Voltage drop

First question for me may require more information but, I'll try to frame it well.
My Tiffin Phaeton 40IH feeds power from the chassis batteries to the merge solenoid in the house battery compartment. The merge solenoid has several functions which are not relevant to my question.
This feed is less that 30' of 3/0 cable. I take power from that side of the merge solenoid to a 12v to 12v 30amp DC2DC charger. Power from it is fed to a battery bus bar where my LiFePo4 batteries connect. Ground is achieved at the factory ground bus bar.
One problem is that I am getting more than 1.5v drop and sometimes as much as 1.8v.
Power is supplied from both chassis batteries through a 600am fuse at their location.
How can I reduce voltage drop?

Thanks, David

2 |3000

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eljefe commented · Jun 10 at 10:32 PM

@David Hughes

Where are you measuring the voltage drop? From the merge solenoid to the DCDC?

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Alexandra ♦ commented · Jun 10 at 01:19 PM

@David Hughes

30' is close to 10m. Use 16mm² cable or awg6. Or double your cable that you have already run. See the manual for that long it recommended 16mm²

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David Hughes Alexandra ♦ commented · Jun 10 at 01:37 PM

Thanks for that. I am prepared to run cable, however, my current cable is 000 (3/0) which is significantly larger that 6awg in your response.

What else should I look for if cable size is not an issue?

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Duivert NL David Hughes commented · Jun 10 at 07:21 PM

Check your connections are tight check connections and cable lugs for corrossion, lugs have to be straight on connections (i mean no washer in between and so on)

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Alexandra ♦ Duivert NL commented · Jun 11 at 05:22 PM

@David Hughes

How did you get bigger than 16mm² into the orion terminals?

My apologies on the awg size mix up.

If it is connected to something else first then @elJefe and @Duivert NL are on the right track the voltage drop is in the connections or another device.

Is the cable fine strand copper?

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David Hughes Alexandra ♦ commented · Jun 12 at 11:53 PM

The merge solenoid is fed from the chassis batteries by a 000 cable. I take power from that side of the merge solenoid feeding power via 6awg fin strand copper about 3 feet long.

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