Victron Ip67 Shore Charger Installation With Photos

[David Rossiter]

Thanks, David- I'm following your lead on the Victron SmartBlue IP67 7/17 and using a Victron 500/50 Smart shunt for same: more info on whats going on. I'm now at the "double checking my trailer wiring with my fluke multimeter" and figuring out where the electrical arm bone connects to the shoulderbone"...

Its a painfully slow learning curve but upwards.
I may PM you or sepcor on your insider info on using the info from VictronConnect app in the field.

Me personally, I use/want to maximize my POWAH so this is easiest way to DIY "moah data" without drilling holes to backfit a TriMetric.

I've had a couple interesting glitches that are most likely "my bad" so when I know more what I am talking about I'll post my learnings...

Hi Kevin, Feel free to message me with questions. I can also send you some photos of how I did. I strongly recommend studying and referring to the wiring diagram in the Owners Manual. Do that, then go look at the wiring while looking at the diagram. The diagrams can be a bit intimidating at first, but they will actually make sense once you spend a little time looking. That will eliminate a lot of the guess work. Between the wiring diagram and just looking at the wiring in the trailer, you'll be able to figure it out. It's actually laid out very simply.

As to specifics- I installed the IP67 where the Marinco was located. I removed the wood bezel plate that hold the Marinco and made a plywood plate the same size and shape to mount the IP67. I did not recess the IP67 into the trailer. It's just surface mounted. I drilled a couple of holes to route the 110 power cord and the charging cord to the proper location in the trailer. You have to remove the taillight to access that. I think you said above that you knew how to do that. Once you have the taillight out, you can fish the IP67 110 plug and charging adapter through the rear and plug them into the 110 receptacle and the charger connector that the Marinco was connected to. That's about it. I'd have to check, but I think I swapped out the 10A fuse for a 20A fuse on the fuse box charger buss. Craig can confirm if there are any issues with wire size. I may have upsized the wire. If you have to upsize the wire, it's pretty easy to do. As long as you have the manual dexterity to do so. It was a bit of a struggle for me fat fingering the wires into the fuse block. Then you're done with the charger.

The Smart shunt is a PIA to mount only because it is hard to get access to screw it down. Wiring is easy. You'll need another negative wire (similar gauge to the one coming off the negative on the battery. Disconnect the negative wire from the battery and connect to the "In" connection for the Smart shunt. The other end of that wire goes to the negative post on the tray above. (FYI most of the negative wires in the system are on that post). Then take the new battery wire (that you bought) and run it from the out on the Smart Shunt to the Battery negative. Last, you'll need a small power wire that runs from the Smart Shut to the fuse buss that Camp Inn stubbed in for the Trimetric. You'll see it on the wiring diagram. I believe they spec'd a 1A fuse, which is what I used. Whatever was spec'd. That wire provides the very small amount of electricity required to power the Smart Shunt. The 1A fuse buss bypasses the main disconnect for the trailer. So the Smartshunt always has power. And therefore you can check it with the app even when the power is off. Theoretically you can get that power from other wires and put an inline 1A fuse on it. But I like all my fuses in one place. And the 1A buss was wired and designed for that purpose. So keep it simple. I believe there is a bluetooth pairing button on the Smart shunt that you need to push the first time to pair with the App.

Lastly, I saw somewhere a photo of a better way to mount the smart shunt. I think they has it sitting directly on top of the battery. They had a metal buss bar connecting the Smart shunt "out" to the battery negative (instead of the new wire you'll buy) and existing battery negative attached to the Smart Shunt "in". The Smart shunt was held in place by the buss bolted connection to the battery. This method was interesting because you could avoid the PIA of trying to mount the Smart shunt back in the corner next to the battery, towards the taillight. So the battery could still fit in. I'll see if I can find the photo of that!

 

[TheSongDogHouse]

Hi Kevin, Feel free to message me with questions. I can also send you some photos of how I did. I strongly recommend studying and referring to the wiring diagram in the Owners Manual. Do that, then go look at the wiring while looking at the diagram. The diagrams can be a bit intimidating at first, but they will actually make sense once you spend a little time looking. That will eliminate a lot of the guess work. Between the wiring diagram and just looking at the wiring in the trailer, you'll be able to figure it out. It's actually laid out very simply.

As to specifics- I installed the IP67 where the Marinco was located. I removed the wood bezel plate that hold the Marinco and made a plywood plate the same size and shape to mount the IP67. I did not recess the IP67 into the trailer. It's just surface mounted. I drilled a couple of holes to route the 110 power cord and the charging cord to the proper location in the trailer. You have to remove the taillight to access that. I think you said above that you knew how to do that. Once you have the taillight out, you can fish the IP67 110 plug and charging adapter through the rear and plug them into the 110 receptacle and the charger connector that the Marinco was connected to. That's about it. I'd have to check, but I think I swapped out the 10A fuse for a 20A fuse on the fuse box charger buss. Craig can confirm if there are any issues with wire size. I may have upsized the wire. If you have to upsize the wire, it's pretty easy to do. As long as you have the manual dexterity to do so. It was a bit of a struggle for me fat fingering the wires into the fuse block. Then you're done with the charger.

The Smart shunt is a PIA to mount only because it is hard to get access to screw it down. Wiring is easy. You'll need another negative wire (similar gauge to the one coming off the negative on the battery. Disconnect the negative wire from the battery and connect to the "In" connection for the Smart shunt. The other end of that wire goes to the negative post on the tray above. (FYI most of the negative wires in the system are on that post). Then take the new battery wire (that you bought) and run it from the out on the Smart Shunt to the Battery negative. Last, you'll need a small power wire that runs from the Smart Shut to the fuse buss that Camp Inn stubbed in for the Trimetric. You'll see it on the wiring diagram. I believe they spec'd a 1A fuse, which is what I used. Whatever was spec'd. That wire provides the very small amount of electricity required to power the Smart Shunt. The 1A fuse buss bypasses the main disconnect for the trailer. So the Smartshunt always has power. And therefore you can check it with the app even when the power is off. Theoretically you can get that power from other wires and put an inline 1A fuse on it. But I like all my fuses in one place. And the 1A buss was wired and designed for that purpose. So keep it simple. I believe there is a bluetooth pairing button on the Smart shunt that you need to push the first time to pair with the App.

Lastly, I saw somewhere a photo of a better way to mount the smart shunt. I think they has it sitting directly on top of the battery. They had a metal buss bar connecting the Smart shunt "out" to the battery negative (instead of the new wire you'll buy) and existing battery negative attached to the Smart Shunt "in". The Smart shunt was held in place by the buss bolted connection to the battery. This method was interesting because you could avoid the PIA of trying to mount the Smart shunt back in the corner next to the battery, towards the taillight. So the battery could still fit in. I'll see if I can find the photo of that!

Thanks David, lots to absorb, but hugely helpful.
You mentioned that shunt install hack before- makes sense, and the pic would help figure out where to source or make that buss bar. There's room in my compartment to rest on top of battery and that makes it easier to see the BT light is lit on the shunt.

I'll pm ya after reading and looking in trailer going "hmmm" a fair bit.

 

[Steve and Karen]

so the IP 67 7/17 could work the high side for best battery maintenance?

(italics mine)

It would work best at 17A for the Bulk (initial) stage, which the charger will go into if it detects that the battery is below 80% or less than 12.6V. After a few minutes the charger would go to 17A max during the Bulk stage. It maintains this high current until the voltage reaches 14.4V, or whatever you set your optimal voltage to on the app. At this point (14.4V), the battery is about 80% charged, generally. Then the charger maintains this constant 14.4 voltage while gradually dropping the current (Absorption) until it detects that it is completely full, and in Float /maintenance. At this point the current is a fraction of an amp.

The Victron has the added the stage of going into Storage if it has been in Float for more than 8 hours, since a constant trickle of 13.2V and a fraction of an amp can, with some batteries, tend to shorten their life a little.

The 7A setting is comparable to what the OEM charger (likely) was putting out. At either setting (7A or 17A) the charger will likely perform identically when in Absorption, Float/Storage/ Maintenance modes. It's the Bulk mode current that is the big difference between the two max amp settings.

The key is nothing else before the shunt (thanks Steve)

The shunt really shouldn't be part of this charger installation equation since the charger leads go immediately to a grounding post (neg) and to the fuse panel (pos).

I haven't traced the + wiring from mine past the fuse panel, but I strongly suspect that it goes directly to the battery +post after it leaves the fuse panel. But I could be very wrong and there could be something else, like the Master Switch after the fuse panel. But I doubt it. I would check your wiring and confirm with the mothership if you see anything different from what I've described.

Either way, to make sure that your shunt is properly reading everything, the charger neg lead should go to a common ground. And that, yes, the shunt is the only thing between the battery neg post and that common ground.

If you want to see exactly how your charger and battery do the the dance together, drop your battery down to 12.2V, pull the battery part-way out, disconnect all the battery leads, and charge it directly with supplied alligators. You won't have the shunt to confirm what it is doing, but the charger app gives all that information anyway. It'll make much more sense after a full day of charging and intermittent checking on the app.

 

[TheSongDogHouse]

(italics mine)

It would work best at 17A for the Bulk (initial) stage, which the charger will go into if it detects that the battery is below 80% or less than 12.6V. After a few minutes the charger would go to 17A max during the Bulk stage. It maintains this high current until the voltage reaches 14.4V, or whatever you set your optimal voltage to on the app. At this point (14.4V), the battery is about 80% charged, generally. Then the charger maintains this constant 14.4 voltage while gradually dropping the current (Absorption) until it detects that it is completely full, and in Float /maintenance. At this point the current is a fraction of an amp.

The Victron has the added the stage of going into Storage if it has been in Float for more than 8 hours, since a constant trickle of 13.2V and a fraction of an amp can, with some batteries, tend to shorten their life a little.

The 7A setting is comparable to what the OEM charger (likely) was putting out. At either setting (7A or 17A) the charger will likely perform identically when in Absorption, Float/Storage/ Maintenance modes. It's the Bulk mode current that is the big difference between the two max amp settings.



The shunt really shouldn't be part of this charger installation equation since the charger leads go immediately to a grounding post (neg) and to the fuse panel (pos).

I haven't traced the + wiring from mine past the fuse panel, but I strongly suspect that it goes directly to the battery +post after it leaves the fuse panel. But I could be very wrong and there could be something else, like the Master Switch after the fuse panel. But I doubt it. I would check your wiring and confirm with the mothership if you see anything different from what I've described.

Either way, to make sure that your shunt is properly reading everything, the charger neg lead should go to a common ground. And that, yes, the shunt is the only thing between the battery neg post and that common ground.

If you want to see exactly how your charger and battery do the the dance together, drop your battery down to 12.2V, pull the battery part-way out, disconnect all the battery leads, and charge it directly with supplied alligators. You won't have the shunt to confirm what it is doing, but the charger app gives all that information anyway. It'll make much more sense after a full day of charging and intermittent checking on the app.

TY Steve will do!
Are you referring to the absorption levells on FullRiver AGM or the Precision LiPO?
I'm still fuzzy on the specs on the latter and what tech sheet I attached earlier means.
But I'll get there!

 

[Steve and Karen]

Are you referring to the absorption levels on FullRiver AGM or the Precision LiPO?

Very sorry. Forgot you had a Precision.

If you have LiPO, then the charge profile will be much different than what I described. The LiPO pre-sets on the charger will dictate when, what and how much the charger will be doing. I don't have a LiPO. Yet. So I can't speak to the charger's exact behaviour. Nor to the wisdom of going outside those pre-sets with a user-defined set of charging parameters.

But since the LiPO can handle larger charge currents, and will have shorter charge times, the charger will likely be operating at the maximum amperage through a greater percentage of its charging time than an AGM. And the lower amperage setting will be all but useless. Unless you rig it up (as I have) so that you can also use it to charge another size and type of battery at 7A. Like a 30Ah lawn tractor battery.

You can still do some out-of-trailer test charges to get a handle on how everything works together before the full-blown install. Which would be wise, since not everything you get works properly right out of the box.

 

[SethB]

Thanks David, lots to absorb, but hugely helpful.
You mentioned that shunt install hack before- makes sense, and the pic would help figure out where to source or make that buss bar. There's room in my compartment to rest on top of battery and that makes it easier to see the BT light is lit on the shunt.

I'll pm ya after reading and looking in trailer going "hmmm" a fair bit.

I used some self stick industrial velcro to snag my shunt to the top of my batt, this has worked well!

…Lastly, I saw somewhere a photo of a better way to mount the smart shunt. I think they has it sitting directly on top of the battery. They had a metal buss bar connecting the Smart shunt "out" to the battery negative (instead of the new wire you'll buy) and existing battery negative attached to the Smart Shunt "in". The Smart shunt was held in place by the buss bolted connection to the battery. This method was interesting because you could avoid the PIA of trying to mount the Smart shunt back in the corner next to the battery, towards the taillight. So the battery could still fit in. I'll see if I can find the photo of that!

I can definitely see fabbing a little copper strap to physically tie the shunt to the batt, maybe 3/32” x 3/4” x 2.5” with some holes and bends, I think I’ll do that the next time I’m in the battery compartment if I can find some copper…

 

[TheSongDogHouse]

I used some self stick industrial velcro to snag my shunt to the top of my batt, this has worked well!


I can definitely see fabbing a little copper strap to physically tie the shunt to the batt, maybe 3/32” x 3/4” x 2.5” with some holes and bends, I think I’ll do that the next time I’m in the battery compartment if I can find some copper…

Thanks, Seth, for the tip on the industrial velcro. That would prevent the metal bar acting like a lever on one terminal with weight of shunt dangling, at a 90 to the terminal.

Having it come out easily with the bat-tree for bench troubleshoot or charge would be handy.

 

[Sweeney]

Hows the charger working out? The 10amp charger upgrade that I did, I have to say I'm not really happy with. The charger definately charges faster but it has a problem. The best way I can describe it is, that the marinco does a bulk charge, then drops into its maintenance mode then stays there. I need to 'reboot' it by power cycling to get it to bulk charge again.

I found I need to 10amp charger -- With the fridge, and fans -- on a longer trip I'm usually "Idling" at 4 amps of draw, so I never really can charge unless I shed loads. That big lithium starts to be appealing again, except I am still quite afraid of thermal runaway --- I know, lifepo4 is safer LION.

This may be a problem wiht the 5 amp as well --- I never saw it though since I was did not have the battery monitor.

@Cary Winch - Any suggestions?

Does the victron charger behave well, noticing the need to bulk charge as the battery drops?

 

[TheSongDogHouse]

Sweeney, I'm getting exceptional tech support from Victron via both the resellers on charger and shunt (its how Victron does it)

and my status RN is I have some more homework to do to doublecheck I am connecting things correctly to the fuse box etc.

So both the Victron Charger and shunt appear to be good gear...and the Victron service ishead and shoulders above average; and worthy of the Guru Standard in Necedah....

the problem in my case appears to be operator error...errr

One thing I can say is the NOCO5 can recharge a lithium battery from zero or close but the Victron IP67 12/17 has a higher threshold.

 

[TheSongDogHouse]

As to the factory Marinco, I dunno but an email with bulleted data and question to Cary/craig followed by call works for me on CI stuff. I believe they offer an upgraded Marinco for Lithium options?

 

[Sweeney]

As to the factory Marinco, I dunno but an email with bulleted data and question to Cary/craig followed by call works for me on CI stuff. I believe they offer an upgraded Marinco for Lithium options?

I know you know this, but my pride requires I say it:
I cant expect them to answer Victron or other third party gear, but I am educating myself on wiring so when I ask "how to hook up" I'll know which wire does what in the CI.

Getting closer... it aint rocket science...its just me!

The Marinco 5 amp charger was too small for me -- I found out after installing a shunt that I'm pretty routinely pulling that much --- so the 5 amp was never really catching up. The fridge, and the ceiling fan (that I tent to just leave on most of the time) pull quite a bit -- turn on the laptop charger and its game over 65 watt PD is a big load....

The 10 does fine to get the battery charged, it just ins't smart enough to figure out that the battery needs charged again --- its working like a one-shot charger. THen you need to power cycle it to get it to restart the charge cycle. Also, if there's a large load the final stage of trickling never quite gets to 100% --- and after a day or two it thinks the battery is bad and errors out.

I talked to Noco, and that is the expected behavior

 

[TheSongDogHouse]

Update: I finally got this done, almost after a long delay, (family health stuff resolved)
then some attempts myself partly advanced by Sweeney, to use the Victron shunt and BT app to diagnose my ghost short/draw that killed one new AGM battrey and almost killed the Precision Lion twice ...
Still finalizing a couple more tweaks, again with tips by Cary and details by Craig (y'know, its been said before but the level of quality and engineering in these things is subtle but so high quality standard setting, that only an engineer or experienced RV tech could understand and appreciate
and as has been said here ad infinitum...
you Just cant compare customer service to others- CampInn (and Road Toad) makers are in a whole new category above 5stars)...

And it must be said of this forum- of all the experienced users so willing to help.
Its just.freaking.awesome.

Thanks y'all.
Appreciate you.

1. Yes the Victron shunt and the 12-17 Ip67 are so worth it, and thanks again to you Seth and David for the ideas and note- David if I could get at the underside where Marinco OEM was it would be best but I have the bumper plus hitch and disconnecting all that to pull it out, and routing thru underside of galley was just.too. Hard
(Believe me I tried!)

so I cut all the cables, capped them off and it remains there to this day...And per Craigs suggestion put a 120v plug end in battery compartment to connect any battery charger in future, Noco5, Victron, etc (so I can easily replace on the road off the shelf if one dies)

and also make it easy to pull it out with battery to trickle charge on a bench at home while trailer in storage.

2. The victron charger is a sealed unit with cooling by fins but no internal fans
As its meant for marine use, so it does get a little warm due to that design.
Its in my galley right compartment back side near top so I can open or just crack the lid for extended charging.
View attachment 1757007138913.jpeg

3. The Victron App works ok, and range wise is reliable on bt from inside the cabin, outside within 15 ft, depending on where the shunt is and how many laters of wood, aluminum in between it and your phone.

The app on iphone needs cellular of course to update its software which is often but that is smooth, with good cell reception as low as 2 bars on my ATT.

The "trends" historical graph gives lots of info once you figure out all the options, scales etc
And you can expand history to see volts, current flow, and by thst get some idea of whats pulling what when...

More on all this later, plus rave review on RVGeek for helping validate and drill down on details...

You'd be amazed how a simple call to Cary and Craig can zero in on past history to focus on one thing thats been a problem in past...and how things work you may have forgotten or missed here...

And how much money one can spend on even a Victron certified RV shop that could not troubleshoot or check wiring end to end. (Names withheld in courtesy to the well meant young guy who seems to know a lot about solar, lithium batts but maybe not so much about RVs...certainly befuddled by this compact CI...)

Ah, live and learn.
Chalking it up to my miscommunication.
And...but a couple of "fixes" by the Victron guy to undo and finish this myself...which I can and will next.
I have found the ghost draw...more later...

Which just proves my determination to DIY this thing in every system to know it and do what I can pays off....
short of driving it to The Nest or meet Sweeney someplace in between...thats Plan B!
hey, think of the camping along the way as the bonus!

 

[Kilometer 31]

What is Camp-Inn doing currently as OEM charger?

 

[Cary Winch]

What is Camp-Inn doing currently as OEM charger?

5amp Marinco for lead acid or AGM batteries. 10amp NOCO for the lithium battery option.

Cary

 

[Sweeney]

Update: I finally got this done, almost after a long delay, (family health stuff resolved)
then some attempts myself partly advanced by Sweeney, to use the Victron shunt and BT app to diagnose my ghost short/draw that killed one new AGM battrey and almost killed the Precision Lion twice ...
Still finalizing a couple more tweaks, again with tips by Cary and details by Craig (y'know, its been said before but the level of quality and engineering in these things is subtle but so high quality standard setting, that only an engineer or experienced RV tech could understand and appreciate
and as has been said here ad infinitum...
you Just cant compare customer service to others- CampInn (and Road Toad) makers are in a whole new category above 5stars)...

And it must be said of this forum- of all the experienced users so willing to help.
Its just.freaking.awesome.

Thanks y'all.
Appreciate you.

1. Yes the Victron shunt and the 12-17 Ip67 are so worth it, and thanks again to you Seth and David for the ideas and note- David if I could get at the underside where Marinco OEM was it would be best but I have the bumper plus hitch and disconnecting all that to pull it out, and routing thru underside of galley was just.too. Hard
(Believe me I tried!)

so I cut all the cables, capped them off and it remains there to this day...And per Craigs suggestion put a 120v plug end in battery compartment to connect any battery charger in future, Noco5, Victron, etc (so I can easily replace on the road off the shelf if one dies)

and also make it easy to pull it out with battery to trickle charge on a bench at home while trailer in storage.

2. The victron charger is a sealed unit with cooling by fins but no internal fans
As its meant for marine use, so it does get a little warm due to that design.
Its in my galley right compartment back side near top so I can open or just crack the lid for extended charging.
View attachment 12181

3. The Victron App works ok, and range wise is reliable on bt from inside the cabin, outside within 15 ft, depending on where the shunt is and how many laters of wood, aluminum in between it and your phone.

The app on iphone needs cellular of course to update its software which is often but that is smooth, with good cell reception as low as 2 bars on my ATT.

The "trends" historical graph gives lots of info once you figure out all the options, scales etc
And you can expand history to see volts, current flow, and by thst get some idea of whats pulling what when...

More on all this later, plus rave review on RVGeek for helping validate and drill down on details...

You'd be amazed how a simple call to Cary and Craig can zero in on past history to focus on one thing thats been a problem in past...and how things work you may have forgotten or missed here...

And how much money one can spend on even a Victron certified RV shop that could not troubleshoot or check wiring end to end. (Names withheld in courtesy to the well meant young guy who seems to know a lot about solar, lithium batts but maybe not so much about RVs...certainly befuddled by this compact CI...)

Ah, live and learn.
Chalking it up to my miscommunication.
And...but a couple of "fixes" by the Victron guy to undo and finish this myself...which I can and will next.
I have found the ghost draw...more later...

Which just proves my determination to DIY this thing in every system to know it and do what I can pays off....
short of driving it to The Nest or meet Sweeney someplace in between...thats Plan B!
hey, think of the camping along the way as the bonus!

Happy to help you with this --- I"m just glad we were able to put all the pieces together to come up with your answer!

Yah, the range of the bluetooth is the one shortfall of the Victron Shunt -- its not the shunts fault, if you were able to relocate it somehwere that it was not buried under aluminum and stainless steel, it probably would be much better --- for me, I hvae to be standing right by the battery box (3-4 feet) or inside the camper to stand the slightest chance of getting status. But that's where I am when I need to know most of the time anyway.