Converter?

lonehunter · 06-10-2018, 07:50 PM

Hi everyone. We have a T-2363 and the power converter/battery charger has stopped working. It appears that I can just replace the converter and wire the new one to the existing fuse block.

Is there a down side to doing it that way rather than replacing the whole converter/fuse block asembly?

What is the best replacement converter for the money?

Any input will be appreciated!

Thanks,
Jeff

**JohnB** · 06-10-2018, 08:12 PM

Hi and welcome! Glad you found us.

Many have done what you are talking about, upgrade the convertor part and leave the fuses and AC breakers in place. I did that on mine.

To which way is better sort of "depends" on the situation. What year is your T-2363? And what make and model converter do you have now?

If the fuses and breaker parts are still all good then it works out well to just upgrade the converter assuming the brand/make one you have some of the newer upgraded converters will fit.

Brands, I have the Progressive Dynamics and it is a very good converter. Some have used the Boondocker brand and report it as good too.

This place is very helpful on selecting one and priced well too. I bought mine from them years ago and has a positive outcome. BestConverter - Converters, Inverters, Electrical Supplies, Electronics

The Progressive Dynamics brand they sell is the 4600 series which is made to fit in some brand converter housings. 4600 series Upgrade Kits

And they have this one too for other brands.
PD 4135 35 Amp Power Center

If you have room you can add a deck mounted replacement and run the cables to the fues panel

The boondocker Boondocker Converters

The Progressive dynamics Progressive Dynamics Inteli-Power Converters

In my case I went with a deck mount upgrade as back then they did not sell the kits to convert other brands like they do now. Here is my upgrade. http://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f6...rade-8888.html

Others on the site have done converter upgrades too. Tell us you make and model and we can help better. Sunline changed the brands over the years.

Hope this helps

John

lonehunter · 06-11-2018, 08:32 AM

JohnB, Thanks for the reply! It is a 2000 model and it has a Centurion CS4500 currently in it.

The fuse panel appears to be in good shape, so I believe it would be easier to just replace the converter.

It is a 45 amp converter, would it be better to go with a larger converter when I replace it.

Thanks again,
Jeff

**JohnB** · 06-11-2018, 08:56 PM

The 45 amp capacity is adequate on a camper the size of yours. If you actually convert to LED lights inside, it is for sure powerful enough.

Under normal conditions the only way you are pulling 45 amps is running a lot of 12 VDC in the camper while charging a very high discharged battery at the same time. The battery will old take about 20 to 25 amps tops the way Sunline wired the system. And they put a 30 amp fuse in the charging line anyway. This leaves 20 amps of 12 volts to run the camper in this unusual situation.

Question: How long have you had the camper and have you ever run out of 12 volt power?

The lights in the camper if you are still on the standard incandescent 921 T5 wedge base lights, each light bulb can draw 1.4 amps. 10 lights on at the same time is 14 amps. If you go LED's which can replace the bulb, many of them are at 0.13 to most 0.25 amps or less, 10 lights on is 1.3 amps to 2.5 amps. I used these to replace my 921's https://www.superbrightleds.com/more...0-lumens/2805/

That said, if you are into a boondocking setup with a generator and you fix the wiring issues in the camper to pump above 30 amps to the battery, then going to a 60 amp converter would be a benefit. That is about the only benefit I can think of for the 60 amp version in a camper of your size. If you had a bigger camper with a slide and bigger battery bank then I would go the 60 amp.

Best converter says this on the Centurion CS4500 Centurion CS 3000 Replacement

They are saying , for 30 amp and under use the Progressive Dynamics drop in model and for 45 and 60 amps use the Boondocker as PD does not yet make a 45 or 60 amp drop in model. The Boondocker I believe is a 60 amp unit they are quoting. Having the every 15 amps to get it to fit is not a bad thing, just you may never use all 60 amps.

Call them and make sure the Boondocker will fit like they say it will. If you have the room, you can always go with a deck mounted unit and run 2 large 12 VDC lines to the fuse panel then you could use the Progressive Dynamics deck mount or the Boondocker deck mount.

I cannot recall if one of our members cut and made this PD unit fit their 45 amp Centurion. http://www.bestconverter.com/PD4645V...ant_p_351.html. I'll hunt a little and see if I can find it.

Hope this helps

John

**JohnB** · 06-11-2018, 09:21 PM

OK I found the post I was thinking of.

See this one, it started out with a problem that lead them to installing a new Iota DLS45 converter w/ IQ4 "smart charger" from bestconverter.com in their T2363 in a remote location to avoid potential water leak issues from the shower unique to the 2363 location.

http://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f6...ues-14073.html

lonehunter · 06-12-2018, 03:31 PM

We just got this camper and have only used it 1 weekend to camp in. We were plugged into the shore power and had a very annoying whine coming from I believe the converter. We had no problem with running the lights.

I have ordered a Progressive Dynamics PD9245-CV Inteli-Power

So hopefully it will solve our problems.

Thanks for the help!

Jeff

**JohnB** · 06-12-2018, 05:37 PM

OK Good. The PD converter is a good one and light years ahead of the one it is replacing.

I see you ordered the deck mount, I'm assuming you will remotely mount it and cable in the 12 volt positive and negative to the fuse block?

Let us know if you need more help

John

lonehunter · 06-12-2018, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnB

3. I used these to replace my 921's https://www.superbrightleds.com/more...0-lumens/2805/
John

John I see the LEDs you used are 130 Lumens, do you find that is enough lite?

Looking on ebay, I see some of the LEDs are producing 600 + Lumens.

I would think that would be way to much.

Does the color of the lite make a difference?

Thanks,
Jeff

mainah · 06-12-2018, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lonehunter

John I see the LEDs you used are 130 Lumens, do you find that is enough lite?

Looking on ebay, I see some of the LEDs are producing 600 + Lumens.

I would think that would be way to much.

Does the color of the lite make a difference?

Thanks,
Jeff

600 is a lot of light LED's are directive where as a bulb scatterers light everywhere. Look at the color temp 3000 to 3800 is like house lighting as the number go up the light becomes more white until about 6500 where it matches close to sunlight color.

lonehunter · 06-12-2018, 06:25 PM

Thanks for the reply. 600 lumens seemed way to much to me also. I think the color temp is the info I needed.

Thanks,
Jeff

**JohnB** · 06-13-2018, 09:54 AM

Hi Jeff,

When LED's first came out in the semi affordable stage... they did not have as many advancements as they do today. Now they are brighter and cheaper. Mine are 110 lumens and the same new ones are 130 lumens and cost at least 50 to 60% less.

The original 921 incandescent light bulb is brighter then 130 lumens, but I have found the 110 to 130 lumens is acceptable. There for sure is a notable difference brighter between the 110 and the 130.

To the color range, like mainah stated you need to watch which color range you get. And this is also a personal choice.

We picked "warm white" as the main LED lights. It is closer to incandescent light in the camper now.

I did install 2 "cool white" LED's in the area the wife reads at. This is brighter and makes reading easier. However in our view, it is too bright for the entire camper. Sort of too obnoxious to us , but again this is personal preference. Some like the cool white.

The 600 lumen to us would be like the sun inside.

That said, if you go below 100 lumens in the 2 light fixtures on the ceiling, that is really about the limit of not enough light, again for us.

mainah · 06-13-2018, 05:42 PM

The higher color temps tend to make it easier for us older folks to see, the one I use in the camper for reading is 5K it's pretty white the ones over the kitchen counter are the same the rest are more like house light temps. Little LED's are deceiving they can make a huge amount of light 600 lumens are the type you would find in some pretty powerful spotlights they also are pretty high in degrees K meaning they are very white. Older campers had heavy old transformers in their power supplies and were used to power things like old incandescent lights and fans more that charge batteries. my camper had 13 bulbs they drew 23 amps just shy of what the system could provide I ended up with 15 LED's they drew 3.08 amps with half again the light.