Old Modifications - This is an archive of the old modification web page

We recently purchased a 2007 Great West Legend RV and decided to add some missing features.

My Modifications

Added House Batteries - I added two more house batteries to make a total of four.

See this page for how I built the cables and junctions Battery Wiring.

Added Solar Panels and Charge Controller - I added four solar panels and a solar charge controller.

Added Rear Storage - I added a rear storage box for the fresh water and waste water hoses that could be accessed from the side of the RV.

Added Rear Shelf For Bluray Player - I added a shelf next to the TV in the rear for a Bluray player and some storage for Discs.

Tables - I made some tables.

Diesel Can - I added a carrier and Diesel Can for spare fuel.

Ham Radio Antenna Mount - I added a heavy duty mount for a Ham radio antenna.

Details

Added House Batteries

The coach came with two 88 Ah Gel Cell House batteries (Deka 8G27), which was not enough to run everything overnight, including the Keurig and toaster in the morning without running the generator. I had two 74 Ah AGM batteries (Diehard Platinum 65, same as Odyssey 65-PC1750T) and wanted to add them. The charging characteristics are slightly different, but using the charging characteristics for the Gel Cells would only result in a slight undercharge of the AGMs.

First, I had to package the batteries so they could be installed, but could be removed easily. I decided to use Anderson SB175 connectors, which can take up to 250 Amps and added a 250 Amp fuse for each battery. I used terminal fuse holders for the Diehards. I put each Diehard and fuse in a marine plastic battery box as shown below:

The two original house batteries are in metal wells at the rear of the RV. Terminal fuses were too tall to fit, so I used ANL fuses:

The two added batteries were then put into the rear storage well. A holder, made of plywood and angle aluminum, was built to hold the battery boxes, and the holder was attached to the large chassis bolts holding the generator.

The holder before the batteries were installed looks like this:

After the batteries were installed, a Y cable attached the two of them to another connector, and that connector was attached to the inverter / charger that already was in the coach. The completed package looks like this:

A hole was cut in the carpeted storage cover for the cable and it looks like this with the cover on:

The battery wiring is 1/0 Gauge welding wire. The house electrical systems are shown on the left side. The inverter / charger is the large grey and yellow unit. The white unit in front of it is a solar charge controller, and the standard house electrical panels are the brown boxes to the far left. The original two house batteries are under the dark rectangular covers. All of these batteries should not outgas hydrogen unless overcharged, and the charging systems are adjusted to correctly charge these batteries.

The original wiring was not well done. Romex was run under the van and it eventually rubbed through to the wire and shorted 120V to chassis ground. Only AWG 4 wire was used for some of the DC battery connections and it was not all color coded. Only the inverter's fault detection likely saved me from a disaster. I put all the exposed AC wiring inside flexible metal conduit inside the RV. All DC wiring is in split loom for some extra protection.

Added Solar Panels and Charge Controller

I want to be able to charge these four batteries in the boonies without running the generator. The whole idea about dry camping in the woods is peace and quiet. So, a solar system was the obvious solution. i chose four 100W Nominal Flexible Solar Panels (Windy Nation SOL-100F-01). These panels cost more than standard panels, but they are extremely thin and light, and use high efficiency Sunpower cells. The panels are shown below:

Notice that these panels are not on the roof. This is for a few reasons. There is some concern about how well these panels will survive on the roof. The RV does not have a big enough roof to fit all of them. The biggest reason is that generally, you will want to park the RV in the shade and have the panels in the sun. So, I built the PVC frames and have PVC screw in risers that are used to adjust the tilt, just use longer or shorter risers. The panels are placed on the ground in the sun. The extension allows them to be up to about 50 ft away. The panels were modified after this picture so that two of them have a somewhat larger frame. All four then stack with the smaller frames fitting in the larger, so the result is a stack of about two frames high.

The resulting power produced from these four panels with a standard charge controller is just under 300 Watts:

The panels come with MC4 connectors, which are hard to work with. I made up some adapters to put the four panels in parallel and convert to Anderson Powerpole connectors:

I also used Powerpoles to connect to the charge controller and for extension cables:

I chose a Morningstar PS-30 solar charge controller. This is a standard PWM charge controller, NOT an MPPT controller. While MPPT controllers are more efficient, they also create lots of RF interference, and I use this with my Amateur Radio equipment. This has not caused noticeable interference, but if it does, it can be switched to a very RF quiet mode. The charge controller is shown below:

I also got an optional remote panel that I mounted inside, just above the control panel for the inverter / charger. So, everything may be monitored from inside the RV. The two panels are shown below:

Added Rear Storage

There was a panel in the side of the RV that opened into the rear storage area under the seat. This panel was not that useful, as it opened into the area some distance above the floor. It was blocked off with some foam insulation and not used. We had to store the fresh water and waste water hoses in some plastic totes under the rear seat and it was a real pain to access them. With bikes on the bike rack, it was very hard to access and involved one person tilting the bike rack down manually and the other person struggling to get the totes in and out. I decided that a storage box that opened up to the panel on the side of the RV would make our lives much easier. So, I built a box out of 1/2" plywood and some pine for support that was just the right size for the two totes containing the hoses. The box is shown below:

The storage box looks like this from the panel on the outside of the RV:

So putting it all together, with the storage box in the back, Solar panels stacked under the storage box, the solar controller and rest of the electrical panels in the back, and a few camp chairs, the rear of the RV looks like this:

There is even some room left for other items.

Here is proof the movable seat just misses the box:

Added Shelf For Bluray Player

The RV came with an ancient DVD player with only a composite video output (yellow cable) but had a full HD TV. The DVDs looked awful. I found the Sony BDP-S3700 Bluray Player actually runs off 12V and includes a wall wart to make the 12V. I got an extra wall wart on eBay and cut off the cable and connected it directly to 12V, and an HDMI cable to the TV. This Bluray player includes streaming apps, so you can connect to wifi at a campground and watch Amazon or Netflix. I wanted a place to put it and there really was not anywhere it fit.

I created a custom shelf that matched the woodwork in the RV. I used laminated shelf board that was very similar to what was there, and stained Maple trim, and a few coats of Poly. There are three cubbyholes to store discs. The disc boxes fit fine, but my hands are a little small to reach all the way back into the cubbies. I will have to make the lips in the front of the cubbies a little smaller. The shelf with the Bluray player looks like this:

Tables

The RV came with only one table and that one had some peeling laminate. I decided that I wanted wood tables and they had to be 18" X 24" to fit in the three locations for tables in the RV, two in the back, an done in the front. There normally are only two tables and table legs. I found 18-Inch X 24-Inch Carving and Pastry Boards at Bed, Bath and Beyond for about $40 each. I finished them with many coats of Arm-R-Seal Oil and Urethane Topcoat and attached cast Aluminum cone style table leg bases. They fit on the table legs and look pretty good. The Arm-R-Seal is hard to get perfectly smooth. I don't have the ability to spray, but that probably would be best. They still came out looking pretty nice. They are shown below:

The two wooden tables fit in the table storage locations in the van, one in the closet and one in the rear door. It turns out that the third table is able to just fit above the added storage box, so it can be stored in the van also. Table legs are inexpensive, so we now have three tables! In the following images, you can see the third table and the retaining block I added just fit:

The mount is made from stainless steel by a friend who has access to a water jet cutter and the ability to weld stainless steel:

Here is a picture of the antenna, a Scorpion SA-680 installed on the mount.

To see more detail of my RV ham station go to this site: Mark's Mobile Ham Station

Here are some of my other sites:

My RV ham station: https://sites.google.com/site/marksmobilehamstation/

My Controleo2 based SMT Reflow Oven: https://sites.google.com/site/markscontroleo2build/

My TS-590S MODs including a buffer board install for a panadapter: https://sites.google.com/site/marksts590smods/

My TCXO Boards to replace the SO-3 in Kenwood TS-590 radios: https://sites.google.com/site/markstcxo/

An explanation of various TCXO Characteristics in Kenwood TS-590 Radios: https://sites.google.com/site/markstcxomeasurements/

Modifications to allow use of an external clock in a Perseus SDR: https://sites.google.com/site/perseusmods/

How I use Spectrum Lab Software to do frequency measurements: https://sites.google.com/site/spectrumlabtesting/

Pictures I took of the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse from Menan Butte, Idaho: https://sites.google.com/site/marks2017eclipsephotos/

Revised May 26, 2019