Once this was done (see above photo) all the 120-volt connections were made on the right side of the distribution chamber. The holes for the connection bar were already there. The solution to this problem was simply to move the circuit breaker connection bar to the other side of the distribution chamber. If left like this, every circuit would have required a wire to go under the bottom of the circuit breakers in order to be connected to the circuit breakers (see above photo). However, the knockout for the incoming wire as well as the neutral buss bar and ground connectors were on the right side of the distribution chamber. The connection bar for the circuit breakers was located in such a place that the breakers had to be located on the left side of the 120-volt distribution chamber. The circuit breakers that were used in the Elixer were compatible with the Boondocker so I was able to simply switch them over.Ībove: Circuit breakers and incoming 120-volt line Secondly, I removed the old Elixer from the interior wall of the camper. First I disconnected and labeled all the wires from the old Elixer. The installation was very straight forward. They immediately sent me the replacement part and I had it in my hands two days later. I notified customer service of the problem. My new converter arrived ten days after it was ordered, but had a blemish. At $230 including economy shipping, the Boondocker seemed like a good deal to me. Randy at Best Converter assured me that I could do the installation myself and that the Boondocker would be compatible with my solar system as well as the AGM battery I planned on installing. They had a replacement converter (Boondocker BPC1260) that had smart charging technology and was a direct replacement for my old Elixer.Īfter further research, this was the only converter I found that would fit into the same space the Elixer had occupied. Because this area also stores my battery and my fresh water tank, the power converter had to fit into a space that was less than 7-inches deep.Īn internet search for power converters led me to Best Converter. The power converter in my camper is located in the front bulkhead of my truck camper. A new power converter with smart charging technology would sense the state of charge of the battery and apply exactly the right amount of charge to keep the battery operating at peak efficiency. Single stage chargers were fine for the flooded batteries used when my camper was built, but they are a very poor choice for charging more modern batteries. Upon checking further, I learned that the Elixer-ELX45 was a single stage charger. Well, I hadn’t dropped it, so I suspected my 14 year old Elixer-ELX45 Power Converter had overcharged the battery and ruined it. He told me the two worst things you can do to a battery is drop it or overcharge it. Suspecting my deep-cycle marine battery had gone bad, I spoke with the owner of Remy Battery in Milwaukee. I checked the solar system and it seemed to be working fine. I was certain this was caused be the out gassing of my flooded, lead acid on board batteries as they were being charged. Additionally, I had a recurring problem of my LP and CO alarms going off. Even though we have a 200-watt solar panel system to charge our battery, our battery did not have enough power to run our 2004 Palomino Maverick truck camper all night. With a little help from his friends, the install was relatively easy, and yielded great results.īoondocking and stealth camping are a lot of fun, but not so much so when your on board batteries quit working. Arn Chamberlain shares the story of how he upgraded his truck camper power converter.
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