Cougar Battery Converter

[Phil]

I have a 2011 Cougar fiver, does anyone know where the battery converter is physically located? I have a WFCO 9800 somewhere, just can't find it.

[Johnnyfry]

It should be located adjacent to the AC-DC panel in the trailer. Mine is in the hallway outside the bathroom. (318SAB)

John

[Festus2]

I am surprised that your dealer or whoever you bought it from did not show you where the converter is located during your pre-delivery inspection and walk-through. In most RV's, it is situated at floor level in fairly close proximity to where your 110V shore power comes into your unit. When plugged in, you might hear a hum or a fan noise coming from it when certain lights are turned on.
It probably has a dark, vented metal-hinged cover which, when opened, will reveal fuses and breakers. There should be labels indicating which circuit(s) correspond to the various breakers and fuses.

[hankaye]

Phil, Howdy;

Look for a yellow semi circle, Dark Brown Metal facing ... everything else Festus2 said...

[chuckretnav]

Hi everyone seems like keystone likes to hide everything. I did a opps and blew the fuse on my converter. And had to find it on a trip. On the 327res it is located behind the circut breaker panel, in the kitchen on the floor, you have to remove the entire panel to get to it to find the two 30Amp fuses on the right side. Lots of fun to put them back in and the put the circuit breaker panel back in. Have a grandkid with you to lay on the floor and reach in to replace the fuse LOL :)

[slewis95407]

On the 326 it is located behind the sink. Can be accessed from the basement by removing a couple of screws and the whole wall comes out from in the basement.

[Phil]

Great, I'm sure I can find that, now more important.... Has anyone added a DC to AC inverter, maybe 2000 watts or so, something wired to run the AC stuff but not the converter (don't want to use batt power to charge the batts!), I'd really like to add one, don't know exactly how to wire into the panel.....

[Festus2]

Not exactly sure what you are asking but if you are considering adding an inverter to operate devices that require AC voltage, the inverter requires 12V from a battery source in order to function. Inverters do draw on a battery which will require recharging somehow - solar panel, generator, etc.
I am not sure how - or if - an inverter could be wired into a converter?????

[hankaye]

Phil, Howdy;

Great, I'm sure I can find that, now more important.... Has anyone added a DC to AC inverter, maybe 2000 watts or so, something wired to run the AC stuff but not the converter (don't want to use batt power to charge the batts!), I'd really like to add one, don't know exactly how to wire into the panel.....

I think what you are asking is ... can ya plug an inverter into the DC plugs that are located, say, near the TV to operate something like ... an A/C ? Trying to work with you've given us.
The folks that owned the Travel Trailer I just got rid of used to carry a bank of 12 volt batteries with them (8 or 10), for a weekends camping in the Mountains here in Utah. I guess they ran the microwave and the Television (TV), off of a 700 watt inverter.
If you were to give us somemore information we could help you better.

hankaye

[Johnnyfry]

Phil,

A 2000 watt inverter will draw nearly 200 amps from your house battery. You will need 500or 600 amp hours of batteries to do anything worthwhile with the inverter. Your trailer came with a single battery of about 120 amp hours or so. Since you should not discharge the battery below 50% if you want it to last, that gives you about 50 AH. At 2,000 watts that works out to about 15 minutes of bliss---followed by hours of darkness.

I too looked into the practicality of this and determined that a genset is a better option overall. The Honda 2000i weighs about 45lb and a 56dbA sound level @10 ft. You might consider a small (300w) inverter which would allow you to power a few small 120V items without breaking the (battery) bank.
A 12Volt TV is another good power saving option.

John

[Phil]

I'm thinking I'd like to add a DC - AC Inverter to supply 120v power to TV, MW, coffee pot, etc. when boondocking in the Rocky Mountains. I run a pair of 100 amp hour 12v batts, will probably add a third or just jump to 4 6v batts, I will add solar at the same time. Just need to know if anyone has installed an inverter and how to wire it around the current converter so as I feed 120v power into the outlets so I don't power the converter and feed 12v back to the batteries..... Maybe I need a switch for the converter and a separate one for the inverter and simply never have them both on at the same time?

[Johnnyfry]

I neglected to mention this in my previous post, but a large load such as an inverter would need to be located very close to the battery bank and wired with very thick wire.

You can't pull more than about 10 amps from a typical cig lighter style socket. That translates to 120 Watts.

While I am here on the subject, does anyone know of a decent DC socket capable of, say, 20 amps? Those cig style sockets are unreliable and don't handle much current.

John

[Johnnyfry]

Phil, not to belabor the point but you need to look at how much energy you are asking for. Remember, at 12volts 1 amp= 12watts.

Coffee maker 1,200 watts (typical) draws 100 amps. 20 minute run to make a pot= 1/3 hour x 100 amps = 33 amp hours to make a pot of coffee.

Microwave 1,500 watts (typical) draws 121 amps. Run it for 30 minutes you consume 60 AH from the batteries.

TV 120 watts (typ) 10 amps. Watch TV for 4 hours = 40 AH.

If this is a typical day, you will consume 133 amp hours, 166 if you do 2pots of coffee. Considering that you are considering 3 x100 AH batteries and that you should not take more than 50%, you have 150 AH to play with. That leaves you with 17 AH for water pump, lights, frig.

Better skip that second pot of coffee. You probably can't put (or afford) enough solar panels on the roof of your 5th to gain that back -- especially parked in the woods or on a cloudy day.

John