Anderson SB120 to XT60 (13 Viewers)

[MCtree]

I don’t have the tools because, honestly, I’m a bit leery to try my hand at soldering. I feel it’s something I would screw up.

As for why I have the SB120… this is a good question. It is, indeed, overkill.
I guess I prefer the SB120 to the SB50 because the largest wire I could get on a SB50 assembly from Powerwerx was 6GA. But if I went with the SB120, I could get 4GA.
And because I already have 4GA from my engine-bay back to the cargo areas, I wanted to maintain this gauge for as long as I could - even if it’s for only 3 feet after the bus block. (As seen in my diagram in post 16).

The most that wire should see is 40 amps. You think 6GA is sufficient?
Looking at the blue sea gauge/length chart, it does seem like I do have some cushion, but I don’t want to cut it too close.

 

[e9999]

It's not that difficult to do decent soldering, actually. Just any DIYer should be able to do that with minimal practice. Give it a try. A useful skill to know.

If you think that wire will see 40A, what about the 10AWG then? I'd be more concerned about that than about the 4 vs 6.

 

[MCtree]

It's not that difficult to do decent soldering, actually. Just any DIYer should be able to do that with minimal practice. Give it a try. A useful skill to know.

If you think that wire will see 40A, what about the 10AWG then? I'd be more concerned about that than about the 4 vs 6.

Thanks for the faith in my potential soldering skills! Maybe I will give it a try.

The wire should only see the 40A when I have the Victron connected to the SB120 Anderson plug. When I don’t have the victron connected and have the 10ga wire attached to the SB120, it shouldn’t see more than 15 amps. I plan to put a 15A in-line fuse into that part of it.
Does that make sense?

 

[e9999]

If you have 40A going into the Victron, you'll have something similar coming out of it, and it shows 10AWG there in your diagram.

 

[MCtree]

I thought if I increased the voltage, as that victron does, it reduces the amps. V*A=W.

Also, the max amps out of that victron is 15a.

My planning was that the 10ga wire would only see 15A.

Have I thought about this erroneously?

 

[e9999]

it is true that if you increase the voltage through the DC-DC that will reduce the amps, but if you go from a 12V battery to charging a 12V battery, the difference in voltage may be around 2V or so, so not a big difference, and the amps won't go down more than about 15% on the downstream side.
Conversely, If the max output of the victron is 15A you won't have the 40A upstream that you mentioned.
And, yes, if the victron can only put out 15A then the 10AWG should be fine there. Of course, you'd want to recheck all that if you replace the Victron with something more powerful at some point.
And, yes, YES, fuses or breakers everywhere! (If you value your truck...)

 

[MCtree]

it is true that if you increase the voltage through the DC-DC that will reduce the amps, but if you go from a 12V battery to charging a 12V battery, the difference in voltage may be around 2V or so, so not a big difference, and the amps won't go down more than about 15% on the downstream side.
Conversely, If the max output of the victron is 15A you won't have the 40A upstream that you mentioned.
And, yes, if the victron can only put out 15A then the 10AWG should be fine there. Of course, you'd want to recheck all that if you replace the Victron with something more powerful at some point.
And, yes, YES, fuses or breakers everywhere! (If you value your truck...)

I should have said that the point of the Victron is to increase the voltage into the Ecolflow. It’s a DC to DC converter.
It is supposed to increase the voltage of the 12v from my battery to 24v going into the Ecoflow. But, in practice, I have measured 30v at times coming out of it.

And thanks! I guess I will put a fuse in the 10ga wire right after the SB120 Anderson connector. I have been following the “put fuses everywhere” logic but wanted to make sure I wasn’t being overly cautious.

 

[e9999]

sorry, missed the bit about using a 24V input. Then, yes, of course the current will be cut in half.

So, if you go instead straight from the SB120 to the Ecoflow without the DC-DC, what current will the Ecoflow allow? If it's low and around 12V it will take a long time to charge, if high the 10AWG may be an issue again.