Magnum Inverter Installation

I finally did it. I broke down and bought the Magnum MSH3012M inverter with all the bells and whistles (AGS, BMK, Adv Remote, and 2 300Ah 6v batteries). Since I had neither the time, not the knowledge, I opted to let a shop do the install. Just got the trailer back and so far, I am very happy. It looks very clean. Here are some pictures. I really should have removed the wall and got some pics of behind. Maybe this weekend.





There were a things that did not happen during this install that I had wanted, but I can definitely live with them. I wanted to be able to use all three A/C's at any given time, since this inverter will add supplemental power if the draw is too high. I also would have added the fridge to it, but I suppose that would have been too much draw on the system.

Jeff, that looks great. Can't wait to hear how well it works. Do you have plans of going to a residential fridge in the future?

Do you feel like you have lost much storage space with it mounted on the floor of the basement? I have my el cheapo mounted vertically on the same wall as your AGS and I had planned to mount the Magnum in the same place. Also, where exactly is your sub panel mounted? This has been another puzzle for me.

I wanted to mount the Magnum on the wall with the AGS. It was just too heavy. The installer also thought about mounting it upside down on the ceiling, but they did not have a high level of confidence in that either. Their decision to mount where they did was to make it secure and have the lowest possibility of coming loose due to vibration or having a screw fail and dropping the unit. They also said airflow was important, so where it is mounted, we can build a box and get easy access to some fresh air. Luckily, we do not pack that storage area too full anyway. I try to limit the pin weight as much as possible, since we only have the animals in the garage and not a 1000 lb toy. The inverter and new batteries sure did not help pin weight. I have to go weigh it now and see what I have, but I guess it will be at least 100-150 lbs more. Those batteries are HEAVY!

The new breaker panel is located inside, just above the stock panel. I have no issue with it, as it is behind a cabinet door.

I have no interest in adding a residential fridge. We actually ordered the smaller fridge so we could have more storage space. Good call on that one. ;-)

Last night, I played around with running things on the inverter and am very happy so far. I will spend more time this weekend, but initial feelings are this will work great. I also need to tweak some setting from the advanced remote. It looks like they pretty much kept the default settings.

Ladiver said:

There were a things that did not happen during this install that I had wanted, but I can definitely live with them. I wanted to be able to use all three A/C's at any given time, since this inverter will add supplemental power if the draw is too high. I also would have added the fridge to it, but I suppose that would have been too much draw on the system.

Click to expand...

I am not aware of an inverter "adding" supplemental power in addition to shore power - most of the time it is one or the other, controlled by discrete transfer switches (on to inverter/off to shore power; off to inverter/on to shore power). Maybe yours is configured different?

Fridge AC power off the inverter can be done, but running on LP is already an option on all adsorption fridges. My fridge is tied in to the inverter (on the slide plugs circuit), but I prefer to run on LP when inverting. It is not a significant draw.

Looks like a great install, neat and clean! I like the AGM batteries - what make and BCI group size are they? They look tall - BCI 903s?

I would check the default charge rates from the charger - I had to adjust my Xantrex charge rate to match my battery capacity. My research for my batteries suggested max charge at C/4, min C/10, where C is your battery bank capacity in Ah (20 hr).

Brian

brianharrison said:

I am not aware of an inverter "adding" supplemental power in addition to shore power - most of the time it is one or the other, controlled by discrete transfer switches (on to inverter/off to shore power; off to inverter/on to shore power). Maybe yours is configured different?

Fridge AC power off the inverter can be done, but running on LP is already an option on all adsorption fridges. My fridge is tied in to the inverter (on the slide plugs circuit), but I prefer to run on LP when inverting.

Brian

Click to expand...

Brian, the MHS Series is a "Hybrid" (check photos) and that is the way it functions. It supplements an AC deficiency, such as on start ups, using inverted power.

scottyb said:

Brian, the MHS Series is a "Hybrid" (check photos) and that is the way it functions. It supplements an AC deficiency, such as on start ups, using inverted power.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the clarification - I learned something today......

Brian

Brian,

I have a new "hybrid" inverter that allows the supplemental power. I have not tested it yes, but will this weekend.

I suppose running the fridge on on the inverter comes down to a very narrow scenario... If you are boodocking and run out of propane, what is more important, hot coffee in the morning or a cold beer?

Brian,

I opted for ungodly expensive Lifeline batteries. The ones I got were GLP-6CT with 300AH. They are designed for charging amps up to 750 amps, or 250% AH capacity. That would be something like C*2.5 rather than C/4. I will double check with the inverter programming is set to for charging.

Ladiver said:

Brian,

I opted for ungodly expensive Lifeline batteries. The ones I got were GLP-6CT with 300AH. They are designed for charging amps up to 750 amps, or 250% AH capacity. That would be something like C*2.5 rather than C/4. I will double check with the inverter programming is set to for charging.

Click to expand...

Those are some batteries; I can see why they are expensive.

Brian

Yes, these are high end batteries. One of the reasons we went that route was the extremely fast charge capability. I won't need to run the generator all day to recharge. I should get a good charge with only a few hours. This was a consideration since I can see us ultimately getting to solar power.