1984 Jamboree Rally (E350) electrical upgrade

JoeIpsen

New member
Do I need to upgrade the PWFCO 8735P Power Center in my old camper to work with LiFePO and Solar?

tl;dr

I inherited a 1984 Jamboree Rally (E350) from my mother and, as the Lead Acid marine deep cycle battery was dead, I planned on upgrading the battery to LiFePO and adding some solar.

The WFCO 8735P Power Center appears to be in good working order (it is running everything without issue on shore line) and I'm wondering if it will be up to the task for the battery and Solar Panels.

There is a coach A/C unit that is the largest draw, but no microwave, so it shouldn't have a huge energy draw but I'd like it to be pretty capable of running everything but the A/C off the battery and solar.

Here's the hardware I have ordered/received:

JITA 12.8 V200Ah 2560WH - Renogy 350 Watt Solar Flexible Kit - https://www.renogy.com/350-watt-solar-flexible-kit/

Here's the Manual for the WF-8735P - https://wfcoelectronics.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Updated-8700-Series-Manual-RP.pdf

I have the battery, but the solar panels haven't shipped yet.

I'm working to get this thing ready for a trip on Dec. 13th, so do have a fairly tight timeline.
 

JoeIpsen

New member
A follow-up from talking with Tech Support of the Power Center:

On Mon, Nov 15, 2021, 9:10 AM Technical Support <arterra.powerpros@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Joe,
Your 8735 will only charge a lithium battery to about 85% as it's charging algorithm is for a lead acid battery.
You need to swap out your 8735 with a 8735lis to charge your lithium battery at the proper voltage.
WF-8735LiS | wfcoelectronics.com

Shaun

My response to this was that the Solar panels connected to the Lithium battery should not have the same limitation, so this limitation for charging to 85% will only occur when charging from a shore line through the power center.

I followed up with a question asking whether there was any other issues with using the existing power center?
 

Forum statistics

Threads
189,927
Messages
2,922,300
Members
233,083
Latest member
Off Road Vagabond
Top