Hank the Tanks Dodgy battery and solar system

mariesnowgoose said:
You guys should have yourselves a "power meet" - or a big "pow wow" 😉 😁

Talk round the fire about the pros and cons of batteries, solar and all your fancy gadgets to your hearts content for hours on end (or 'til the cows come home 🐄🐄🐄🐄 ).

Me, I just want something simple and neat I can "plug in and go" and not worry about some bespoke rats' nest of cables and controllers that will confuse the hell out of me if something goes wrong... 🤪🤣🤣🤣
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Thought they already did Marie, aren’t they called Motorhomer Meets? 😂😂😂
 
mariesnowgoose said:
You guys should have yourselves a "power meet" - or a big "pow wow" 😉 😁

Talk round the fire about the pros and cons of batteries, solar and all your fancy gadgets to your hearts content for hours on end (or 'til the cows come home 🐄🐄🐄🐄 ).

Me, I just want something simple and neat I can "plug in and go" and not worry about some bespoke rats' nest of cables and controllers that will confuse the hell out of me if something goes wrong... 🤪🤣🤣🤣
Click to expand...
Thought they already did Marie, aren’t they called Motorhomer Meets? 😂😂😂
barryd said:
I'll have some breathing space to get my head round it all now anyway at least rather than blundering ahead while away. It's more tech than nuts and bolts so I should be all over it really with my background and I will be eventually. I just can't do any of the physical work myself. Understanding exactly whats required though will help me find someone who can. There must be a solar lithium guru up north surely.
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There is, I messaged you last week ya daft sod lol
 
Not a worrier just hate flying by the seat of my pants and not understanding everything. It all happened so fast so its a bit of a learning curve. The entire past month or so since it all happened very quickly has though been pretty stressful.

Met up with Julian (Yeoblade) just now and he had a look at whats needed. All the gear and battery is ordered and should be with him tomorrow so we will get it fitted Monday morning.
 
mariesnowgoose said:
What you want doing is a biggish job and requires mucking about with the wiring on a factory-built motorhome. Yuk! 😝

It can be a messy, very time consuming job, and if I were in David's shoes I would say no too! 😉😁

Even just fitting a new leisure battery in our old autosleeper, which should have been a quick, straightforward "slot out/slot in" job turned out to be more complicated that you would ever think.
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Which is why , for some of us , a decent portable power thingy , will be perfect
 
barryd said:
Its just a temporary thing for this trip. Ill have a little 12v socket right under my seat at the back where I sit above the battery. I just thought it might give me a better idea if the battery is in decline than relying on the three lights on the solar controller or the swift levels lights above the door. Generally in the old van I hit the button on the (wonderful) MPPT controller each evening before bed and it showed me where we were in voltage. The old system this time of year even with a crap day it would hardly ever drop below 12.5.
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No you'll know when it's bad the lights won't work. Why collect data from stuff your scrapping. Pull a ring and relax only 5 hours till sun up.
 
So @yeoblade Julian up this morning with a box of goodies I ordered including the new battery from Alpha and we (well he) got cracking on that. First issue we had which Julian warned me off is the bloody battery clamp bolts in the battery box would not come out. The ends underneath the van just turn. I think they get corroded over time. By lifting the clamp up (Stretching it) we manged to wiggle it out but we had to fit the new one under the spare slot for the second battery. At some point if I get an upgrade those bolts on the first slot are going to have be removed / chopped off.

Julian tested the input from the panel and it is charging although we couldnt get an accurate reading. Somewhere between 1 and 3 amps. Then he went over all the Sargent control panel stuff with me so I learned some useful stuff there.

However one thing we found out and this is the same on Julians similar Swift van is there is a draw of around 0.6-0.7 amps with nothing on. Not sure what this is. Could it be just the current required for the Sargent system, control panel above the door? Possibly. Maybe the old van had some kind of miniscule draw as well. Dunno. My new voltage meter will hopefully tell me last thing at night and first thing in the morning if its dropping much overnight but realistically this time of year there should be no problem at all.

Going back off grid tomorrow over Salcombe way so we will see how we get on.

Massive thanks to Julian for helping us out with all this. So very kind.
 
barryd said:
Not a worrier just hate flying by the seat of my pants and not understanding everything. It all happened so fast so its a bit of a learning curve. The entire past month or so since it all happened very quickly has though been pretty stressful.

Met up with Julian (Yeoblade) just now and he had a look at whats needed. All the gear and battery is ordered and should be with him tomorrow so we will get it fitted Monday morning.
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Poor man, is he ÍNSANE? he bloody will be soon.
 
Pudsey Bear said:
What's going on with the gas situation Barry?
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Filled up today and it took just over 9 litres but that was really only 10 days use as we were on hookup the last six days so maybe I can eek out two weeks out of it with no heating on. About what I thought really. Still got a nearly full calor. If the solar and battery lasted I'll swap to that when needed.
 
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