Freedom 458 Series Inverter/Charger

[Sangone]

How difficult is it to install? Goal is to run everything except the a/c and refrigerator and maybe no microwave. I have virtually no experience with electrical although I recently hard wired my Progressive Industries surge protector which seemed pretty simple.

Any good posts/links you can recommend?

Thanks all.

[Sangone]

How difficult is it to install? Goal is to run everything except the a/c and refrigerator and maybe no microwave. I have virtually no experience with electrical although I recently hard wired my Progressive Industries surge protector which seemed pretty simple.

Any good posts/links you can recommend?

Thanks all.

[Scooter]

Don't attempt this yourself. You could damage your new inverter/charger. Visit www.rvsolarelectric.com and talk to Doug.

You did not mention a monitor. Look at the Link 1000.

Find an experienced RV tech familiar with electrical installs.

I saw your post about more batteries. Why not use the cargo storage right next to the entry steps for more batteries and the inverter/charger?

[Sangone]

Thanks Scooter. I would love to contact those guys and pick their brains but probably won't be buying from them. I found a place in Florida that sells refurbished Freedom 458 inverter/charger at a very attractive price. I will be buying a monitor as well.

As for the batteries in the storage compartment next to the stair, my concern would be the lack of air circulation for the batteries.

[Scooter]

I would guess that the FL supplier will give you a 90 day warranty. Xantrex gives you 30 months, maybe 36. If something goes wrong with the inverter you might have to box it up and send it off for repairs. Hope not.

Air circulation is not a problem. A 1 or 2 inch hole can be drilled in the compartment wall and a 1 or 2 inch flexible line can be fitted to let air in and keep water out.

I had this setup on our departed truck camper and am doing this again on our Sightseer. The cargo compartment will be divided to provide separate battery and inverter/charger compartments.

We will have a Quickee battery slide out tray and add four 6 volt GC batteries and also replace the two 12 volts that came under the stair step.

I would highly suggest that you call Xantrex and talk to Nick Klein in customer service. Tell him what you want to do and he'll help you. He's going to be in Perry at the FMCA Rally next week, so he might not be able to respond as soon as you wish. Try him anyway.

Tomcat F15

[Cruzer]

The Freedom 458 is a modified sine wave inverter. Modified sine waves have typically been used in the RV industry because they cost half as much as a true sine wave. But, a true sine wave inverter offeres much cleaner power. Recently, Xanretx introduced the RS2000 true sine wave inverter. It's the same physical size as the Freedom 458 and is designed for RVs. It's also much less in cost and is even more reliable than the Prosine series of true sine wave units that it is now replaceing. I'm waiting for the RS3000 to come out myself. You can see these at www.donrowe.com, which is where I'm getting my RS3000 from as soon as Xantrex has it available.

The RS series also uses the Xanbus data buss technology which uses cat5 cabling (like Ethernet) to communicate with the various devices. This makes it easy to integrate other accessories, like the Xanbus version of the Automatic Generator Start, or a battery monitoring system. All of the data (battery charge level, etc) is shared amongst all devices on the data bus and the whole thing works as a "system".