I think your plan to ground the anderson to chassis should be fine. Just really make sure you get it high quality connection. Grind to bare metal and then spray with paint or corrosion inhibitor after making connection.
Thanks TherealKT, What about my question re the OEM Battery Neg.
The only neg wire that I will be adding to the truck is the short run from the Anderson at the hitch to the closest place on the frame I can ground out ???
The other thing that is on my mind is the Tacomaâs 130 Amp Alternator to handle a 50A DC/DC Charger without frying the alternator. The jury is out, some say it will handle it, some say donât do it. But I do not know how I find out for certain.
Even the Redarc Rep didnât see a problem.
Hi Gentlemen
Thanks to you, this discussion prompted me to check losses in my cabling because the volt drops I was getting were more than double the amount predicted by the maths for my cables. I found two corroded earth connection that I have now cleaned up and yes, now I am happily charging at 20 to 30A for most of the cycle.
On wire gauge: I live in a metric country. We get 16 sq.mm cable which is about the largest that will fit in the Orion XS when bootlace ferrules are crimped on. The next largest size is 25 sq.mm that doesnât fit in the XS or in a 50A Andersen plug.
AWG equivalent is 6 AWG (13.3sq.mm) I have the XS, a MPPT 100/20 and a shunt all mounted on a portable battery box so cable runs from charger to house battery are very short. I use a connection to a 50A Andersen plug at my tow hitch to connect it. This gives about 7m total from starter battery to XS. I can run a shorter 4m cable more direcly and will do it soon but it requires quite a lot of interior trim removal so Iâve been putting it off.
My alternator is supposed to be 120A but may only be 85A. Difficult to tell as the user and workshop manuals are not specific. It is a euro spec 2001 Landcruiser VX V8. I had a rectifier pack burn out once before so I am careful about overloading it. That is why I have limited the XS to 25A. I tried it at 0p30A that also works.
Iâm looking at the 120A Anderson Type Plug as it accepts 2, 4 and 6AWG Wire.
What have others done with the trailer wire ? Did you run a longer lead, with Anderson (to reach Tow Vehicle) or put a second fixed plug at the trailer and make up a patch cord when towing and utilizing the DC/DC Charger.
Never had experience with Anderson plugs, what advice can you share in regards to mounting.
If one plug is mounted on the side of the trailer frame (no overhang) and the second slides into it, are they hard to get apart without the pull handle as one would not be able to get there hand around the removable piece as it too is flush to frame.
One of the main reason the DC-DC is used is for the purpose of NOT damaging the alternator. DC-DC chargers are essentially a voltage converter that also charges. It will, by design use what the alternator supplies, intelligently monitoring the house batteries according to your set parameters. Anyone who says the alternator canât handle the 50 amps the Orion will be capable of is talking out of ignorance or bad information.
Regarding your grounding question, you should be just fine using a common ground of the vehicle frame if you do it sufficiently. Its a pretty massive amount of steel conductor. In other words the starting battery grounded to the frame as it already is and the anderson plug at the bumper grounded sufficiently to the frame will be great.
This is correct.
Re the Anderson Plugs;
As I will be running 4 AWG wire, the corresponding Anderson is a 120A unit which take 2, 4, 6 AWG (Body getting up there in size and good for 120A).
Seeing I will be running 4 AWG wire with 673 Strands, If I was to remove a few strands and solder the wire in to the barrel of the connector, could I get away with the smaller 50A unit (it only accepts 6, 8, 10, 10 AWG Wire). as Iâm only pulling 50A.
I have read the barrels on some of these are a little over size anyway.
I would recommend going with the 120amp plug. The 50amp is a little small for 4Awg. You could pull it off by removing strands like you suggest but you are creating more resistance at that point. It probably wonât make a huge difference but why not just go with the correct size? Donât solder. Just crimp it correctly.
Here is a 6 AWG wire in a 50 amp Anderson plug terminal with some 4 AWG next to it. You would need to remove quite a bit to get it to fit.
Thanks TherealKT.
Everything Ordered. Once I get the components installed I will post up some pictures.
Thanks to all for the help here. What a great resource.
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Looks like my Anderson Plug came with the 2 AWG Pins. Have to search out the 4 AWG Pins or solder my wires into the 2 AWG terminals.
As my 4 AWG wire is small strands 673, they compress to fit Tightly into a 6 AWG Connector.
I found this will all of my project crimps from 2/0 to 6 AWG, I had to drop down one size with my hydraulic wire crimper.
How do you use a 12/12-30?
The Trailer socket support only 20A.
Donât forget that wire sizing is for round trip. Positive cable length PLUS negative cable length. So 64 feet.
Anyway there are many cable size calculators on the internet that you can use to do the calculations for you.
I have a victron DC/DC charger in my trailer from a non smart 120Amp alternator.
I STRONGLY advise that you pull both a positive wire AND a negative wire from the engine bay to a correctly sized anderson plug at the rear bumper. Do not rely on the chassis negative in anyway.
I would be going for a 70mm2 cable for your setup at 50Amps and 40 deg c temperature with a 70 deg c rated cable. Alternatively program the Orion XS to reduce the current to what your cables can handle.
You need dedicated separate wiring from the engine bay to the bumper, with a correctly sized fuse in the engine bay near the connection to the positive of the starter battery. Do not use existing âcaravanâ connectors. Use a dedicated anderson plug.
The connection between the trailer and the car is a source of large resistance (resulting in heat) and and voltage drop.
Charger arrived and installed yesterday. Be a few more months before we get to set it up and try it.
Thanks to all for your input, it made the job that much easier.
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Well done. I will be interested in hearing how it operates. Where did you get that power distribution block on the top of the battery shut off?
Thanks, for your help. I too hope it works out lol.
3 Way came from Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/RKURCK-Distribution-Stereo-Connecting-Splitter/dp/B08BXKSDG5