'83 Mobile Traveler - Replace power convertor with modern battery charger?

[vincebodie]

I am having issues with house battery charging and 12v accessories in my old Mobile Traveler. Everything worked great for a couple of years after we bought it until the rig sat for a while and the house battery went belly up.

Now with a new battery installed the 12v accessories were not functioning at all. I dug into the power convertor (B-W Manufacturing Series 6300, Model 6332) and found a couple of resistors that were fried based on the blackened surface of the circuit board underneath them.

I soldered in new resistors (you can see them in the upper left corner of the circuit board in the closeup photo I included) and at first the 12v accessories were working again. Then after the rig sat plugged into 110vAC for a while, the 12v accessories stopped working again. I took the convertor out again to inspect it and I do not see any visual clues that the new resistors overheated like the previous ones. I forgot to check if the battery was charging, but there was definitely no voltage going to the accessories. I have attached a couple photos of the unit to offer some visual clues.

My first question before I go digging into this further is can I just replace the battery charging portion of this antiquated unit with an automotive trickle charger to keep the house battery charged, or do I need a purpose built RV convertor?

Thanks in advance!
Vince in San Diego

Links to images (I could not get the embedding to work):


https://qustom.com/images/carstuff/dsc00852.jpg
https://qustom.com/images/carstuff/dsc00854.jpg

[Waiter21]

It depends how you use your MH. All your lights, pumps, fans, furnace, frig, etc run on 12 volts. Generally, the converter handles these loads when you're parked and hooked up to shore power.

A single stage converter (power supply) would probably perform OK in this environment. This is what you have now. Set the voltage to maybe 13.6 volts, this will charge batteries, but slowly, and provide enough amps to run your systems.

[Mark_K5LXP]

With a SMPS that old, the electrolytic capacitors are shot. I went through my 2005 Parallax converter that had the same roasted ballast resistors as yours and found half the capacitors were bulging. This supply would squeal during operation and it wasn't the fan - one of the transformers in it was "talking".

If yours is dead now the odds one or more capacitors has failed is quite high and there's a chance that with the supply in open loop mode one or more switching devices is toast too. Sure, you could work through this supply and maybe even bring it back to life but even at 100% this is a single stage charger. You'd be time, money, effort and utility ahead to send this to converter heaven and buy a new multistage converter.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

[Bob_C]

Check out Best Converters......

[skloon]

Originally Posted by bob caldwell

Check out Best Converters......

Yes I replaced mine from there -stopped it from killing batteries

[vincebodie]

55 Amp Kit for 6300 Series

[twinboat]

Have had one of these for 5 years now, no problems.

[skloon]

This is the one I got Boondocker BD1255CL (55 Amp 4-Stage Converter/Charger)

[vincebodie]

Originally Posted by skloon

This is the one I got Boondocker BD1255CL (55 Amp 4-Stage Converter/Charger)

Originally Posted by twinboat

Have had one of these for 5 years now, no problems.Attachment 293018

What I like about the one I linked to is that it is sold as a direct replacement for my unit, meaning pretty much plug and play. Not to say these are not, but I don't see any indication that they are...