Electronic RV Converter/Charger

Hello everyone, I was gifted a new Progressive Dynamics Inteli-Power Rv Converter/Charger model # PD9145A;
The original one in my HiLo is a 30 amp unit, the New one is a 45 amp unit. Will there be any problems or issues by using this higher amperage unit? This new one is so much smaller and compact and I suspect it will put out way less heat, which is a good thing in the summer. My original converter works perfectly though. Any thoughts or opinions are appreciated. Thanks.

Converter charger

Our lights would dim when the furnice kicked in. We talked to the tech at Best converter. He sold us the 45amp converter. DH had no problem wiring it in. If you can't do the install then get a Mobile Tech to do the job. If my memory serve3s me correctly I remember DH needing some extra wire. We have had two HiLOS and DH changed the converter in both. I don't think they make a 30Amp converter any more.

Go ahead and install the 45 Amp converter. If you are using any AC appliances and DC appliances as well as charging the battery, you can easily draw very close to 30 Amps in your trailer which would sometimes overload the original converter. The new 45 Amp rating just gives you a safety margin. The trailer will not be overloaded by it. It does not "push" 45 Amps into the trailer.

- Jack

Hi,
My thought would be if it is not broken do not fix it. Keep it as a backup. I blew an inverter when we had the air conditioner running the post blew a braker. This cause a spike on the line and took out the inverter. I did not know it for three days until lights got dim and the monitor showed that the battery was in poor health. I use a surge protector now.
Good Luck.
Kind Regards,
Pierre Levasseur

Converter

DH reminded me that you need to have a heavy enough gage wire for the 45Amp converter.

sam said:

DH reminded me that you need to have a heavy enough gage wire for the 45Amp converter.

Click to expand...

Sam, you're right about needing heavier gauge wire if you actually put 45 Amps through it. However, I THINK the 45 Amps is just a rating for the maximum Amperage the converter can handle, not what actually passes through it.

My Progressive Dynamics converter is also rated at 45 Amps (as was the faulty Elixir converter that came with the trailer), but, the master circuit breaker that governs all the shore power the converter receives is rated at 30 Amps, which limits any draw the converter can put on a campground power supply.

My guess is, the electronics in the PD converter are rated to handle 45 Amps which gives it a "safety buffer" over what it actually ever sees, possibly allowing it to run cooler than one that is rated at 30 Amps?

- Jack

Thanks Jack for explaining and clarifying the Amperage differences on the converters!
And thank you Plevasseur for your suggestion (if it is not broken do not fix it).

I did however try to replace it but had to stop because when i removed the front cover on my old converter, there are a bunch of wires from the hilo that go to a small Glass Fuse Holder Panel on converter (see photo). These wires are for the 12 volt system (lights and accessories).
My new converter only has 3 terminal wire connections; Positive, Negative and Ground.

My questions are: Where do I connect all them wires to the new converter?

Do I leave all those wires connected to the Glass Fuse Panel and somehow adapt it to the new converter?

I unbolted the glass fuse holder panel from my old converter to gain access to the wires behind it so I could see how the wires are connected back there; here's what I noticed:

Coming out the back of the glass fuse panel are a couple of terminals that have the following wires connected to it:

A single RED wire (maybe 10 gauge wire?) on one terminal, and

3 WHITE wires on another terminal (1 wire appears to be a 14 gauge and the other 2 maybe 16 gauge). (see picture)

Then there is a BLUE wire that also comes from the back of the glass fuse panel (one side of all the fuse holders come/join together and are connected to this Blue wire.

I suspect that if I'm able to somehow incorporate that fuse holder and use it with the new converter, I would connect to these terminals.

POSITIVE (red), NEGATIVE (white), And is the BLUE wire GROUND??

The label describing the fuse wires indicates that Terminal "C" is Positive from Battery, Terminal "D" is Negative from battery, and Terminal "A" has that Blue wire for the fuses.

Any help with this confusing converter replacement is greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

Here are some photos.

Glass fuse panel inside converter.

I'm leaving this post, because it would apply to a converter replacement, but I suspect it is totally wrong in this case - see my next post below it. I don't think the PD91456A converter is really a suitable one for our HiLos.

- Jack

Angel, your old converter is even more "jury-rigged" than mine was. I think it will help for you to look at the thread I wrote when I replaced my Elixir converter with my new PD converter: https://www.hilotrailerforum.com/f28/elixir-converter-replacement-7659/ Take some time to study it.

It appears your converter uses the glass fuses instead of the more modern fuses that were in my old converter for your DC power requirements. I think I would try to identify all the wires that leave these fuses to see what they power. Do you have a wiring diagram that shows your trailer's wire colors? Generally, in our HiLo's, the white wires are negative DC or neutral AC wires. Black, red, yellow and blue are positive feeds.

Looking at the fuse picture, it appears the green wire is water pump and furnace. The left black wire is int lights, and so is the yellow wire. The right center black wire is the lift motor? It appears they are all 15 Amps, so you could put 15 Amp fuses in the DC fuse holders in the PD converter for those. The red wire looks like it goes to your battery. But, I'm puzzled by the combined black and white wires on the left side of the horizontal fuse. Black is generally a "hot" wire, and white is generally "neutral" or "negative". I would not expect them to be combined.

You can disconnect any of those wires one at a time when using shore power and see what does not work That will tell you what they power and you can label them. They can then be connected to appropriate fuse holders in the PD converter.

There are only three inputs to the converter. They are the three wires in the shore power cord. The black and white wires go to the master 30 Amp CB in the converter. If you do not have proper CBs in the old converter, you can get new ones at Home Depot or Lowes. The bare ground wire goes to the negative buss in the converter.

Then, you have to look for AC house type wiring in your trailer to send AC power FROM the converter to the refrig, A/C, water heater and anything else you have that is AC powered. These will all need their own CBs.

When, done, you SHOULD be able to get rid of all the glass panel fuses that belonged to the old converter. Think of them as being "inside" the old converter and you want all the wires that went to them to connect into the new converter, mostly to the fuse panel.

The only thing that may be tricky is the lift motor connection and the battery charging lines. Possibly, the third picture in post #4 of the thread I referred you to may help?

Anyway, think of the old converter as a closed box and determine the function of ALL the wiring going into it. Don't get tangled up in the messy internal wiring of that box.

- Jack

Angel - I just looked at the PD9145A converter on the etrailer.com website. It appears to me that this converter has NO AC output and the DC output is not divided into battery charging, lights, refrig, water pump, etc. It looks to me like it needs additional circuitry to perform these tasks. It looks to me like it is a very simple device that just converts ALL AC input to a DC output. You need a DC distribution panel for the DC output.

As such, I don't think it is really a suitable converter for your trailer. You'd have to adapt part of your old converter to accept the DC output of this new one and that would distribute the DC power to your appliances. Additionally, I don't see any way that this new converter will pass AC power to your AC appliances. You'd have to set up a pass-through board to do that - another AC distribution panel.

It looks to me like this converter is designed for big RVs that have those extra features installed. I don't think you want to try to adapt it to your trailer.

A suitable converter would be one in this series:
https://www.etrailer.com/RV-Converters/Progressive-Dynamics/PD4135K.html

- Jack

converter

Put this converter up for sale. Purchase the right one for easier install. Jack is an engineer and a great asset to this forum.

Looking at this, and giving it some thought, I suspect big RVs are designed to almost ALWAYS operate on shore power. As such, they simply send all their AC input (from the shore power cord) to the AC outlets and the appliances. They possibly power their lights on AC too (I've never owned a big RV, so I'm guessing). But, they DO have a battery backup (and possibly an inverter to power AC appliances off it), so, they need a way to recharge that battery.

The PD9145A converter does exactly that. It plugs into an AC outlet that is receiving AC power from the shore power cord and then sends some of that to the battery - period, to charge it. It is NOT a multipurpose converter like we need. It's really just a complicated battery charger.

I had not thought of converters in this light before, so my earlier comments were off track.

- Jack

Thank you Jack for taking the time to analyze the wiring and connections if the converter.
Being that my original converter works just fine; I think I will leave well enough alone and put it up for sale like Sam suggested. And if it ever goes bad I will purchase and install one like the one Jack recommended.

Thanks again all.

View attachment B-W Series3200 Parallax OperatingManual.pdf









Angel,

I appears you have the same AC to DC converter in your rig that I have in my 1988 22ft Funchaser. Specifically model B-W Series 3200, model 3230 (for 30 Amps - see attachment). This model has a built in fuse panel for DC distribution. AC distribution for AC appliances are handled by a seperate fuse panel (see photo attached). Attached is also a sheet explaining the fuse panel and standard connections.

I was also going to switch out this converter for one of the fully electronic converters with better charging systems for the 12 volt battery but was unable to find a unit that would easily switch out from the existing B-W unit without building a seperate repacement 12 volt fuse distribution panel. If anyone has recommendations, I'm all ears

Like you, my existing B-W converter is working just fine and have decided to let it be for now.

Attached are a few pics/files that you might find useful

Regards,
Peter

You can always go up! Never can you go down I installed a 65 amp! Works great

Thank you Johnsonbrits for the AC to DC converter info; very helpful. With that schematic you supplied I will try to figure out if I can use this converter. Like you, I left my original one be because it works just fine. I haven't given up on trying to figure out if I can use this newer converter though.

Looking at Peter's post, I now suspect you might be able to use that new converter in your trailer. It appears you have the separate AC breaker panel and DC fuse panel that the converter was designed to use. You'd basically just plug the converter in to an AC outlet - your old converter should be powered that way, and then connect the DC output of the converter to the DC fuse panel - again, the old converter should be hooked up like that.

Your trailer is so very different than mine that I was confused, sorry!

- Jack

Thank you everyone for your suggestions, I suspected that I'd be able to use this new converter. I will be taking a closer look at the wiring and connections in the near future to see if I can install it. I will post progress when I start the install.

converter

Do you need to disconnect your battery and old converter while you do the new install?

I will be sure to disconnect battery and power AC source when I get ready to install. thanks.