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  1. Martinjmpr

    Troubleshooting Renogy 20A DC-DC converter?

    Also just adding that the DC-DC charger did a great job keeping the power pack battery charged on our recent 2 week trip to the Gulf Coast of Texas (Corpus Christi/Padre Island.) Of course, it wasn't much of a test since we were experiencing record cold temperatures almost the entire time...
  2. Martinjmpr

    Troubleshooting Renogy 20A DC-DC converter?

    Just a quick follow up: I let the battery in the power pack run down to 85% on a recent camping trip just to test the 20' 8AWG cable to see if the voltage drop was causing the lower amperage on charging. Here it is with the DC-DC charger connected directly to the LIFEPO battery with a short...
  3. Martinjmpr

    Troubleshooting Renogy 20A DC-DC converter?

    Dave: That's pretty much what I'm looking to do. I assume I'd need those big two-handed crimpers you have for wires of that gauge? Speaking of which, do you have a link to them? It seems that 8AWG is about the biggest wire I can crimp with my current crimper. I don't mind investing in a...
  4. Martinjmpr

    Troubleshooting Renogy 20A DC-DC converter?

    I like the idea of hard wiring an inverter but there simply is not enough space under the hood to put one and I don't want something that is connected all the time anyway, it's just not necessary. Obviously there are multiple ways to skin this cat but I'm looking for one that requires the...
  5. Martinjmpr

    Troubleshooting Renogy 20A DC-DC converter?

    Because this is intended to charge the trailer batteries when I am stationary for a long period of time. Essentially, what I am looking for is a potential alternative to carrying a generator to keep the batteries charged when we are boondocking for an extended period of time. On two recent...
  6. Martinjmpr

    Troubleshooting Renogy 20A DC-DC converter?

    So what about my second idea: Get a 1000W pure sine wave inverter, put it into some kind of box or case for easy transport, and have a couple of hefty (maybe 2 - 4AWG?) cables connecting to the truck battery via alligator clips. Then plug my regular 120v AC charger (30A) into that and attach...
  7. Martinjmpr

    Troubleshooting Renogy 20A DC-DC converter?

    Dave: I think the length and gauge of the cable has to be the most likely answer. When I disconnected the 20' cable and connected the battery using the short cable in the cab of the truck (maybe 18" max) the current went back up to 20. Since the length and gauge was the ONLY variable it's...
  8. Martinjmpr

    Troubleshooting Renogy 20A DC-DC converter?

    OK, this approach fascinates me as well. Even better it requires no additional equipment. If I'm understanding you correctly, you just ran a cable (maybe just jumper cable?) directly from the truck's battery to the LiFePo battery bank. My biggest fear is either potential damage to the battery...
  9. Martinjmpr

    Troubleshooting Renogy 20A DC-DC converter?

    For those that followed my other thread, one of the things I was looking to do was to see if I could charge the TRAILER batteries using the 20A DC-DC charger. I made a 20' long cable from 8AWG wire and two Anderson connectors. The idea being that if I put an Anderson on my trailer batteries...
  10. Martinjmpr

    Troubleshooting Renogy 20A DC-DC converter?

    Dave, My Man! You figured it out! It doesn't help that my manual doesn't have that extra page that you have. Took me a few read-throughs but I finally got it. I blame the technical writers at Renogy for that. I've seen people on other forums complain about the less-than-adequate...
  11. Martinjmpr

    Ecoflow Alternator Charger

    Nice thing about the Suburban is that the alternator swap is a 10 minute job (at least it was on my 1500.) I think I only needed one tool (13mm? socket.) I'm pretty fumble-fingered so if I can do that swap in 15 minutes, literally anybody can.
  12. Martinjmpr

    Troubleshooting Renogy 20A DC-DC converter?

    OK this is a sequel to my previous thread posted here: https://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/dc-dc-charger-as-an-alternative-to-generator.246276/ I appreciate all the help I got in that thread especially from Dave in AZ I'm now zeroing in on one specific component of my system, the...
  13. Martinjmpr

    DC-DC charger as an alternative to generator?

    OK, I'm going down a different rabbit hole so I'm going to start a new thread specifically for the Renogy DC-DC charger since that appears to be the issue I'm dealing with now. Thanks for all the input!
  14. Martinjmpr

    DC-DC charger as an alternative to generator?

    That seems a little "redneck" to me, converting 12v to 120v and then running it through the converter to convert it back to 12v. Besides the issue of having to run 30+ feet of 1AWG cable from the truck to the trailer. Easier to put a DC-DC charger in the trailer but I would still have to run...
  15. Martinjmpr

    DC-DC charger as an alternative to generator?

    OK, next update. As I previously stated back in 2020 I made a "power box" using a trolling motor battery case and a 90AH FLA battery. It was a boat anchor (literally weighed about 75lbs) but it did a decent job keeping the fridge charged up, and it was attached to the Renogy 20A DC-DC charger...
  16. Martinjmpr

    DC-DC charger as an alternative to generator?

    Well, my 100AH LiFePo "smart battery" has been ordered and should be here shortly. That will go in the trolling motor box that I use for a portable power source. Since it has the Bluetooth monitoring app I should be able to get a real-time measure of the number of amps that my DC-DC charger is...
  17. Martinjmpr

    DC-DC charger as an alternative to generator?

    Well, no, not really. The batteries in the trailer are LFP. Inside the truck I have a home built "power box" that I made in 2019 to run the fridge. THAT currently uses a 90AH FLA battery but its also a boat anchor that weighs probably 80lbs. PITA to move. I put the DC-DC charger in the...
  18. Martinjmpr

    DC-DC charger as an alternative to generator?

    So after all this it seems I'll need to go to 6AWG cable in order to get the 20A charger to be able to put out max output. I presume something like this would work? I like this one because it has double sheathing and the pos and neg cables are not separate, which should make it easier to...
  19. Martinjmpr

    DC-DC charger as an alternative to generator?

    (Continued from previous post) The short answer regarding my question is that, at least as I'm currently set up, the DC-DC charger is NOT suitable for keeping the lithium batteries charged. Accordingly, we are shopping for a small generator (probably ~2000w), quiet and preferably dual fuel...
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