| Author | Message | ||
| Douglas Tappan (Dougthebonifiedbusnut)
Registered Member Username: Dougthebonifiedbusnut Post Number: 144 Registered: 10-2004 Posted From: 75.69.218.201  Rating: N/A |
Hey All, At this point in my conversion process I would like to run the heater while worhing on the bus so I would like to find a "converter" to run the furnace as I have plenty of AC power. Why is it so hard to find a converter to supply 12v to run the heater and a few other DC things? | ||
| Derrick Thomas (Thomasinnv)
Registered Member Username: Thomasinnv Post Number: 3 Registered: 10-2010 Posted From: 69.19.14.33 Rating: N/A |
if you're looking for new www.bestconverter.com has a pretty good selection and pretty good prices. | ||
| Dallas Farnworth (Dallas)
Registered Member Username: Dallas Post Number: 155 Registered: 7-2004 Posted From: 98.20.57.89  Rating: N/A |
I use a WFCO 8955 or 9855?. It's stand alone, has a 3 stage charger for the house batteries and supplies 55 amps of 12V DC Just a note, With this converter/charger I haven't needed to add water to the house batteries for about 2 1/2 years. | ||
| R.C.Bishop (Chuckllb)
Registered Member Username: Chuckllb Post Number: 1428 Registered: 7-2006 Posted From: 70.218.46.84  Rating: N/A |
Doug...might want to check out the Marine places...like Defender, Hamilton or even West Marine...they have been having some pretty good prices on stuff in recent days. Get on their email list and watch for specials. How's the conversion coming? RCB | ||
| Bill 340 (Bill_340)
Registered Member Username: Bill_340 Post Number: 127 Registered: 7-2006 Posted From: 75.203.175.53  Rating: |
Run it off a battery charger, ran one of our coaches a year that way, while living in it, Just 12 v | ||
| Teresa (Happycamperbrat)
Registered Member Username: Happycamperbrat Post Number: 69 Registered: 5-2009 Posted From: 173.25.102.158 Rating: N/A |
Please explain to this dummy why a converter? why not another inverter instead if needed..... Im confused cuz everything I have read says converters are bad. I have a converter that I took out of my stripped motorhome, but I thought I was going to have to replace it with an inverter. Maybe I should use both an inverter and a converter? | ||
| Dallas Farnworth (Dallas)
Registered Member Username: Dallas Post Number: 161 Registered: 7-2004 Posted From: 98.20.57.89 Rating: N/A |
Teresa, Converters take 120V AC and turn it into 12V or24V Filtered DC. Inverters take 12V or 24V DC and turn it into 120V AC. Just as with inverters, there are good ones and not so good ones and some downright junky ones. Some of the better converters come with a 3 stage charging feature, whereas the cheaper ones just continue to charge as much as possible and eventually cook the batteries. I've replaced some in some MH's and camper's that were nothing more than a really cheap charger and would burn up a set of batteries in a month or less. Iota makes some good converters especially if they have the IQ4 system installed. WFCO, (The brand I have), has the charging profile automatically installed at the factory. Filtered DC is preferable to unfiltered DC in that it gives you a clean source of power without interference. This interference can cause unwanted noise in many of the DC and AC audio/video systems in your coach (Think a high or low pitched constant buzzing noise), plus can cause your DC systems to act strangely and shorten the lives of light bulbs and even the water pump and furnace motors. I'm sure someone else will provide a better explanation than I can. So I'll stop with that, except to say that I use both an inverter and a converter. They are mutually exclusive and have opposite functions. | ||
| FAST FRED (Fast_fred)
Registered Member Username: Fast_fred Post Number: 1375 Registered: 10-2006 Posted From: 69.19.14.43  Rating: N/A |
A converter is the old way tom power an RV , it holds the battset at about 13V , so there is a tiny charge , but no big loss of water. When the Voltage drops the unit provides the 12V power. This was the best there was 30 -40 years ago, but today the modern battery charger (stand alone or as part of an inverter) works far better. The choice of stand alone or as built into an inverter will be up to you. The inverter / charger costs more (and does more) but both sides die together. A stand alone charger is probably less subject to damage from misuse and costs way less. Your Way? FF | ||
| George M. Todd (George_todd)
Registered Member Username: George_todd Post Number: 1150 Registered: 8-2006 Posted From: 99.68.214.35 Rating: N/A |
Dallas's explanation is just fine! Un-filtered (or pulsating) DC is hard on DC powered equipment, while most of the better inverters have very well controlled battery charging accidentally built into them, as they use the same transformer and transistors, etc to do both battery charging and making 120 VAC. Besides, the inverter with battery charging takes up half the space that an inverter plus a seperate charger does. Two sets of DC and AC wiring? A stand-alone charger has to be connected to the bus electric panel, to charge the batteries while on shore or gen, but disconnected while on inverter power. Some method of changeover between shore and gen is also required when doing it that way, along with isolating a cheap inverter from shore power going in the output, which tends to let a LOT of the smoke out. The better RV inverters will do all of this for you... G |
