Selling our Phoenix Cruiser

Cheryl and I have decided to rent a seasonal site and will be selling our 2004 PC 2350. Lots of great upgrades were done this spring. Everything works great. There’s approximately 77,000 miles on it. If you know someone who’s looking for one, pass this along.

You should have no trouble at all selling Vandor using RVT.com

Before signing off,  can you please post the details for upgrading an early model battery box to dual coach batteries ? Thanks, and best of luck with your new endeavors.

I understand that battery box with tray removed, will handle two batteries.  Install AGM to avoid adding water.

Yes, that’s the thing to make this upgrade workable. The door to the battery box is a lot smaller than the inside of the box itself. The single battery tray is easily removed by removing the mounting screws. Then there is room for two batteries but not much room to spare. That’s why the conversion works only with sealed batteries such as AGMs or lithium. But it does indeed work!  I used Group 27 Lifeline AGMs and they were the same size as the Interstate flooded battery. As part of this upgrade I also installed a Victron battery monitor so that I can see exactly how the batteries are doing and if you don’t already have one I highly recommend them. The little lights on the monitor panel that PC provides don’t tell you anything about your batteries!

Tncanuck,  did you install 2  -  12 volt AGM'S ?      And did you have to change out your original converter  ?   Keep it stock ?     Engine alternator ?     I'm all stock with my  2006  2700, one battery,  and wondering about

doing the 2 AGM  change-over, and if it will be sufficiently charged as is, or will need modifying.

jim

The little lights on the monitor panel that PC provides don’t tell you anything about your batteries!

That is certain.  Our green, yellow, red lights on the stove hood and secondary Tripp-Lite monitor for battery health are worse than having nothing because they are very misleading.  I already waited too long to charge the batteries when the indicator changes from green to yellow.

I installed a simple volt meter that will also display the time and temperature.  I installed it on the stove hood panel as shown.  Though still not an ideal monitoring method, I quickly adapted to understand the voltage readings under various-use conditions, indicating when it is time to recharge our two house batteries.

I'm all stock with my 2006 2700, one battery, and wondering about doing the 2 AGM  change-over, and if it will be sufficiently charged as is, or will need modifying.

jim

Hi Jim,

I am not familiar with your particular 2006 model year on-board battery charger.  But when changing to AGM technology, chargers sold 10-15 years ago need to be configured for AGM.  It usually is done by relocating a jumper or reconfiguring switches on the charger.  If you don't have the manual for your charger, look for the model number on it, google it, and find the user/operation manual on-line for it.  In the document, it would be very clear if your charger can handle AGM batteries, and if so, how to make the adjustment.  On my 2007 Tripp-Lite, the change took a half hour to find & read up on it, and a few seconds to reconfigure the switches.

In this picture of a Tripp-Lite, the switches are red and white, located just left of the green/yellow/red LEDs.

I did change the converter/charger as part of the battery upgrade. The 15 year old Elixer model was a single stage charger and AGMs require a multi stage charger. Boondocker makes a converter/charger/ distribution panel that is a direct replacement for the Elixer. It works great. I did not change the alternator at all and so far so good there too. I was concerned about alternator compatibility with lithium batteries but given the huge cost of them I chose AGM over lithium.

The battery setup I chose is the Lifeline AGM, Group 27, 12 volt.  Connected in parallel they provide 12 volts and 200 amp hours of power.  So running them down to 50% I have 100 amp hours available. They have performed perfectly so far.

Hello, I sent you an email regarding your PC.  I’ve yet to introduce myself as we r traveling and my typing is bad enough when stationary..
thanks, Cathy and Scott

Thanks, Ron and Tncanuck for your helpful info.      Will look into both ideas.

Well, Vandor is gone!  We were sad to see it drive away but I know it’s in great hands.  Congrats to Cathy and Scott, a very cool couple who fell in love with Vandor enough that they want to keep the name alive!  That’s so cool.  By the way, Vandor is the Hungarian word for wanderer!  All the best to Cathy and Scott in their new adventures with Wanderer, I mean Vandor!!

Thanks TNCANUCK! Scott and I are super excited about our future with Vandor. Today as we drove through torrential downpours, Nashville rush hour and bumpy roads we appreciated the PC smooth solid ride. Part was the PC and part was the work you had done to it. We will send you pics of him at the next mountain camp trip we take.  He is going to have to get acclimated to some high altitude and dry weather. Thanks again C and S