Buying a Level 2 charger showed me a panel problem.....

[Jaxmax]

That charger sure looks to have a small lug setup to land those sixes on, while charger looks small with not much heat dissipation area, I guess it is fine. Putting a charger that draws 32 amps on a sixty amp breaker on a sixty amp panel ……maybe go with a fifty, so the main won’t trip on a fault.

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[ShadowsPapa]

Ok on my way for the drink Bill, leaving now see you perhaps by Saturday!
Bill , Memory is the second thing to go, I forget what the first was! Remember what size ground wire you would need ?? Not a number six but ten or eight at most, might fit better and probably is what they ran for the AC whip unless you can get a #6 gauge whip……Jack

The docs for the charger say Three 6 gauge wires. Two hot, one ground.
Neutral is not needed.
So what you are saying is that I could use a smaller ground, and use 2 6 gauge wires for the hot leads.
It's 220 only, no 110 necessary, says right in the book "neutral not needed". Just ground and the two hot wires. Ground will be a must because these things actually check for it and kick an error and refuse to charge without it. I believe even the 110 volt charger freaks out with a ground issue as when I was finishing up the panel I had the ground wire loose and that 110v charger had a fit.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

This is the plug in cord it comes with - remove this when doing hard-wire install -

This is where the cable goes in - (most of the real work is handled by the vehicle itself)

 

[Jaxmax]

The chargers docs are what you have to go by then, tight fit but they will go in even though you are going to terminate on a number ten ground bar. Manufacturer specs above code need to be followed.
So many rules electricians come up with to make all the other trades think we are smarter, not just better looking!

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I bought a whip - biggest I could find was 3/4" with two 8 gauge wires and a 10 gauge ground.
Man, that whip is STIFF, hard to curve and bend.
Worse - there was no way to come in from the back and under the charger directly because the mounting bracket sticks down. So the whip had to come out through the plywood at an angle and I had to use a few inches of 3/4" conduit (I made a piece) to drop the connection down.
Will get a pic or two later.
I pulled the 8s out and ran 2 6s in it, and left the 10 gauge ground since it's a 10 going to the house.
The 6s fit, stiff going, but fit into both the charger and the panel. That whip is really pushed in there hard to get it to curve and fit behind that plywood!
I left the 50 amp breaker in there for now. At 40 amps max, charging a 32 amp 4xe, that's plenty. I want it to trip before anything else does.
If I need more power later, will revisit.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Because of the charger's mounting bracket, and how stiff the whip is (*even with NO wire at all in it, you can't flex it easily), I had to extend things down.
But it worked out ok - it just looks like crap.
It's all that could be done in the depth of a standard wall. I guess I could have used standard PVC conduit and if this ever fails, I may just do that but for now this is fine. And since it's mounted solidly, I can't see anything giving out.
6 gauge is the max the charger could take - but that's exactly what it calls for no matter how it's supplied or used.

I took the opportunity and did a bit of spring cleaning in that corner and decided to go ahead and line that corner using some 1/2" plywood I had left from other projects.

The charger's cable is routed up to the truss, south a bit and then drops where it can be plugged into Barbara's Jeep, or put in the holder for the connection end.
It's not on the floor that way, out of the way, less likely to get damaged.
I had a small electric string trimmer (fine if you have a tiny house and no yard) and a small electric chain saw hanging in this corner before - those are going to some charity in Des Moines next week with a load of other stuff. Time for another big "give away".

 

[Jaxmax]

So Bill now that you have mastered another trade, as an electrician how are you feeling about the 4XE so far?

 

[ShadowsPapa]

So Bill now that you have mastered another trade, as an electrician how are you feeling about the 4XE so far?

LOL - mastered, no, but it was sure a refresher for me - and got me caught up with the newer codes.
I still wish that garage panel had a ground rod as I'm not keen on a 10 gauge for ground on a circuit that handles 50 amps. If something happens, that current is going to find a path, and 10 gauge isn't enough for a 6 gauge handling 50 amps as far as safely getting that to ground to trip the breaker. Seems to me it could melt that ground wire by the time the breaker trips. And there's no protection against lightening at all. At least the house has a path back via ground rod and neutral in the case of an induced current from lightening (doesn't take a direct strike to induce a current enough to blow things apart - I was in a building when it happened)

Anyway, It's at least up to current code, the 10 gauge to the house is proper and legal and the charger works.
Well, she's not driven that Jeep yet since I installed this so I can't say it charges fine, but all other aspects seem to work. It's on wi-fi and the reporting works, and the correct lights work like they should.

I found it interesting in that when that garage was wired in about 1980 or 81, that they not only tied the ground and neutral together in the panel - which was fine back then - that was an option and totally legal and proper, but they had run that white 10 gauge wire to the garage as well, tying it to the neutral in the house panel and to the ground/neutral in the garage. Technically, in 1980 it wasn't necessary. Simply bonding the neutral and ground to the panel in the garage was kosher. A 3 wire install was by code for a subpanel in a disconnected building. But then, the guy that built the house was the sort that if 4 nails would do it, use 7 nails. If 14 was fine, then use 12 gauge.

It was REALLY tempting to do the easy thing, take the easy way out, and wire an outlet and use the plug in method for it. That's way more than adequate for a 4xe as it's only capable of 32 amp charging with the charger in 40 amp mode (the Jeep limits the charging current itself) but then I thought of some "what-ifs" and decided to hard wire it, but limit the breaker to 50 amps (keeping it under the size of the breaker in the house that feeds the garage)
If this had been any more complex, the outlet would have been extremely simple to do with PVC conduit to an outlet between the two wall studs to the left of the panel. Would have been a straight, easy run and more than adequate. But this way if a friend or family member comes by with a full EV and needs a charge, it can be bumped up a notch.

On the 4xe - I like it so far. Not that it's been driven a lot aside from that trip to Florida where I was driving for hours on end, almost non-stop save for the tiny gas tank and constantly needing to stop for gas (a thing with the 4xe - tiny gas tank for 2 reasons)
It's all Jeep, that's for sure.
It's got guts (although I romped it hard one time expecting it to take off like a scared rabbit, and all that happened is the little 2.0 wound up, I could hear the thing kick in and it screamed and launched about like I'd expect a turtle to move........... slowly and methodically.
Some have suggested that since it was in 2H that the torque limiting came into play and if I'd had it in 4H auto it would have jumped into action like that rabbit. They say with a 4xe, ignore 2H and always leave it in 4H auto to kill the torque limiting aspect. So that's what we're doing now but then that was the point of making sure anything we got for my wife had the SelecTrac t-case so it could just be left in 4 and she'd not have to worry about trying to shift the thing or remember to shift it since she was so used to decades of Grand Cherokees with fully automatic 4 wheel drive.
Yeah, I'd do it again and yes, if they ever release a 4xe JT that can tow 6,000 pounds and go 400 miles on a tank of gas, I'd be interested. But squeaking out maybe 300 miles on a tank if you are lucky isn't for me. For her, it's great because she wasn't even putting 5,000 miles a year on her other Jeeps. So she'll use mostly electric and not use a lot of gas which means - she could end up in FORM mode now and then.

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