I am getting ready to replace my Newmark Power Converter(dated 1992), it is not the original I assume as the coach is a '77(p-30). There is a green wire and the black wire and then a red and a white. Most of the wires go to the first fuse. Does anyone know by looking at the pictures if this is a single or dual phase converter? With the new converter all we have for hook up are 2 positive and 2 negative terminals on the new Intellipower converter.

Any help would be appreiciated.

There are actually two black, one white, one red, and one green.

The green is the common ground. The white and the black that appears to disappear behind the larger black, should be 12VDC output to the house circuits. The larger black and the red should be 12VDC output to the battery.

This would make it a dual-output converter, where the converter has one output section for the house 12VDC, and a second for the battery charger.

With the Intellipower, which is a single output converter (A single-output converter basically runs the house 12VDC off the battery, while keeping it charged), the first black, (house 12VDC above), would go to one of the red and the white would go to a black. The red and other black would go to the other respective terminals.

This is confusing, because RVs usually go from common vehicle color coding (red positive [hot], black negative[ground]) to household code (black hot, white ground).

CAVEAT: I'm guessing, based on SOP and the photo. The image we really need is the diagram on the cover laying in the foreground. There are a couple of checks to make with a voltmeter/ohmmeter in any event, before settling on the wiring attachments for the Intellipower.

Hi Rusty, I was hoping you would see this, you always send us in the right direction. I will look at the cover in the morning, and see if it has some more helpful info. Im glad you said it is confusing, because Im definatly confused! since this convertor was replaced in 1992, do you still think it is a good upgrade? thanks, Jeff & Joy

Jeff,

I too swapped out a Newmark for the Intellipower a couple years ago. I called the Tech Desk, told them I could understand an On/Off switch but nothing more advanced.....They walked & talked me through the process without a hitch.......

It's a good upgrade.....lose about 60 lbs of dead weight, eliminate the background hum, and no more cooked batteries.....

If ya haven't bought it yet, keep an eye on Ebay...some real deals on new units w/ warranty are listed frequently. (Tech Rep confided not to purchase extended warranty - says if it works right outta the box, it'll work for decades.)

thanks Lee, Rusty found one on E-bay for use, then sent us the link to make sure we got the right one. think we paid around $170.00 or so. I don't know why I didn't see it before, but the tag on the inside of door tells alot. The green wire goes to ground, white and black wire to converter positive, and the red goes to battery positive. So, I'm guessing that with the new converter, there is only four ports, two positive, and two negative. Do I tie the white and black together for one positive, and the red battery positive to the second positive on new converter? Run the green ground wire two one of the negative ports, and then have a negative port left open, not in use? Hopefully it is this simple, Ha,Ha thanks to all

First some homework. It looks like the Newmark's connections aren't standard, and/or that one wire is disconnected or connected wrong (the red one). And you may have to do more work than anticipated.

Stay out of the little lower left compartment; that's 120VAC.

Search inside the coach for an automotive fuse or circuit breaker box. This is to ensure that the fuses on the Newmark aren't the only protection for the coach 12VDC circuits. I don't think the Newmark's fuses are used, but we want to be sure. If there is no fuse box, stop here - but I'm 99% sure there is.

Disconnect shore power.

With a voltmeter, touch its red lead to the white wire's terminal, and its black to the black terminal. This is to confirm that white to the battery is positive. You can also look at the positive battery terminal to see if there's a white wire connected.

If you get a +12 volt reading, then white is battery positive - it will go to one of the Intellipower's red terminals. One each of the black wires will go to the two Intellipower's black terminals.

Remove a coach 12 volt light bulb, and turn its switch on. Touch the voltmeter red to the center contact of the socket, and the black to the shell. If you have +12 volts, the coach wiring is correct.

Now, the red wire. It appears to be either hooked up incorrectly, or not at all. I can't tell where it's connected now, but according to the diagram, it's not right - no matter. It should go to the remaining Intellipower's red terminal.

Do not plug in the Intellipower until the connections have been made.

Where the dual-output powers the coach and charges the battery through separate circuits, and switches battery power to the coach through a relay, the Intellipower stays connected to both.

Hi Rusty, who ever did the install made it harder than it needed to be. the red wire, wich was hooked to a black wire, went to battery possitve. the green wire, wich was hooked to a black wire, went to the negative. the white, ( and actual, original black wire) went to the convertor positive terminal. I put the red wire to the new positive port, the white and black to the other positive port, and the green to the ground, or the negitive port on the new convertor. I did not try anything til we heard back from you. thanks, hopefully this makes sence to you!

You're close! But the black and white wires should not be tied together!

I assume you tested circuit polarity with a voltmeter, to make sure my guesses were right. This is important, because reversing the polarity of either circuit can cause problems.

Here's how I interpret what I saw on the Newmark.

Red: Battery + to house 12VDC
Large Black: Battery - to house 12VDC
White: Charger + to battery
Small Black: Charger - to battery
Green: Common (Chassis and house) ground.

The wires marked + above go to red (positive), those marked - go to black (negative).

Green should go to the terminal lug on the bottom back center.

BTW, the reason the white and small black wires to the battery are smaller than the red and black for the house circuit is that the charger on these old dual-output units was usually only about 1/3 of the listed capacity.

So, you have another project, and that is to replace the original battery wires with ones of at least #6 gage stranded. With a single output converter, the entire converter output can go to the battery as opposed to the 1/3 of the old, and those wires aren't equal to the current. Not replacing those can lead to the wires burning out or causing a fire.

I knew this wouldn't be simple!!! Ha Ha, when you cut out all the extra tie in wires, I only actually have four wires. green, black, red, white. When we bought this coach last year, we took the old batteries out(fried to dust) put new ones in, hooked them up, and were dead in morning, one battery had to go back from dead cells. from just over night. we only used this coach once for the nascar race, and we had to leave the batteries dissconected, unless we were starting the generator. the batterys always spark a little when hooked up. We also fried both our cell phone chargers pluged in to the lighter sockets on coach. This being one of the reasons we bought this new convertor. the white and black were tied together on the old convertor, witch didn't make sence to me. I thought what you said made more sence, black to neg, white to positive. do you think that was our problem all a long? the thick red wire does go down to the batteries, and the black wire does go down to the neg post. There was a 10 gauge wire that was hooked to the furnace to the outside center of newmark. I hooked this wire back up to the inteli convertor,outside center, will that work? if I put the thick green one in the negitive slot, and move the black wire to the other negitive slot? sorry to be such a pain, help greatly appriciated.

also, you were right, there is a fuse box inside of the closet.

Not a pain at all - a pain would be: "Our coach just caught fire and burned to the ground."

Now, the cell phone issues are not necessarily related to the coach circuits; the lighter sockets come in two flavors. The cigarette lighters in the dash are connected to the chassis battery. The ones with the TV are coach batteries; if the latter was connected with reverse polarity, the cell phone chargers would've been assassinated.

I don't know why the furnace was hooked up to the Newmark, but I'd guess it was a jury-rig to bypass some other issue. In any event, I'd trace that wire, as the controllers for furnaces run about $100-200, and are not protected from reverse polarity, which will kill them. Leave the furnace wire disconnected for the moment. I don't know what is meant by "outside center".

Anyway, from what you report, it sounds like the earlier batteries were fried from a form of redneck engineering.

This is why I insisted on checking the circuits with a voltmeter; there was ample reasons to believe that there was idiot involvement, based on the way you said connections were made.

Unfortunately, I leave tomorrow for a star party, and won't have 'net until at the earliest Saturday, possibly Sunday...

This is always difficult, working electrical issues remotely - if you don't have a voltmeter, please get one. A multimeter has a voltmeter range; a decent one can be had for ~$40.

thanks Rusty, will hopefully post some good new before you get back. I do have a mutimeter, and am going to trace all the the four wire back to see were there going to be sure. thanks for your help. have fun at your star party!!!!

Hi Rusty, hopefully your trip is going well. After many wire tests, and on a creeper under the Barth for a day, we found alot out. We are all hookd up, and working right, what a mess someone left for us on the wires. Tracing the wires back from convertor,the green, & the black wire, went up the wall straight to the fuse box. The green was comon ground, & the black was hot. The red, & white wire went into the wall, turned straight back to the generator. There, they came out, went to the starter, fuse box panel on generator. Red wire was tied to black, & then white was tied to another white. From there they go to a solinoid, this solinoid is were our possitive battery cable picks up, & ran to the front of house batteries, then split in two, one going on to the engine battery, the other into the positive house battery. Upon further inspection, the house batteries were reversed, the (red)wire actually went to the ground (straight to frame) the black wire was actually the hot in the battery house commpartment. WoW Huh??? Now, the engine battery has a 40 amp fuse that says, convertor, it of course was blown. Then there is a little convertor looking thing under that, by the engine battery. Replacing the 40 amp fuse, when coach is running, it now turns the hot wire hot to the house batteries when running. So, what we ended up with is this. the old convertor was hooked up wrong, the batteries were reversed around from start. What we ended up doing is this. Red wire to possitive on covertor, black wire, to convertor possitive, white wire to covertor negitive, green wire, to ground in back on covertor. Then, we ran a 6 gauge wire to the last remaining negitive port on convertor, & ran it straight to the house batteries, negitive side. The results are this.....no sparks or draining of the house batteries. The fuse under the hood in engine commpartment, does not blow, and turns the house batteries hot when running,(I assume this way they charge when driving down road.) The convertor wizard remote is green, we have around 123 volt on muti meter reading on the house 110, and we have around 14-15 on batteries when running generator, and the same through the lighter sockets in the house. I don't have my good multimeter here with me, so I had to use a needle type for readings. I will check it all with digital meter when I get mine home. We will post some pictures, hopefully all this makes some sort of sense to you. thanks for all your help Jeff & Joy

Ok, here are some pictures of the convertor, and battery compartment. We also treated ourselves to two new marine batteries in the house, and a new colman 2000 watt invertor. The invertor is mainly used to power our ice maker. That way it will run even while the generator is off. Hopefully this will help out someone else

Jeez, what a mess!

As someone on this site has mentioned before, "It's always SOMETHING!" Gilda Radner as Roseanne Rosannadanna, SNL