Hank the Tanks Dodgy battery and solar system

Just a thought as a stop gap but I'll not bother. I used it for an hour watching stuff on the laptop. It was still flashing fully charged on the solar controller after.

I think the van has a fail safe for cutting off power to the starter battery if it gets close to the point where it won't start.

I don't think fitting an mppt controller will help. The batteries get full charge with the one we have but it just doesn't last long. I'll just eek it out until we get the Lithium system fitted. We haven't done bad though. Three weeks we have been back on this spot off grid without moving.
 
barryd said:
I don't think fitting an mppt controller will help. The batteries get full charge with the one we have but it just doesn't last long.
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You previously posted:-
barryd said:
Solar has been crap today as the sun only appeared early on and then about 4pm and it's too low now.
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And then you went on to suggest adding a better cab battery and using that for leisure So I assumed you were trying to fix the lack of solar by increasing the battery capacity. 🫤
If you're 'managing' WRT battery capacity when it's sunny but not when it's overcast then you need more solar gain. = MPPT/ more panels. If you're not then you need more battery capacity and probably more solar gain too in order to replenish the additional capacity?
You will need an MPPT anyway when you upgrade, you could get and fit that now and it WOULD help on cloudy days.
Careful or we'll have to resort to Trev's idea.
 
With the tune of things i think he is just stringing us along, but with no bass for his foundation, dont think i will amplify on this. 😂
 
merl said:
You previously posted:-

And then you went on to suggest adding a better cab battery and using that for leisure So I assumed you were trying to fix the lack of solar by increasing the battery capacity. 🫤
If you're 'managing' WRT battery capacity when it's sunny but not when it's overcast then you need more solar gain. = MPPT/ more panels. If you're not then you need more battery capacity and probably more solar gain too in order to replenish the additional capacity?
You will need an MPPT anyway when you upgrade, you could get and fit that now and it WOULD help on cloudy days.
Careful or we'll have to resort to Trev's idea.
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Not quite. The solar on this van charges both the leisure battery and the engine battery. Both are getting fully charged most days. In fact during the day on a sunny day it's great. I can run what I like on the leisure battery as long as I leave it to charge in the afternoon. The issue is with it being late August the time without useful sun is increasing so the battery by midnight has gone from fully charged to 12.2 or 12.1. I just thought taking an hour or two out of the engine battery would elevate that a bit as both would top up the next day.

I'm not messing on with anything else. It's all quoted for and will get done so I'll let the experts sort it out. It was just an idea for now, possibly a daft one. 😁
 
My votronic charges both les & starter batts, i have a switch & relay which i use when driving to connect them all up, i can also use this for a emergency start should the engine battery fail, or for jump starting someone else.
 
barryd said:
Well it's been virtually a week since we arrived off grid here in south Dorset in the new van with the untested solar and battery.

Bit of a development last night. It all went a bit pear shaped. I figured something was up Friday night when after three days of sun the Swift control panel was showing the last level at bed time on the last green light (around 12v). After a sun free miserable day yesterday around 9pm an alarm went off on the panel and the battery appeared dead right round in the red. It had also dropped to Yellow then eventually red on the solar control box. Interestingly though the lights, water pump etc were not dim.

This morning it's showing two green lights around 12.5 but my guess is it's knackered.

Either that or it's just not up to the job. I've already emailed VanBitz in Taunton who from another thread might be a good option to get it sorted.

The plan was to let it charge today and see what happens tonight and tomorrow.

All we run is two laptops, two smart phones, sometimes a TV and sat system, water and led lights.

I reckon it's a 100 or 120w panel, controller and a boggy basic 110 ah battery. Old van had an mppt controller, 100w panel and 120 AGM battery and would be fine this time of year under similar load.

So. What to do? 😁

Pics and more info to follow.
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I had a similar problem when we came out of hibernation in the spring. I ‘Re-booted’the system by disconnecting the battery and solar panel , leaving it for 5 minutes and reconnecting
 
Wasn't sure whether to start a new thread, add to this one or just not post anything at all after 18 pages! :D

I've been giving the entire thing some thought since we got home and I am now questioning whether to bother going the lithium route just yet or not.

Here is my reasoning. Once we fitted the new 120ah battery for the time we were off grid which is mainly early to late summer we just about managed. It was a PIA at times but come September most of the places we stayed were sites with hookup anyway. Next year we will be doing more touring, mainly in Europe so moving around more and come the back end will probably end up on hookup somewhere in the UK. Since then I have read a lot of threads about lithium and not all good. I am wondering if I might just get away with adding another Alpha Batteries 120ah Expedition. I think it will just about fit in the battery box. I might still go the lithium route but I just don't know if its justifiable right now. Neck end of £3k and another battery will be £130 plus whatever I need to connect the two.

The current solar I think is either a 100 or probably a 120w and it charged the new battery pretty quick but the controller also tops up the engine battery. It seems to be keeping both nicely topped up parked up even now doing nothing outside.

What do I need to connect up a second battery? They will be right next to each other in the battery box. Do the cables from the current solar controller need to go to both or just one?

I know some advised on this route a while back up thread but I insisted on going the lithium route but Im not sure now.
 
The second battery simply connects in parallel with the first one, It's pretty simple to do. Once this is done then they can be viewed as 1 big battery so the SCC connects to this new bigger BIGGER battery just once.
Ideally you re configure the pos and neg like this
batts.png

but as you're not drawing large currents it's arguably not worth the faff if the existing cables dont reach, in which case just connect another battery to the first one like this with some decent gauge cable and you'll be fine.
Inkedbatts 2.jpg

Bear in mind that no matter how big your battery is it'll go flat if you cant recharge it effectively, basically your battery is only as good as your charging system. What'll work for you will depend massively on how you camp and use stuff but if you've got double the battery it'll take twice as long to replenish on your existing solar.
 
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Just get a couple of cables the same size as existing but long enough of course.

when I have two batteries I charge them by putting the neg on one and the pos on the other and to use the power I do the same with the opposite terminals.
 
merl said:
The second battery simply connects in parallel with the first one, It's pretty simple to do. Once this is done then they can be viewed as 1 big battery so the SCC connects to this new bigger BIGGER battery just once.
Ideally you re configure the pos and neg like this View attachment 137258
but as you're not drawing large currents it's arguably not worth the faff if the existing cables dont reach, in which case just connect another battery to the first one like this with some decent gauge cable and you'll be fine.
View attachment 137259
Bear in mind that no matter how big your battery is it'll go flat if you cant recharge it effectively, basically your battery is only as good as your charging system. What'll work for you will depend massively on how you camp and use stuff but if you've got double the battery it'll take twice as long to replenish on your existing solar.
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Thanks

I know you should match the solar to the batteries but what I did discover on our long trip was that the current panel and controller charged the single battery pretty quickly. The issue was it ran down too quickly and if we got a couple of dull days there wasnt much in reserve and we had to be stingy with power usage. I think its a case of suck it and see but it might be enough for our needs without adding anything else (apart from a battery). If it takes two or three hours to top up one battery on a morning presumably it will take double that for two which is not a problem the times we are off grid? Might not be a big job to stick another panel up but Im not entirely sure ill need it.
 
barryd said:
Thanks

I know you should match the solar to the batteries but what I did discover on our long trip was that the current panel and controller charged the single battery pretty quickly. The issue was it ran down too quickly and if we got a couple of dull days there wasnt much in reserve and we had to be stingy with power usage. I think its a case of suck it and see but it might be enough for our needs without adding anything else (apart from a battery). If it takes two or three hours to top up one battery on a morning presumably it will take double that for two which is not a problem the times we are off grid? Might not be a big job to stick another panel up but Im not entirely sure ill need it.
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Well you did promise to resurrect this thread .
 
Nabsim said:
I would question the bit where you said bad reports on Lithium. If someone has genuine bad reports it almost certainly they did something wrong if the battery are Lifepo4.
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Probably although one guy had issues from one of the reputable suppliers / fitters but I think it got sorted. I was all for it in the summer but since I have had chance to look a bit more into it I started wondering if I do really need it right now and there seems to be a lot of kit involved which to me also means if something goes wrong mid tour how does it get sorted? There are a lot of variables. I wont be running invertors, compressor fridges etc and whilst its still desirable I do wonder if I am throwing £3k at something I could sort for £150. It seems the prices are going down as well. We almost certainly wont need it next year with the plan we have so maybe I should hang on. Dunno.
 
your probably better at electrickery than i barry but after 3-4 false starts i embraced the lithium option finally and haven’t looked back, a full set up could cost as much as £3k but if you start of with a single lithium battery possibly double the price of a lead acid it can be added to although it’s not a straight drop in replacement it will still run as efficiently as the lead acid just not as well as it could but you still get the recharge speed and depth of draw ,
 
rugbyken said:
your probably better at electrickery than i barry but after 3-4 false starts i embraced the lithium option finally and haven’t looked back, a full set up could cost as much as £3k but if you start of with a single lithium battery possibly double the price of a lead acid it can be added to although it’s not a straight drop in replacement it will still run as efficiently as the lead acid just not as well as it could but you still get the recharge speed and depth of draw ,
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I have heard of people just dropping them in. Its a lot of pages to wade through but I seem to remember there could be all sorts of issues doing that. If I get it done I want it done properly and for me that means going to the best supplier which of course is 250 miles away now. :D I don't think I would relax if I did a bodge job and "see what happens".
 
Save your pennies (The Mrs will like that!) add another battery the same as fitted, but I would also consider adding more solar and a decent mppt charger, that'll trickle charge the starter batt when hab batts full. Nearer £300 not 3k. I've been running that for a few years without ever running out of power.
It's too easy to get caught up in the buy this lithium, and that.... bla bla when you don't actually need it.
 
One or two good things about a mppt control unit is that it condenses all 19v down to 14.4 over a old unit which cuts of at 14.4, so the rest of the volts are lost, the mppt will in return then give a higher ampage out, then it will go into a slumber mode at about 13.7 followed by a pulse charge before going back to normal, the pulse helps the battery from sulphering white death on the plates. ;)
 
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