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Manzanita PFC-20 Battery Charger
Mar. 7, 2008
The Manzanita PFC-20 Battery charger arrives!
With no physical damage,:-)
Manzanita PFC-20 Weighs 16 LBS.
Mar. 10, 2008
I have been looking at HOW to get this charger mounted in the cab of the truck. My first choice is behind the seat on the drivers side. I made a cardboard mockup of the battery charger for sizing and fitting. This will save scratching and also the chance damaging the new charger for trial fittings.
I weighed locations like under the hood, not an acceptable location , (too dirty and the hood would have to be opened every time I charge the truck to turn on the charger).
I looked at mounting the charger under the bench seat, would require building a hinged seat and cooling of the charger would be inhibited, not an acceptable location.
I looked at mounting the charger under the truck pickup box, too dirty, and the bed would have to be raised to turn on the charger, not an acceptable location.
I am back to the 1st choise, to mount the charger behind the bench seat, between the cab corner and the indented area at the back of the cab.
The drawback of mounting it behind the drivers seat is HOW to get it in the area. The relative area is just large enough to house the charger but, HOW do I get it in the area?
Here is the solution that I came to, cut a hole and bring the charger in from the rear of the cab into the interior of the truck.
I measured twice and cut once, but still could have made the hole just 3/16" narrower and still have got the charger in. I cut the hole 3" taller than the charger to get the heavy cables under the metal lip of the cab. I used a 4" electric angle grinder with a metal cutoff disc to do most of the cutting.
Mar. 11, 2008
I used about 4' of 1/4" black plactic tubing, from a drip water system (slit lenthwise) to cover the edges of the hole.
This will protect the charger from scratches when I take it in and out for fitting.
I put a couple of pieces of 5/8" packaging foam in the bottom of the hole for the charger to set on, this will also give the charger cooling fans on the bottom access for cooling air, after the installation is complete and the foam is removed.
I will seal the charger and the bottom of the hole with weatherstripping when installation is complete.
I placed the charger in the hole. There is one area on the charger mounting flange that I had to trim slighly with a hack saw.
I was very careful to keep the metal fillings from dropping in any of the charger openings.
The charger is right up against the cab door latch support, so I need to space the charger back out of the hole a 1/2".
This will also give me a little more room away from the back of the seat, that may press against the top corner of the charger case.
This is going to be VERY CLOSE to rubbing on the bottom corner of the pickup box when it is raised and lowered!! I may have to massage the corner of the bed or the charger spacer a little bit.
Mar. 12, 2008
I cut a couple of 1/2" X 7/8" strips of wood to fit on each side of the charger.
I drilled through the mounting holes on the charger flange, squared the charger in the hole and marked the holes to be drilled in the back wall of the cab.
These are the 1/4" bolts that I heated with a torch and bent at right angle close to the bolt head.
It fits! I just had to massage a few places to get a little clearance between the frame rails and the wood spacer.
I used a scrap piece of the cab to build a cover for the top of the charger where the cab was open.
The top lip of the piece fits up inside the cab wall and then the remainder of the piece angles down at a 45 angle and then fits against the wood and covers below the top of the charger. I will seal this gap with a piece of weatherstrip.
July. 9, 2008
I decided that I had to add about 12 inches of 30 Amp cord to the battery charger cable.
I bought a 25', 30 Amp, Rv cord at FredMeyer.
That was the best price as it included male and female Rv ends that I can use for charging cord adaptors.
I snapped a picture of how the Anderson charging connector was wired before I unsoldered the terminals.
Black is battery negative and White is battery positive.
I cut the new cord off about a foot away from the female RV connector and I cut about a foot of cable off to add to the PFC 20 charger cord.
I stripped back the wires, to cover the connections when complete I slipped on a couple of pieces of heat shrink tubing.
I pressed the insulation sleeve off of 3 insulated #10-12 connectors to connect the wire ends.
I crimped the connectors on the wires and covered them with heat shrink, then some electrical tape and then covered the cable with more heat shrink.
I drilled through the frame and mounted a 3/4" connector box on the drivers side of theS10 frame,
with 3/4" cord seals where the cable went into the connector box.
I ran the cable around the front cab support, drilled holes in the frame to secure the cable with wire ties.
I connected the wires in the connector box (orange tape to seal the wire nut connections) and also grounded the green wire at one of the mounting screws.
I reattached the Anderson charging connector and also drilled a hole in the S10 frame and attached the Green (chassis) ground wire.
July 25, 2008
Decided on the location of the charger outlet on the side of the garage, near the meter, I removed the vinyl siding.
Drilled the corner holes for the 4" X 4" metal box, cut out the chip board and mounted the box and the outlets.
The #12/3 wire for the 20 Amp, 115vac GFCI is connected to the 20 Amp breaker for the exterior house outlets.
I should have put this in when I started the conversion enstead of running an extention cord from inside of the garage all of these months!
I connected the 8 Ga. wires from the L14/30 plug to a 40 Amp, 220 breaker, that is also used for my small 220AC welder.
I just will not be able to use the welder while the battery charger is in operation.
July 28, 2008
I finished the outlet on the garage by putting the on the weatherproof outlet cover and siding trim piece.
Aug. 1, 2008
I bought a large fuse connector at NAPA Auto parts, I am going to use the 5/16" insulated terminals as a junction block to connect the first and last batteries in the series string, battery charger + & -- cables, the regeneration end + & -- connections.
To get the junction block to seat in S10 front support,
I built a couple of spacers from a old plastic computer case,
The 20 Amp. fuses are for the regeneration circuit.
I connected the charger battery connections to the junction block on the S10 radiator support.
This junction block terminals also have + and -- battery connections, + & -- battety connections that go to the Anderson connector and also the +& -- battery connections for the regeneration (4 wires are connected on each terminal).
Aug. 13, 2008
I used a "good" old piece of door weatherstiping to seal the top of the cab where the battery cable exits under the charger cover metal lip.
I sealed the bottom gap between the charger and the cab with a short piece of heavy cable covering that I had split to get the cable through the KW Meter.
I used weather resiatant calking to keep it in place.
Aug. 15, 2008
I connected all of the battery pack disconnects and closed the battery disconnect switch at the rear of the truck.
It is time to check the battery pack voltage, I measured the pack voltage at the large connector on the radiator support.
With the batteries at rest, I have 163 Vdc across the terminals.
Before turning on the charger, I reread the operator manual that came with it for proper adjustment proceedures.
I turned the breaker on at the charger and slowly turned the current control up until the DC Volts at the terminals read 170 volts.
I listened and gave everything the nose test for any hot component smells.
I also watched the KW Meter on the house to see how fast the metal disc was rotating as I increased the current control.
I have not turned on the onboard KW meter on the truck, as I want to charge the batteries so all of my measurements for electricity usage will be from a full battery pack. The same as you filling your car the first time to check the MPG, put in EV Miles / Killo Watt, (MPKW).
I watched the battery charging system for a few minutes and then shut the charger down and repeated the same test(s) with the 220 Vac power cord.
All went Okay! I detected nothing that was causing any issues.
I shut the charging system back down and will next I will begin the charger set up proceedure.
Recharge Port, KW Meter & Surge Protector.
