[Richard]

A couple of questions for you to throw into the mix.

Are you planning on running the minisplit on batteries? If so, what it the max time you would desire?

choice. The ME-ARC does but I’m not going to upgrade to those controllers. If the ME RC will allow you to program a CC/CV charge you are good to go
2. I don’t plan on adding solar.
3. I expect we will boondock more since we are snowbirds and spend more time in cooler climates. We don’t need to run the air conditioning all the time like we did in Florida.
4. I have the big oil cooled alternator. I’m interested in NOT creating issues with this because of the low charging resistance in Lithium batteries.
5. I have the big blue isolator in the rear electrical cabinet. Alternator in post, a post for house batteries and a post for engine batteries. You are going to ditch that isolator because it does not play well with Lithium
6. The smartest guy I know said he went through alternators when he would boondock and just drive away the next morning letting the engine alternator charge the batteries. When he changed his MO to running the generator as well, his alternator issues were reduced (or eliminated). I don’t recall if this was on their first Newell and has been overcome when/if his second had the big oil cooled alternator.
7. If I remove the house batteries from the isolator and install a DC-DC charger (engine to house direction, 30 or 40 AMP) will this be a viable option instead of running the generator? Since you have a 50DN, you will want more like 150 amp charge rate. 40 amp rate is 5 hour drive time to fully charge ONE battery
8. Should I set up my system to only charge the batteries from the 2nd inverter/charger because it would be more straight forward to monitor and control? As I ask this it sounds easier to manage this way but splitting the charging duties might keep heat down in each inverter/charger and battery cables. I would set them both up to charge, to minimize charge time while charging on the generator. I might set the cutoff criteria slightly lower on one of the chargers so that they don’t get in one another’s way at the end of the charge cycle.
9. My generator starts from the house batteries.
10. I don’t set the merge switch when hooked up to shore power. With Lithium when this is needed for starting the engine I should leave it merged for 20 minutes or so before attempting an engine start. Yes and here is why. With dead chassis batts and the amp draw of the starter, the lithium bank will pump monster amps into the wiring. You can easily blow the 300 or 400 amp fuse.
11. I’ll have to reconfigure my automatic generator start for the Lithium profile. I may upgrade to the Magnum AGS for this. I haven’t determined the original AGS settings capabilities yet.