Backlogged Projects: Heavy Duty Charging System–Truck end

Backlogged Project To-Do List:

1.) Charging System needs to be rewired (Again), converter relocated from under the kitchen sink to under the dinette, right next to the batteries (Something I should have done when I rewired the charging system back in 2009, but didn’t). Plus, a new Battery Disconnect needs to be installed, the original 75amp Pollack switch is falling apart.

Also, I need to incorporate my battery voltage meter center that I fashioned into the electrical system so I can actually watch my battery charge.

2.) The two Trojan SCS225 Deep cycles on the camper that I bought for a steal back in 2006 also need replacing, they no longer hold a good charge anymore, odds are one of the batteries is shorted.

3.) New Camper plugs need to be installed, replacing the under-rated RV 7 pin hook up with a 100amp Lift-gate plug for the charging wires and a separate 4-pin round plug for the running lights. Charge wiring coming from the alternator needs to be fully scrapped and replaced with a good 4 gauge run instead of the under-rated 8 gauge system I put in back in 2006.

4.) Front of the Camper’s tub needs to have a bolstering frame built onto it, it has always flexed and moved too much whenever the camper has been lifted for loading and unloading.

5.) The 3 year old Shurflo Extreme Smart Sensor 4.0 water pump needs to be replaced (fortunately, Shurflo replaced this as a “Good Will” warranty exchange, since I bought the pump in ‘09, but it was manufactured in 2007) as it has started leaking water around the body and is pushing pressure back towards the tank.

6.) Replace the broken down intermediate steering linkage on the truck to tighten up the steering for improved handling.

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Well, time to start clearing out the projects , in my last entry, I’d reinforced the front of the camper tub to remove some flexing I didn’t like in the structure, in today’s entry, I will be recapping the upgrades to the charging system, starting on the truck end of the equation.

When I originally bought the truck, I decided I would wired in a charging circuit for a future truck camper.  At the time, I was figuring that the wiring only had to be heavy enough to support the amp load I would use, not taking into account the loss of voltage over long runs of wire. 

So, the original charging system was fed from the under-hood Group 27 deep cycle to the camper via rather under-sized 8 gauge wire through a 50 amp self-resetting circuit breaker and on to the 7 pin RV plug in the bed.  

At one time, there was also a diode isolator in this equation, but that was replaced with a RV-type constant duty solenoid switch after the one-way power flow caused by using a diode based isolator burned out the voltage regulator in the trucks PCM (why Dodge thought it was a good idea to put it there, I’ll never figure out). 

The solenoid that took the place of the diode isolator is situated on the passenger side rocker panel, next to the alternator and the onboard deep cycle battery, allowing for a nice short run of 2 gauge wire from the alternator.

In the new rewire configuration, 4 gauge wire feeds come from the solenoid through a 100amp self resetting breaker before continuing on to a 100-amp rated lift gate plug that has taken the place of the old 7-pin RV plug in the truck bed.