Charging cab / engine battery from Solar panel.
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trevskoda
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Val54
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Possibly, like you I'm not an accomplished spark!! Trev's solution was a no brainer for me as I needed to replace the controller anyway and the Votronic gave me a seperate trickle feed option to the engine battery. The extra trickle charge cabling was a bit of a pain but it wasn't as long a run as you need. For non-sparks like us, fit and forget is definitely the way to go
trevskoda
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I have found over the years that very few are experts, perts yes, wild bus is the man and many of his posts made me change things for the better by miles.
barryd
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Where does he live?
Actually I wonder if it is something I can get done while on tour this year. Its not like its urgent. Could get the battery master on offer and see if I can get some willing Expert to fit it for me while we are out and about. Probably Flamborough first early on then later Devon then I dont know after that. Happy to pay for that of course.
trevskoda
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Easy just to change the regulator and stop faffing about.Where does he live?
Actually I wonder if it is something I can get done while on tour this year. Its not like its urgent. Could get the battery master on offer and see if I can get some willing Expert to fit it for me while we are out and about. Probably Flamborough first early on then later Devon then I dont know after that. Happy to pay for that of course.
merl
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When you say "works perfectly" you should have added the caveat "apart from the cab battery trickle issue that I'd like to attend to"!
As David has already mentioned the installation of a battery maintainer is pretty basic stuff and it's not going to adversely affect your existing system.
I understand that nothing is perfect and you WILL have to remember to plug in EHU when you're at home and there's not enough solar to keep up with the maintenance consumption on both batteries but overall adding a battery master or whatever is an improvement upon your existing system and should simply be viewed as that.
barryd
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Not really practical to regularly plug into EHU here. Its actually easier to plug in a 240v charger into the bonnet if I have to than to try and reach the EHU socket on the van. If the vans parked up for any length of time on the drive ill disconnect the cab battery. I usually disconnect the solar also in mid winter as its been known to drag the hab battery down.
Pudsey Bear
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Not seen any better Barry, I have a spare one in the loft I bought of John ages ago, just a shame it doesn't do the VB too, I'm not sure if you could use the load terminals for that or not?
merl
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From the wiring diagrams posted so far it looks like there is 12V cab battery connection already available inside the main control panel, if so there would be no need to run another cable and installation would be a doddle.
You've already got the 'no sun' situation covered and under control so no issues there.
Did you ever check those 15A fuses Barry?
barryd
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wildebus
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Barry,Where does he live?
Actually I wonder if it is something I can get done while on tour this year. Its not like its urgent. Could get the battery master on offer and see if I can get some willing Expert to fit it for me while we are out and about. Probably Flamborough first early on then later Devon then I dont know after that. Happy to pay for that of course.
If you plan to get Vanbitz to do the work, then get them to supply and fit the battery master.
If USED, the Battery Master will operate like you are after basically.
If you are buying a NEW battery maintainer for someone else to fit, then the Battery Master is not the best or the cheapest around. You may as well get the best for the same money.
It doesn't matter which one you buy, they are pretty well identical in the WAY they are fitted (SB +ve, LB +ve and Common -ve) so if Installer XYZ can fit one, he can fit any. The method of operation does vary between them though.
Installing....
I think it was in a couple of posts between you and Merl, I was reminded of how your setup very likely is, based on the age of your motorhome and the model. The diagram below is officially from a Swift Sundance but is pretty well identical to many brands and models of British Motorhomes of the era.
I cannot be 100% sure yours is like this, but (especially as you have a Swift) worth looking to see....
The Section within the pink box are a couple of relays, typically located under the bonnet and probably on the drivers side. The fuses (just outside the pink box) will be with them also.
The Red line is a route from the Vehicle Battery to the "Home" Battery via the Split Charge Relay. To fit a Battery Maintainer (BM for short), all that needs to be done is to have a Piggyback from the wire that goes into the Relay (on Pin 30) to the VB+ve connection on the BM, the wire on the other side of the Relay (Pin 87) to the LB+ve connection on the BM, and a Chassis -ve from anywhere easy to the Common-ve of the BM.
If you look at the diagram above, you can also see those two +VEs are available on the right hand side of the Fuses (In Sargentland, Brown/Blue coloured wires are Leisure Battery, Brown/Green is Vehicle Battery).
It would be possible to come off those fuse holders instead with a very simple set of pre-made wires with spade connectors ready-fitted (Blade Fuses use exactly the same size connectors as Spade Connectors, so you can take advantage of that). This would be a piggy-back fuse method.
You would have something like this .... Remove the fuse, put it into the fuse holder shown below, and then put the black "fuse" into the original place. The Lead with the blue bullet is your feed to the BM. Do this on the two lower fuses as shown in the wiring diagram and you have your two feeds ready to use (once you fit a couple of extra fuses to the 2nd position on the piggyback holder). You then just need to pick up the -ve from somewhere suitable. The pair shown below are £3.50 inc postage from Amazon (https://amzn.to/3Kc8TE4).
The only problem with these is potentially if one of the fuse taps needed is in the middle of a group of 3 (like the diagram suggests) so cannot be physically fitted. But that is a minor thing and can be worked round.
Lots of options. the one above might appeal as you don't have to start disassembling control units?
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Pudsey Bear
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I think all motorhome charge the LB on EHU Barry even as ancient as your, it's the VB which is left out to die, in out first van I bought one of those 20w small solar panels for the dash, total waste of time.
barryd
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Thanks.Barry,
If you plan to get Vanbitz to do the work, then get them to supply and fit the battery master.
If USED, the Battery Master will operate like you are after basically.
If you are buying a NEW battery maintainer for someone else to fit, then the Battery Master is not the best or the cheapest around. You may as well get the best for the same money.
It doesn't matter which one you buy, they are pretty well identical in the WAY they are fitted (SB +ve, LB +ve and Common -ve) so if Installer XYZ can fit one, he can fit any. The method of operation does vary between them though.
Installing....
I think it was in a couple of posts between you and Merl, I was reminded of how your setup very likely is, based on the age of your motorhome and the model. The diagram below is officially from a Swift Sundance but is pretty well identical to many brands and models of British Motorhomes of the era.
I cannot be 100% sure yours is like this, but (especially as you have a Swift) worth looking to see....
The Section within the pink box are a couple of relays, typically located under the bonnet and probably on the drivers side. The fuses (just outside the pink box) will be with them also.
The Red line is a route from the Vehicle Battery to the "Home" Battery via the Split Charge Relay. To fit a Battery Maintainer (BM for short), all that needs to be done is to have a Piggyback from the wire that goes into the Relay (on Pin 30) to the VB+ve connection on the BM, the wire on the other side of the Relay (Pin 87) to the LB+ve connection on the BM, and a Chassis -ve from anywhere easy to the Common-ve of the BM.
View attachment 118794
If you look at the diagram above, you can also see those two +VEs are available on the right hand side of the Fuses (In Sargentland, Brown/Blue coloured wires are Leisure Battery, Brown/Green is Vehicle Battery).
It would be possible to come off those fuse holders instead with a very simple set of pre-made wires with spade connectors ready-fitted (Blade Fuses use exactly the same size connectors as Spade Connectors, so you can take advantage of that). This would be a piggy-back fuse method.
You would have something like this .... Remove the fuse, put it into the fuse holder shown below, and then put the black "fuse" into the original place. The Lead with the blue bullet is your feed to the BM. Do this on the two lower fuses as shown in the wiring diagram and you have your two feeds ready to use. You then just need to pick up the -ve from somewhere suitable. The pair shown below are £3.50 inc postage from Amazon (https://amzn.to/3Kc8TE4).
The only problem with these is potentially if one of the fuse taps needed is in the middle of a group of 3 (like the diagram suggests) so cannot be physically fitted. But that is a minor thing and can be worked round.
Lots of options. the one above might appeal as you don't have to start disassembling control units?
Will try and have a better look when home later. Difficult to read on my phone.