[David Suarez]

Hey everyone, I did a thing and I thought that sharing the information would be helpful to others. We have a 2013 Interstate Grand Lounge EXT and the power system (Solar, Inverter, etc.) has never really been that adequate for anything longer than a weekend trip away from shore power. Being in the San Diego area, we don't need the AC for most trips but there are certain trips where we plan to be at a place with hookups.

After about 4-5 years of not properly caring for the AGM house batteries, it was time to replace them so the decision we had to make was:

A) Replace with new AGM's and live with the 750w Inverter ad ~2 days of off grid time

B) Replace the batteries with Lithium which means pretty much a complete overhaul

We went with option B and so far I'm pretty happy with the results!

Before I get in to the details, I know that there are many ways to go about this and the decisions I made were around these goals:

1. Keep everything as stock looking as possible. This is our first van and while we've had it for a while I don't know how things will go if we ever wanted to trade it in for something else. I'm sure a private party would welcome the upgrades but I haven't had experience with a dealer trying to trade in a modified RV. Just about everything I did is reversible back to stock and I have all the old components stored in the crawlspace under the house
   
2. Loose as little storage space as possible. My wife and I are chronic over-packers and as everyone with an AI is aware, space is at a premium. The back area is where we keep a couple of camp chairs, a folding camp table, sand mats, coleman grill, etc. and we did not want to lose that much space.
   
3. Get as much time off grid as possible even if we had to use the AC. We do a yearly trip out to Iowa for RAGBRAI which is "conveniently" the last week of July. While I ride my bike across the state, the Mrs. needs to be able to do school work until I get in to town. Last time our Onan generator crapped out and we had to purchase a portable generator for the remainder of the week.

With those priorities, here is what I did and what I used:

Equipment:

• Victron Multiplus 3kva
• 300watts of Rooftop Solar
• 200watts deployable ground solar
• Victron MPPT 150 for the roof solar
• Victron MPPT 75 for the ground solar
• Victron Orion XS DC-DC charger to harvest power from the alternator
• Furion Chill Cube Variable Speed Inverter AC
• 2 100ah LiTime LifePo4 batteries
• Victron Ekrano GX for monitoring and control
• Victron BlueSmart 12v Charger to maintain the chassis battery when in storage
• SeeLevel Soul Tank Level Monitor fed directly to the Ekrano (no separate screen)
• Custom External weatherproof connections for ground solar and ethernet
• Custom Battery Tray
• (Coming Soon) RVMP 2800i Inverter Generator

I'll probably break this up to multiple posts but here is the high level and some pictures...

We can charge from up to 500 watts of solar if I deploy the ground array. When we are on the road, the Orion XS is set to provide 20amps of power to the batteries. I kept it on the conservative side to preserve the alternator life but may upgrade it in the future.

That all feeds in to 200ah of lithium batteries which feed the new Victron Inverter. The inverter is set up to power the entire coach (all outlets, AC, etc) and I have been super impressed by it. I was able to run the Dometic Penguin AC AND the microwave at the same time! I did a quick rundown test on a reasonably warm day here and got around 4 hours of battery with the Dometic cycling on and off with the temperature (more on the AC replacement later).

I created a new control panel with everything that is no longer used removed. The only things kept are the Water Heter controls, the GenSet controls, Victron Ekrano, Propane shut off and Awning Lights.

I'm using a cheap plastic battery tray for right now however I have a custom tray that should be here as soon as I confirm my measurements.

Last summary item is the Air Conditioner replacement. I have a cousin that has a small tow trailer with a wall mount style inverter AC in South Florida. What I liked at about it was that it's not strictly an on/off cycle like the Dometic AC. The compressor will ramp up and down as needed to match the cooling demand as will the fan. Instead of 2 separate speeds, it's quite variable. I went looking for rooftop inverter AC's and saw several new ones that were names I wasn't familiar with. When I came across the Furion Chill Cube I got excited but it took me a couple weeks to decide. After doing the run down test and sleeping on it for a few nights, I decided to pull the trigger. I have only had it installed for a day and it's been pretty cool this week but cranking it as cold as it will go (60) and setting the fan to turbo I have not seen it draw more than 350 watts! The Dometic was 1300 watts MINIMUM when the compressor was on. We have a couple of warm days coming up so I'm going to work from the van and do another run down test and I'll report back.

As it stands now, with lights on, AC set to maintain 75, and casual usage, the Victron estimates a little over a day and a half of battery power (with very little solar coming in). When the May gray goes away later this week I'll report back.

Stay tuned for more details of the upgrade adventures and things I ran into and the decisions I made. Look forward to sharing it with everyone and feel free to ask any questions along the way!

After Installation... yes this is AFTER


Before Installation:


Inverter Installation location:


New Panel Routed and Installed. I'm still waiting for WilsonArt to send me the laminate to match but couldn't wait on the panel anymore:



On to the Solar. There's 300 watts of solar on the roof and the 200 watts of deployable ground panels connects in via these waterproof plugs:




Furion AC insite the van. The Air Distribution box is MUCH smaller than the dometic and now the one wardrobe door can't hit the vent:


Finally with the AC replaced (more details in a future post) we would have lost the propane furnace. Came up with a simple solution so the old Dometic thermostat is replaced with a generic battery powered thermostat just for the furnace:

[StogieMan]

Nice work there David. Looks like quite a bit of research, planning and work went into that update. Very well done.

Couple questions and comments:

Why the two solar ports? I understand that one is for the ground array. Is the other for the roof array?

You mentioned that you ran the AC and microwave together. Did your 2013 have the Precision Circuits EMS shedding module? If it had it - did you remove or disable it in order to run multiple appliances at the same time? I’ve always wondered if the Victron Multiplus would work with this module inline and the EMS not shedding loads. Especially with the Victron inverters power boost function.

Lastly, you’ll be fine stepping up that Orion XS to 50a’s of charging with no issues if the proper AWG wire was used.

[David Suarez]

Originally Posted by StogieMan

Why the two solar ports? I understand that one is for the ground array. Is the other for the roof array?

The two ports on the side of the van are Ground Solar (Red) and Ethernet (Yellow). I have 2 100w foldable solar panels that I hook up in series to the red port. Inside the van, that port is hooked in to the second MPPT 75. Both MPPT's and the Orion are connected via Bluetooth Ve.Smart networking so they sync their charge states across all three devices independently from the VE.Direct network. The yellow ethernet port is essentially just a "pre-wire" until I get approval from the Mrs. to get a Starlink dish. That port will go to a location inside the van where I have power for the starlink base station. I thought about mounting the Starlink dish permanently to the roof but it seems like it would be better to be able to put the dish on a pole or have it portable to get outside of a tree line.

Originally Posted by StogieMan

You mentioned that you ran the AC and microwave together. Did your 2013 have the Precision Circuits EMS shedding module? If it had it - did you remove or disable it in order to run multiple appliances at the same time? I’ve always wondered if the Victron Multiplus would work with this module inline and the EMS not shedding loads. Especially with the Victron inverters power boost function.

I did several tests with the MultiPlus AND the EMS shedding module. Happy to say that AC + Microwave never caused load shedding and amperage hovered around 19 amps on the EMS display. I was able to get it to trigger load shedding by firing up the water heater with the other two and it shed the water heater within a couple seconds.

Honestly, I wanted to keep the EMS as an added "precaution". Even though the MultiPlus can handle all the power and even power assist if I am current limiting from shore power, I went with only 200ah of battery to keep the storage space. If the wife or a friend didn't know any better and accidentally turned on the electric side of the WH instead of propane, I wanted it to shut off to save the battery drain. In the end, the decision to remove the EMS came down to frustration of laying out the control panel I couldn't get it to fit the way I wanted so I went with aesthetics in the end over the safe guard of a dead battery

Originally Posted by StogieMan

Lastly, you’ll be fine stepping up that Orion XS to 50a’s of charging with no issues if the proper AWG wire was used.

I reused (kept in place) the AS factory 4AWG (if my memory serves me correct) cable they had running back to the battery box and bridged it to a 6AWG cable going to the Orion XS. Both can handle 50+ amps, and I think in a pinch I would bump it up but I haven't checked which spec alternator I have. From what I understand, they made the 2012/2013 Sprinters with 2 different sizes depending on what was ordered.

[Boxster1971]

Thanks for sharing the details, David. Looks like great work and you have turned your Interstate into a really nice and useful coach.

[StogieMan]

Originally Posted by David Suarez

The two ports on the side of the van are Ground Solar (Red) and Ethernet (Yellow). I have 2 100w foldable solar panels that I hook up in series to the red port. Inside the van, that port is hooked in to the second MPPT 75. Both MPPT's and the Orion are connected via Bluetooth Ve.Smart networking so they sync their charge states across all three devices independently from the VE.Direct network. The yellow ethernet port is essentially just a "pre-wire" until I get approval from the Mrs. to get a Starlink dish. That port will go to a location inside the van where I have power for the starlink base station. I thought about mounting the Starlink dish permanently to the roof but it seems like it would be better to be able to put the dish on a pole or have it portable to get outside of a tree line.



I did several tests with the MultiPlus AND the EMS shedding module. Happy to say that AC + Microwave never caused load shedding and amperage hovered around 19 amps on the EMS display. I was able to get it to trigger load shedding by firing up the water heater with the other two and it shed the water heater within a couple seconds.

Honestly, I wanted to keep the EMS as an added "precaution". Even though the MultiPlus can handle all the power and even power assist if I am current limiting from shore power, I went with only 200ah of battery to keep the storage space. If the wife or a friend didn't know any better and accidentally turned on the electric side of the WH instead of propane, I wanted it to shut off to save the battery drain. In the end, the decision to remove the EMS came down to frustration of laying out the control panel I couldn't get it to fit the way I wanted so I went with aesthetics in the end over the safe guard of a dead battery



I reused (kept in place) the AS factory 4AWG (if my memory serves me correct) cable they had running back to the battery box and bridged it to a 6AWG cable going to the Orion XS. Both can handle 50+ amps, and I think in a pinch I would bump it up but I haven't checked which spec alternator I have. From what I understand, they made the 2012/2013 Sprinters with 2 different sizes depending on what was ordered.

Ok, that makes sense with the ports and good for you for planning ahead. That’s what I always try to do.

Thanks for confirming my theory that I’ve had for a while with the Multiplus inverter and the EMS module. That’s exactly what I thought it would do and shed the loads when over 20A’s on any one circuit as it’s designed to do. You came close initially with only the 19A’s.

I removed ours as I didn’t want it shedding loads. The biggest thing to consider is cable size coming out of the Victron inverter to the breaker panel. If you want to make full use of the power assist feature when using shore power too to run multiple appliances - then 6 AWG and a 50A breaker should be used. If not running multiple appliances over 30a’s then there is no need for it.

Max wire size for the Orion XS is 4AWG and what a PITA to get it in there. The 6 AWG that you bridged over is also fine.

[David Suarez]

As mentioned in the first post, I had several design goals going in to this that drove some of the decisions made. To start off, it seems prudent to go over the overall system design. I made this diagram over the course of a week or so of planning and refining what was going in to the system.



I used this is my roadmap when planning and visualizing the build...constantly refining and staring at everything in the van to tweak the plan or what was possible. There are probably 2 dozen revisions to this diagram and what is above reflects the final state. Here are some of the notes about everything starting from the top.

• Ekrano vs Cerbo GX + Touchscreen - I have talked with several people that have similar systems and everyone defaults to the Cerbo GX. Some feel no need for the screen as they can do most functions from their phone, others seem to not even know of the Ekrano GX's existence. Either way I was going to go, I had already made the decision prior to the install that whichever one I got was going to get buried in the cabinet behind the control panel. The reason I made this decision is that the control panel compartment seems to be the central nervous system of this van. Everything related to signals (tank sensors battery voltage cables, awning lights, etc) goes to that small compartment. I knew I wanted to run the tank sensors in to the Victron system so I could get rid of the TouchSensor panel. I also want the ability to do remote generator starts in the future. For these reasons and I'm sure a few more, that is the why either device would go in to that compartment. Now to decide between the two becomes a simple affair. The Cerbo GX could be mounted in the control panel box and run a screen but now I have a few feet of HDMI cable to coil up that only needs to go inches. The Cerbo GX is tried and true and the Ekrano is "new" and nobody really talks about it. In the end, they are essentially the same exact thing. The Ekrano GX is a Cerbo GX + Touchscreen combined. You get an extra VE.Can port and lose one Tank sensor port. This meant that I would have to figure something out for one of the 4 tank sensors (none of this matters in the end) as I could only get 3. Victron makes the GX Tank module to add another 4 sensors over USB and that seemed like a great option. The final rationale for putting the Ekrano (or Cerbo) in that cabinet is that extending the tank sensor cables seemed less feasible (at the time) than running a couple VE.Direct cable up from below the bed. I could re-use the ethernet cable from the old Trip-Lite inverter for the MultiPlus VE.Bus so that was a quick win. I went with the Ekrano and so far have been very happy with the decision. You may have noticed in the first post that I still have 2 physical round switches, one for the propane valve, and one for the awning LED strip. I could have run both of these through the two relay ports on the Ekrano and have the ability to control both over the app, screen, internet, etc. Call me old school but there is something to be said about a tactile physical switch. Now that I am a couple weeks past installing everything and obsessing over every amp and watt things draw (now that I can see it!) I am happy they they are physical switches. It turns out the propane solenoid draws an entire 1.1 AMPS when on!!! If I had it hooked up to the relay on the Ekrano, I'm very sure I would forget that I turned it on at some point and it would be sitting below the van siphoning off battery with any indication as to why buried in a software menu. I'll save the relay's for the generator remote start in the future.
  
• Roof Solar Panels - This was an easy decision to make. I wanted solar and didn't trust myself up on the roof of the van. My driveway is very slanted, I don't have tall enough a tall enough ladder, and I would have spent a couple weeks in analysis paralysis trying to select the right panels, placement, etc. I went to a local company here in San Diego named Infinite RV & Marine to get an estimate and they were extremely nice and very knowledgeable. I scheduled the work and they had 3 EcoWorthy 100w Bi-Facial panels up on the roof in half a day. They did an amazing job, everything was clean and tidy and they took pictures of everything along the way. If you are in the San Diego area, I would highly recommend them. The only thing I'd question if I had to nit-pick, but it's mainly because I haven't investigated it much, is if the panels need to have sun and reflections from both sides to hit their rated power. Our van is black and while some photons may bounce off, the roof is pretty oxidized so I'm sure there isn't much hitting the underside of the panels.
  
• MultiPlus 3kva | 120 vs MultiPlus-II - Again, people I have talked to all went with the MultiPlus-II for various reasons. For me it was pretty straight forward. I wanted the inverter under the bench/bed and wanted to maximize storage space. the MultiPlus-II is significantly taller than the MultiPlus 3k so it would have to go on it's side, laying down, or some other orientation. Trying to work out routing the battery cables and the sideways orientation just didn't seem to make sense so I went with the MultiPlus. The only "buyers remorse" I have is that from all accounts of others, their MultiPlus-II's are dead silent most of the time. The MultiPlus has a fairly constant "hum" when doing things like charging the batteries or inverting. It's not the fan (though I have heard the fan kick on under load) and is clearly the sound of the transformer buzzing away. I'm sure I'll get used to it and it'll be a non-issue in a matter of weeks.
  
• Orion XS (and the loss of chassis battery charging) - This was something that I knew I wanted but also knew I was going to regret until I found a way. Since the chassis battery is AGM and the new house batteries are LifePo4, they need to be charged differently. I also didn't want the alternator having an unrestricted flow to the lithium batteries as they are capable of charging at up to 100amps and I didn't need to fry the alternator on the van. So, I knew I was going to put in the Orion however I realized that I was going to lose the trickle charging of the chassis battery. The old Trip-Lite inverter would keep the chassis battery topped up as long as shore power was connected and since I kept the van plugged in 99% of the time in storage, it was never something I worried about. There was one time when I had left it unplugged for a couple weeks and went to start it and I could tell the chassis battery was laboring to turn over the engine. The chassis battery is due for replacement but either way I wanted a way to keep it topped up when storing. It turns out the MultiPlus has a trickle charger built in but you HAVE to read the fine print! It is a common rail with house batteries so it would trickle charge at the same voltage as the house batteries which would not be good with lithium. I thought about putting a second Orion for the opposite direction but the logistics, cost, and trickle amperage didn't make sense. In the end I purchased a Victron BlueSmart battery charger (not in the diagram) that when I'm storing the van for more than a week, I plug in to the wall outlet behind the drivers seat and then plug the cigarette lighter cable in to the port under the drivers seat (discovered that by accident when cleaning one time since it's hidden under the leather skirt).
  
• MPPT/Shunt Grounds - If you are building out a system like this, it is a necessity that you get a shunt. There is no other way to meter power in to/out of the battery bank without it. It also turned out to be a life saver when testing out the MultiPlus. For some reason the MultiPlus was consistently reading the battery voltage as 1 volt below what the shunt, MPPT, and my multimeter were reading. Everything else agreed except for the MultiPlus however that meant that it was trying to charge batteries that were fully charged to the point that the BMS in the batteries actually kicked in at one point to lodge their protest. I tried everything under the sun...connecting the Voltage Sense cable, setting voltage offsets, etc. but nothing kept the MultiPlus from misbehaving. A few hours on Google uncovered a couple other people that had similar problems with one account saying they took it back to the shop they purchased it from to have it serviced by Victron which resolved their issue at the cost of a few weeks time. I bought all this stuff off Amazon during spring sales, discount events and the like so I didn't feel like that was an option. Others had reported that they had turned on something called DVCC in their Cerbo GX and plenty of folks were mad that it took an extra piece of equipment to get their MultiPlus working correctly...well....I had an Ekrano...I went in and turned that on, and almost instantly the problem went away! Several nights later reading data sheets and manuals about DVCC, I am glad that I have it enabled and would almost say that it is a huge reason to get a GX device.
  
• Battery Selection - This was a tough but simple decision. I wanted more battery power but I didn't want to give up space. That decision may change in the future after a few trips but it's what I went with. The van had a battery box with 2 Group 24's and I (naively) was determined to re-use the battery box to keep things looking factory. Plenty of hours on Google and YouTube and watching Will Prowse's videos got me to the LiTime Group24 100ah batteries. My justification for not going bigger than 2 group 24's, aside from wanting to keep the battery box, was that my Duracell AGM's were rated at 94ah and if you believe everything you read, you only get half of the rated capacity of AGM's. That means I'm going from 94ah usable (2 batteries) to 200ah usable. While yes, I'm adding in the ability for extra loads, I'll know that I'm running the microwave or AC and can make sure I account for it when the sun is down. Not sure if it fits in this section or not, but I am also aware that running the inverter constantly with the new MultiPlus means that the fridge will also favoer 110 thinking that we are on shore power which is not as efficient as if it were running on 12v. This can be remedied by unplugging the fridge from 110 under the sink which I will do for longer off grid trips where I may not be running the inverter.
  
• Ground Solar - This one was easy and a lot of fun. I'll go in to a much deeper dive on this in one of the future posts. I had made my appointment to get the 300watts of solar installed on the roof but they couldn't fit me in before a 3 day trip I had planned to Arizona for a cycling event. (If you are in to cycling and can travel to the southwest, check out Tour de Zona! It's a good amount of fun and I have met a good group of folks that camp out in their vans/cars and we have a blast). Since I knew that the house batteries would not last three days, my generator is still fried from Iowa, and the factory 35w panel was too anemic, I knew I would be having to idle the van an hour or so every day to keep the fridge running through the 3-4 day event. I decided on a whim to google foldable solar panels and it turns our the week before the event that Harbor Freight had just come out with foldable Predator 100w panels that had great reviews. I stopped by my local shop and picked up 2, got on Amazon and had an MPPT delivered by the next morning, and tested everything out the day before my trip. Just slapping it together last minute and I was getting 180-190 watts consistently to the AGM house batteries!!! It turned in to an obsession and a game when out on the trip and I even hit 1kw of power delivered to the van on one day
  
• Generator - I'm still bitter about this so I won't go in to history too much. Long story short, the generator was acting up when we were in Iowa for RAGBRAI and my wife was not happy. I checked the oil and everything was fine so it was just overheating. After checking the oil I started the generator from underneath the van (since I was down there I knew the wife was miserable inside) and I didn't realize the start button stuck down. Later on we went to turn off the generator and it kept turning back on "all by itself"... I said screw it and turned off the LP thinking "that'll make it stop" and while it did, it also kept the starter motor grinding away for who knows how long. All I know is that the starter motor no longer works and the generator won't start at all. I'm sure all I need is to drop it and replace the starter motor bur given the problems we were having with it and how insanely loud it is (2012 Onan 2200 non inverter), I have decided to upgrade to a newer inverter generator. My plan is to get the RVMP 2800i and am days away from placing the order, but nostalgia (I've had onan's in every RV growing up) wants me to go for the new QG 2500i. We'll see and I'll keep you updated.
  
• Distribution box and EMS Delete - The last on the list and the most boring. The distribution box stayed the same. I ended up deleting the Precision Electronics EMS system however I didn't remove any of the electronics from the distribution box, only disconnected the controller and panel up in the box. I still have all the equipment and if I ever want to put it back, it's as simple as hooking up a couple of wires and a phone cord.

[David Suarez]

Originally Posted by StogieMan

If you want to make full use of the power assist feature when using shore power too to run multiple appliances - then 6 AWG and a 50A breaker should be used. If not running multiple appliances over 30a’s then there is no need for it.

Yeah, I ran 10/2 and have the MultiPlus limited to 30amps draw from shore power. I guess I should limit the output to 30amp as well but there is also the breaker that will trip as well. We don't use the electric side of the water heater all that often and I've always been cognizant to turn it off when we're done with dishes, etc.

Originally Posted by StogieMan

Max wire size for the Orion XS is 4AWG and what a PITA to get it in there. The 6 AWG that you bridged over is also fine.

I would venture a guess that the 4AWG in there wasn't with a ferrel The 6AWG with a ferrel took some persuasion and colorful language to get in

[StogieMan]

Again, great detailed write up and shows that you’ve researched the heck out of this. A lot of great info and ideas that will be very helpful for others thinking about upgrading their system.

I agree that DVCC is a great feature that works even better when you have a Victron Comms battery installed in the system. Add a second Victron shunt as a DC Energy Meter to be able to fully account for the 12v loads in the system and then you are golden. Sorry the geek came out - lol.

As for the Victron Multiplus trickle charge feature - it all depends on your setup. I have the trickle charge feature as an additional option to charge our chassis batteries with its own on/off switch. That along with a 120v BatteryMinder and Solar BatteryMinder under the passenger seat. I’ll use it on longer boondocks when there is no sunshine for solar or don’t want to run the generator and the van is just sitting there. The 120v BatteryMinder only comes on when tied to shore/generator power as I wired it to the Multiplus AC OUT 2.

You can trickle charge the starter battery from a lithium house bank provided that you either have a Lynx BMS (Victron batteries) or your lithium batteries have an internal BMS which mine do. The BMS will tell the batteries to shut down charging including the trickle charge if the voltage gets too low. The Multiplus trickle charge port is always on and won’t turnoff even if DVCC is telling the battery to shut down and will remain on. Hence why I’ve also installed physical on/off switch too. There is a voltage drop of 0.3 - 0.6 from the house to the starter battery charging thus lowering the voltage that the starter battery is getting. Without the BMS in the mix you either risk the house batteries draining or the the chassis batteries being overcharged.

Attached is the best write up on that I’ve read on this subject:

How does the Multi plus trickle charger work - DIY - Victron Community:

https://community.victronenergy.com/...harger-work/98

[3OnOurWay]

Thanks for sharing / posting!

[snowboard1]

Looks like a great, well-thought-out system! I'm curious to know why you are choosing RVMP over Cummins-Onan. I am considering getting a new generator and just came across RVMP as an option.

[3OnOurWay]

::
haven't investigated it much, is if the panels need to have sun and reflections from both sides to hit their rated power. Our van is black and while some photons may bounce off, the roof is pretty oxidized so I'm sure there isn't much hitting the underside of the panels.

Hi how is solar production?

Have you ever placed / raised panels up from laying flat on roof( benefit of biracial).

Any additional info on the solar panels install you can share. That panels size is pretty small looks like almost 4 would fit on AI behind the AC shroud.

I’m now researching panels our OEM flexibles are 5 years old and seems to be past their life

Thanks

[tictoryde]

David, when you have an opportunity would it be possible for you to post how you did the wiring for the A/C? I have a '13 AI also and have converted it to a similar configuration and am considering doing the same A/C upgrade. Great post!

[David Suarez]

Originally Posted by tictoryde

David, when you have an opportunity would it be possible for you to post how you did the wiring for the A/C? I have a '13 AI also and have converted it to a similar configuration and am considering doing the same A/C upgrade. Great post!

The A/C wiring was very easy and straight forward. I have a longer in-depth post coming for the AC that has power measurements for the Chill Cube in the works but it's taking me a little longer as I am trying to collect as much data as possible across days with different weather.

For the wiring, the Furrion Chill Cube is a 120v only unit and does not wire in to the low voltage side of the van at all. When you take the shroud off the Dometic you'll see a bundle of low voltage wires that has +12v (red) Ground (mine was blue), Furnace (2 more blue wires) and then Load Shed (2 yellow wires). The Furrion will not use ANY of these. There will be a junction box tucked up in to the AC unit towards the front of the opening with 12/2 Romex. One end comes from the van on the driver side, and the other end goes up to the Dometic.

If you do not care about the furnace, the replacement is dead simple...remove the Remove the Dometic AC and all you need to hook up the Furrion is the 120v romex. All controls for the Furrion are on a remote control and on the distribution box.

If you care about the furnace, you need to keep the two blue wires around and wire in a new thermostat to control it. What I did is re-use the RJ-11 Phone cord that goes to the existing Dometic thermostat location. I got a couple RJ-11 breakout boards from Amazon and soldered the blue wires directly to it. I did meter out the current flowing through the blue cables and it is max .7 amps at 12v. the RJ-11 has 4 26AWG conductors have which each should have a max rating of ~2 amps so to play it safe, I combined pins 1&2 and 3&4 of the 4 pin RJ-11 jack.

I may be making it sound complicated but it really isn't. Here is a diagram to help out:


The exact thermostat I got for the furnace is this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002SR9PHM...sin_title&th=1

As far as installing the new AC itself, it was not something I could do by myself so I did have a local shop get the get the Dometic down and the Furrion up. The installer did mention that because our van roofs are thinner than the roofs of common RV's he had to do some adjustments to get the blower motor to not rub when everything was clamped down. I left all the low voltage wires there and just zip tied them up even though only the furnace is in use. All of these upgrades I have done are reversible so far and I wanted a future owner to be able to go back to Dometic if they so choose.

Below are some photos of the various parts

[David Suarez]

Originally Posted by 3OnOurWay

::
haven't investigated it much, is if the panels need to have sun and reflections from both sides to hit their rated power. Our van is black and while some photons may bounce off, the roof is pretty oxidized so I'm sure there isn't much hitting the underside of the panels.

Hi how is solar production?

Have you ever placed / raised panels up from laying flat on roof( benefit of biracial).

Any additional info on the solar panels install you can share. That panels size is pretty small looks like almost 4 would fit on AI behind the AC shroud.

I’m now researching panels our OEM flexibles are 5 years old and seems to be past their life

Thanks

The panels are slightly raised off the roof of the van but only an inch or two. Please excuse all the dirt and water marks in these pictures, we have been getting annoying misting rain followed by sunny slightly breezy days which have just been making a mess of the van

Solar production is actually really good! In full sun I have seen it hit 280 watts and overall the max is 300 (100w x 3) so that's 93% of rated capacity. In the drive way, I'm under a couple of large trees and they average around 220 watts.

With my ground panels deployed, I can get about 480-490 watts in total and if I start the Van, the Alternator/Orion will add another 200 watts at it's current setting. As StoggieMan mentioned above, I could bump that up another 10 amps or so and will do that in a pinch if I need to.

Yes, I could technically get a 4th panel up there however I worried that a panel too far forward would cause a lot of wind noise when driving on the highway. I'm not saying I drive on the faster side, but I happen to know that this thing is goveroned at 81mph and if you set the cruise, you can get it to go 82.5

Because of the timing of everything, I had the solar panels installed before I made the decision to replace the Dometic. The Furrion is several inches shorter and I feel like with the extra room, I probably could have gone panels that were wider and maybe ~120w each but so far it's a lot better than the factory 35 watt panel.



Gap between the roof and the panels:


Current Layout:


Because of the timing of everything, I had the solar panels installed before I made the decision to replace the Dometic. The Furrion is several inches shorter and I feel like with the extra room, I probably could have gone panels that were wider and maybe ~120w each but so far it's a lot better than the factory 35 watt panel

[tictoryde]

On the furnace, you stated that the wires soldered to the breakout board were blue but in your pic they appear red, or are they two red wires in a blue sleeve? Am I seeing that correctly? That has me a bit confused. Great information and I appreciate your indepth pics and instructions!

Great job!
Gary

[David Suarez]

Originally Posted by tictoryde

On the furnace, you stated that the wires soldered to the breakout board were blue but in your pic they appear red, or are they two red wires in a blue sleeve? Am I seeing that correctly? That has me a bit confused. Great information and I appreciate your indepth pics and instructions!

Great job!
Gary

Hey Gary,

Great eye noticing that they are red... I added some red hookup wire to each of the blue wires to extend them so I could set up my multimeter and run a bunch of test for voltage and current draw. When I was finished and determined that I could use the RJ-11, I was lazy and didn't cut the hookup wire off. It also helped to have some extra length to solder to it.

You can see the extension in this picture of the bundle:

[StogieMan]

Originally Posted by tictoryde

On the furnace, you stated that the wires soldered to the breakout board were blue but in your pic they appear red, or are they two red wires in a blue sleeve? Am I seeing that correctly? That has me a bit confused. Great information and I appreciate your indepth pics and instructions!

Great job!
Gary

Some additional pics just in case it helps. These are from the old Dometic AC wiring harness. I painstakingly removed and kept our old Dometic AC motherboard in place to try to integrate our Micro-Air Thermostat in the future to work with the AC. We went with the Premier Products Gree AC which has its own remote. We can still control the furnace with it but not the AC. If you want to keep the old Dometic thermostat to work with the furnace - this will work for you. The wrinkle for us is that the Gree AC also has a heat pump where the Dometic didn’t. When I get a chance, I’m going to dig into the wiring diagrams and try to somehow make the thermostat work with both the AC/heat pump and the furnace at least that’s the plan. I just shoved the motherboard in an empty space inside the new AC.

[tictoryde]

Originally Posted by David Suarez

Hey Gary,

Great eye noticing that they are red... I added some red hookup wire to each of the blue wires to extend them so I could set up my multimeter and run a bunch of test for voltage and current draw. When I was finished and determined that I could use the RJ-11, I was lazy and didn't cut the hookup wire off. It also helped to have some extra length to solder to it.

You can see the extension in this picture of the bundle:

Thank you for the clarification. I appreciate it!

[tictoryde]

Originally Posted by StogieMan

Some additional pics just in case it helps. These are from the old Dometic AC wiring harness. I painstakingly removed and kept our old Dometic AC motherboard in place to try to integrate our Micro-Air Thermostat in the future to work with the AC. We went with the Premier Products Gree AC which has its own remote. We can still control the furnace with it but not the AC. If you want to keep the old Dometic thermostat to work with the furnace - this will work for you. The wrinkle for us is that the Gree AC also has a heat pump where the Dometic didn’t. When I get a chance, I’m going to dig into the wiring diagrams and try to somehow make the thermostat work with both the AC/heat pump and the furnace at least that’s the plan. I just shoved the motherboard in an empty space inside the new AC.

That's a good idea also!

[tictoryde]

David, one more question, if you don't mind. Do you know what type of adapter had to be installed to compensate for the thickness (or lack there of) of the AI roof?