We decided to change out our old Vacu-U-Jet roof vents for some newer style 360 Siphon vents. The existing vents work well when going down the road, but they are directional in nature, not 360. Ours also had damage to the venturi cone, so they needed to be addressed, so a good time to try something new.
We updated all of our bay lights to LED strip lighting. I know others that have done this upgrade as well, but it’s always fun to write down what you did.
This was how our panel started. We felt it was time to replace and renew a few things. Ours is located on the far wall inside the engine compartment / under the bed.
With the inverter replacement, the relocation of the transfer switch, and all associated AC and DC wiring wrapped up, the next step was to review the existing DC wiring to make sure it would work with our new battery bay layout.
The battery compartment received a major upgrade. Originally, it housed three MK Gel 8D batteries, each rated at 225Ah. While that gave a combined capacity of 675Ah, the recommended safe depth of discharge (DoD) for gel batteries is around 50%, leaving roughly 335Ah of usable power.
The heart of the monitoring system is the Victron Cerbo GX, which links all components together. The Cerbo provides monitoring and control via a 7” touchscreen. You can also access it through Victron’s VRM Portal as long as the Cerbo has a WiFi connection.
With the AC wiring in place, it was time to mount the Multiplus II, PD52V 5200 Transfer Switch, and the 50 Amp EMS/Surge Protector. When adding the AC wiring, we left extra to allow flexibility in mounting — whether on a single wall or split between both.
We wanted to replace our XanTrek ProSine 2.5 inverter/charger with something more modern. We also wanted to update the Heliotrope RV-30DE solar charge controller as well as replace the single 100Watt solar panel that we had. We ended up choosing a Victron based system as we liked the features as well as many system components they offer.
