Inverter Fuses & Battery Shutoff Switches

[davidbrady]

Hi Mike,

My complete electrical schematics for my bus, Vantare number 4620, can be found on our sister site, Prevost Gurus, over at Library->Converters->Vantare->Coaches->4620->4620 Service Manual.pdf, page 103 shows the battery banks, cutoff switches, bus bars, and inverter wiring.

You can see the wiring for the 12V bank is #2/0 while the wiring for the 24V bank is #2. The wires are short, maybe a couple of feet in length. At a max current draw of 200A per battery for the 12V and 100A per battery for the 24V banks the voltage drops are less than a tenth of a volt or well less than 1%, 0.8% for the 12V and 0.4% for the 24V, (if I did my math correctly). The NEC code specs a drop of no greater than 3% to 5% for a 12VDC/24VDC/120VAC single phase circuit. If you can keep your cables at less than half a dozen feet or so, #3/0 would most likely be fine. I believe my LXi ran #3/0 from the batteries.

The Prevost is quite good. I'm very pleased with the quality of the house and the chassis and the driving experience is markedly ahead. My only problem is it's difficult to keep my credit card in my wallet due to the easy access to service. Although I can do much of the routine service, I get lazy (and busy) and the appeal of letting the highly qualified Prevost Service Centers handle routine chores for me is overwhelming!