merl
Full Member
- Posts
- 2,134
- Likes
- 4,338
The piggy back fuse holders would be my choice David and keep the maintainer in a better environment than under the bonnet eh?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 (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?
Some images suggest that the connections at the main box are screw terminals anyway? If so even easier job!
