I posted some of this information on the old VL owners site and thought I’d re post it here in case others may be interested or thinking of performing similar upgrades.
We had ordered our Beacon in October 2019 and had selected a number of options including the upgraded solar and inverter package (3000W inverter and 300W of solar panels). When it was delivered in January 2020, we found out the dealer had dropped the ball on the order and hadn’t informed us of changes Vanleigh had made on those options. Vanleigh had removed the inverter/solar package and the dealer never informed us about that and never made any adjustment to the cost.
In the end I was able to get the dealer to pay for those missing components and have them shipped to me for installation. I took that opportunity to have them purchase a Victron Multiplus 3000VA inverter, BMV-712 and Color Control GX to monitor everything. I thought these were better components than were originally specified in the Vanleigh package. I also purchased separately, 300Ah of lithium batteries, a Victron MPPT 150/85 and an AM Solar SPS (smart phase selector) that would enable the inverter to supply both legs of the AC electrical panel.
Being this was at the beginning of the lockdowns in early 2020, I had a lot of spare time to work on the install. Taking my time and reading a lot on RV electrical systems and watching a fair number of You Tube videos on the same subject I finished up the install. I had the goal of having a system that could operate with shore power for shorter periods of time. Utilizing the solar panels to supply some charge to battery bank and if the batteries got low, I could utilize the on board generator to recharge them.
Completed Install 2020
Everything worked pretty well until July 2022. At that time the contactor on the SPS started to have an issue getting stuck and wasn’t able to switch, which meant power wasn’t being supplied to both legs. I contacted AM solar and they diagnosed the problem and offered a couple of options as the new version of the SPS was out of stock. I decided on upgrading the Victron Multiplus 3000VA inverter with the newer version of the Multiplus II 2x120 that has built in support for supplying both legs to a 50A capable RV. AM solar provided a nice discount due to the failure of the SPS and I was able to sell the original Multiplus to cover cost of the new Multiplus II.
Once the new inverter was delivered, I decided to re-arrange the layout to make better use of the space since the SPS was removed.
Updated Install 2022
The new MP II was bit taller, but not as deep, so I needed to relocate some of the other items. I relocated the batteries to above the generator compartment and cleaned up the wiring, bus bars and fuse locations. In addition I modified the generator output to be able to utilize the full 45A output as detailed in this Changing Lanes blog/video:
After 3 years the system is performing well. I’m now planning on increasing the amount of solar panels to around 1200-1600W and adding additional battery capacity. This will allow for faster recharging on those sunny days and longer usage periods with the bigger battery bank. The bigger battery bank would also allow for running one or two of the A/C units from more than an hour.
Hopefully this information is helpful to anyone looking to do something similar. I’d be more than happy to answer any questions on the install/setup/configuration.
Stuart
