21C battery/inverter placement

So I ended up installing the batteries and additional components under the dinette seats. Overall, I'm happy with the outcome. I decided to invest in a little more 2/0 wire and store the batteries on the curb side where Escape had placed the original battery to utilize their ground wire out to the frame and to keep the inverter I purchased on the road side. This used up about half the space on each side (see pics).

I decided to go with the Progressive Dynamics PD1620A inverter which has a built in ATS and only wired in one of the 120v circuits wired by Escape to include the microwave outlet in the cabinet above the wardrobe and the 2 outlets above the bed on the road side. The install instructions from PD specify NOT placing the inverter next to the batteries because their unit is not" ignition protected". I don't think this would have been an issue with LiFePO4 batteries nor with the original lead acid battery in a ventilated box but it wasn't hard to comply with this specification once I made the decision to run 2/0 wire from the curb side seat to the road side seat.

Once chosen, the PD1620A deleted the need for a subpanel if I could live with only one 120V circuit energized with the inverter. After talking it over with the "boss", we decided that would work for us - the inverter is for periodic use of the microwave and hair dryer (definitely not at the same time). I only had to remove the romex from that circuit and route it to the PD1620A and run a short length of new romex from the breaker in the converter box to the PD1620A.

I also decided to add a Victron solar charge controller along with the Victron DCDC charger, and adding this all to the road side dinette seat area just makes sense and allowed me to mount both those units vertically to an aluminum panel (painted black in the photo). My solar charge controller just feeds out the "enlarged" existing hole for the converter box ground cable to a home fabricated bracket holding the heavy gauge SAE connector (I only have 200 watts of solar panels and do not want to mount them on the trailer).

You may notice I added two new switches. An A/B/Both switch near the batteries allows me to balance the two 280 ah batteries by charging them independently every so often as specified by the manufacturer. I decided to keep the Escape installed cutoff switch to allow me to separate the batteries from the converter if we are attached to shore power. Adding a second cutoff switch brings the converter 12v power around the first cutoff and to the input side of the DCDC charger. So with the first cutoff switch "off" and the second cutoff switch "on", the DCDC charger is fed from the converter and will charge the batteries. I like the Victron charging profile and its adjustable parameters much better than the "automatic detection" profile in the WFCO converter.

The hardest part of this whole job was fishing the needed wire up to the electrical connector to energize the emergency brakes going around the DCDC charger, but this was doable with patience. What worked for me was removing one of the back panels in a lower cabinet and fishing a string attached to a piece of romex forward from the dinette. If I'd have had Escape install the DCDC charger, I'd likely have had to move its location anyways.
 

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I ended up removing the bed foundation to fish the emergency brake feed forward which was like "pulling a thread" cascading a new set of projects.

I ended up strengthening the bed foundation frame as many have discussed on this forum. I couldn't resist, but tried to be mindful that more strength is probably not necessary and adds additional weight. I decided not to attach the "joist" to the wall piece on the road side theorizing there may be a reason Escape doesn't do that unknown to me. Rather, I added a 3/4 pine board under the "joist" attached to the wall piece but not the "joist". So they can rest on this added board but also "move". I use that in quotes because once the plywood is attached to both on top, I don't see any movement happening.

I also decided to add a storage box under the bed on casters and used the popular milk crate approach found elsewhere on this forum. I personalized it a bit by making the box out of 1/4 in Luan rather than buying milk crates. It allowed me to lengthen the box slightly (57" overall) and lower it a half an inch as well. I wish I would have made it a bit (1/2-3/4 of an inch) narrower than the 13 inch milk crate dimension. It works but it is a bit tight and the door handle has to make contact with the cabinet door behind it. I've added a picture of my solution to a "ramp" or "threshold" over the under bed door and pex water pipes present. It also serves as the rear stop. I added some protection for the black tank and pipe forward and the casters make contact with the 3/4 inch board as a forward stop.

Finally, I added a 12v outlet above the shelf for a CPAP that lives on that shelf above the bed (a better shelf extension for said CPAP is still in the design stage) and a pair of 12v outlets in the storage area. I had this unit already and though it may be useful to power something - maybe a 12v air compressor. There was a Wago lever block in the front corner that had 3 extra slots that made these additions very easy.

Finally, we painted the bed foundation plywood which is much discussed elsewhere on this forum. It may not be necessary, but we had the boards off and had the paint already anyways. The weight of the paint is probably negligible.
 

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We ended this list of projects currently, buy placing an inexpensive microwave in the cabinet. I will say, this project doesn't save much if any money over buying one installed by Escape. We ended up this way because at the time of order, we weren't sure if we even wanted a microwave. In our class B, we mostly used the microwave as a bread box. But after we took delivery and saw how much storage space we have in the 21C, we opted to install one. I was able to find a Coutoure RV microwave online that would have fit the space (a .7 cu ft is necessary) with a trim piece, it was a bit pricey and would have dedicated the entire cabinet space to a microwave. So we opted instead to place one in the rear of the cabinet. This necessitated moving the electrical outlet from the "wall" to the "floor" of the cabinet space and moving the magnetic door catch to the top of the door. The piece of Luan allowed me to add cutouts that help keep the microwave stationary. It is held in place with the screw in the outlet in the back and two small screws in the front. We'll likely need a piece of foam to hold the microwave in place vertically while traveling. Yes, this will be a pain to open the door if we place a bunch of stuff in front, but we do not plan to use it often and the door is still in place.
 

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I put my 2 x 206AH 12V LFP batteries in the very back of the curbside dinette bench, and the power wiring board under the center bench of the U dinette, which wasn't very accessible for storage anyways...

PXL_20220127_232551978-X3.jpg

With the batteries all the way in that rear corner, most of the curbside bench is available for storage (currently used for extra blankets and such)

the inverter is under the back of the street side bench, which happens to also be where my furnace is, that space is mostly used for light stuff like extra boxes of kleenex.
PXL_20220520_055614313-X4.jpg


I did the triple large milk crates for underbed storage,
IMG_20200703_140608-X3.jpg

but the closest one has heavy beverages (liquor, wine, beer, sparkling water, sodas), the middle one has the cleaning supplies, and the deepest/frontmost one has stuff we don't use often. The TP has gone into the top cabinets as its light, the portapacks are gone entirely in favor of a tub of Happy Camper (in the middle crate).

I didn't have to move any plumbing out of the way, the three crates are tied together with tiewraps, and slide in there nicely without any extra guides or anything.
 
Ahh, you have the rear bench/ U shaped dinette option. We opted for the standard dinette so we could get 4 people around the table with more room. My wife has opined a bit on this choice but it was too late to change. I still like the standard dinette, and there was enough room to fairly easily pull two 2/0 wires through the covered "wire closet" along the lower part of the rear wall to electrically link the curb and street side at high current levels. I guess I used the "road" side in my earlier posts since I live in the country - which is the natural habitat of roads.

Did you notice any difference in your tongue weight after installing your batteries and assorted equipment on the rear wall??

Interesting how the layout of the utilities has changed in the 21C. I see your converter is curbside as well.

I think that door under the bed has narrowed up a bit as well. The standard 13" milk crate dimension still works but it is the very limit of what will work. I had to move the two vertical supports to the bed foundation just forward of that door from the curb side of the 1x2" piece attached to the floor to the street side of that piece (closer to the water heater). Further I had to trim a small triangular piece off the forward end of that 1x2" support attached to the floor so that the storage unit would roll past that forward end on the angle it has to be on to get out of that underbed space. That's why I said I wished I'd have made the storage box about 12 1/4" to 12 1/2" wide instead of 13".
 
re tongue weight, my 2 x 206AH 12V LFP batts were a fair bit lighter than the original 2 x flooded lead acid, and the rest of that stuff didn't amount to much weight. Now, my tongue definitely gets lightened by the 2 ebikes I carry on a 1Up SuperDuty hitch rack, so I make a point of putting heavy stuff as far forward as possible, under the bed, or even on the bed.
 

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