Coach Battery Compartment & Wiring

Hello Ron
You are correct, the wood may burn if there is some kind of arcing say maybe from a loose connection etc. Jim brought up the idea of changing to a different type of material that is non-conductive. I had some 18 Gauge steel I could have used but I like the non-conductive idea. Anyhow here is the last picture of  the finished product ( if I don't change the wood out). You can see I added terminal covers, lexan and the Victron BMV-712 battery monitor.  I mounted it in the battery compartment, the reason is the bluetooth lets you sit in the coach and check everything you need to, one less thing to find a spot for inside.

Don't take my comment too serious.  Every good idea can be scrutinized as a bad idea.  Just watch the news.  Please understand that I was not implying "bad idea".  Those fuses are designed to contain a failure, not light up like a Roman Candle.

Your over-all modification is excellent.  If you were exceptionally concerned of a fire, consider mounting something like 3/8" cement board between the wood and your electricals.  But that could be taking the precaution too far.

Lance: how are you feeling about your Victron?
Thinking about springing for one soon.
Did it work out for you leaving it in the battery compartment and relying on the app to get info?

Also, got any update on the two AC experiments you mentioned?

Hope all is well, Jim G.

Hello Jim
The Victron battery monitor is excellent. It works great and its one less piece of hardware I didn't need to mount inside. I have no problem connecting to it and see where I am at in the batteries state of charge. It also gives you an estimation on how long your battery will last at current discharge rate, very cool...

The A/C's I haven't really gotten out on the road to test, but have done some testing at home.  I found that both changes have equally worked well.  The straw is obliviously the easiest to complete. What I have noticed is that the A/C compressors don't cycle off before the room temperature is reached. The inside temperature was at 104 and I started the the rear AC and it pulled the coach down to 84, and that is as low as the AC could get the temp.  Compressor stayed running and discharge air temp was in the low 40's. So the AC was doing all it was capable of to cool the coach.  The actual outside temperature was 95 degrees. So for me keeping the compressors running and not cycling off helps. I think the change is well worth the effort. If I run both AC's the coach comes down to set temperature with no issues. I think time in real world application will tell the story.