Xantrex 20 amp battery charger

       Ever so slowly I am carefully making progress. Today I finally connected my new Xantrex 20 amp battery charger, its a little on the small side for 400 amp hour batteries but soon I will be able to tell you if it can handle the load of charging those puppies. The book says they will work, just that it will take much longer. I have a feeling I will also have to do an equalize charge, as I have not properly maintained the batteries as religiously as I should have. 


With the help of my new friend bob who is an expert in all things at least RV solar related "click on his name to see his bolg" I am scared to plug in the d/c stuff without the worries something might blow up - even though I have installed fused and breakers up the wazoo !! D/C wiring is 100% new to me, however I am quite good with ac. So having bobs help watching me is giving me the needed push. Bob will tell you, something I already strongly assumed, which is that 90%+ of all RV solar installers will do the wiring WRONG !! The more you pay - the worse it will get.


Please check his blog , you can't go wrong with bob.


http://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/the-rv-battery-charging-puzzle-2/


My first big bitch about the Xantrex is that the space for the cable connection is way to small and what the hell is up with that stupid magnet wrapped around the ground wire ? For the life of me I can never understand why the hell it is legal to buy an electric appliance without a $3 cord attached ? Everybody in the USA must be a licensed electrician as far as I can tell !!


My second bitch is when you install the wires - those tinny screws holding the plastic covers are good for your glasses, but could they not be a litter bigger to remove those stupid covers how about #6 screws ? Again into my tool box for my eye glasses screwdriver set.


My third bitch is with the battery connectors for your wires to the battery, they are also made for midgets with extra small hands, even my tiny 3" long crescent wrench was way to big, so I had to dig in my tool box for a 1/4" drive and socket set.


If anybody can hear me out there I am 100% sure 99% of all consumers would pay an extra $10 for the wires to be already attached, also saving you 30 minutes reading the stupid book.

Space of 1.5" cubic inch is way to small to make connection.

Whats up with this stupid magnet ?

Charging nicely at 14.92 volts ;-))

I still need to do some work to secure & vent the battery properly prior to liftoff.

I also found this grounding lug that looked a little different.

here is the link where you can find it.