Charging Leads

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Chossy

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Hey,

My van battery dies pretty much after a month, fortunately the leisure battery charger I have has an extra set of ports in it so I can charge the van battery as well by plugging in the hookup cable in the side of the van and turning the charger on inside the van. However I don't have any spare leads to make up and I also am not sure what AWG / mm2 I should purchase... The run would be about 6m. The cables supplied with the charger would probably be about 10AWG / 6mm... can I just buy that and stick a 50a fuse on the van battery end of the +ve... the screw in terminals on the charger probably won't support much more than that and the short run to the existing leisure batteries has been fine.
Thanks for any help.
 
A battery Master from Vanbitz would do the job without the hassle of keep charging your starter battery, they have an offer on till Christmas for members🤔
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VAN BITZ - End Of Year Exclusive Offer To All Motorhome Fun Members

Due to the unwavering support given to us from all of you fabulous Motorhome Fun members, Van Bitz are showing that we see what you do and that we have the upmost appreciation. With this in mind I am overjoyed to announce that we are now offering all members an exclusive special offer of 15%...
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I have some jump leads, I can use to hook up to the leisure batteries when they are charged so I can jump start the van that way but it would be nice to just hook up the spare charging points to the van battery and clip those on every month or so.
 
Chossy said:
I have some jump leads, I can use to hook up to the leisure batteries when they are charged so I can jump start the van that way but it would be nice to just hook up the spare charging points to the van battery and clip those on every month or so.
Click to expand...
The battery master automatically keeps your starter battery topped up from your leisure without having to use jump leads😊
 
Speve said:
A battery Master from Vanbitz would do the job without the hassle of keep charging your starter battery, they have an offer on till Christmas for members🤔
www.motorhomefun.co.uk

VAN BITZ - End Of Year Exclusive Offer To All Motorhome Fun Members

Due to the unwavering support given to us from all of you fabulous Motorhome Fun members, Van Bitz are showing that we see what you do and that we have the upmost appreciation. With this in mind I am overjoyed to announce that we are now offering all members an exclusive special offer of 15%...
www.motorhomefun.co.uk www.motorhomefun.co.uk
Click to expand...
That's a cool box, however I don't think I can justify £80 - 15% if I have the spare terminals on the existing charger I could make use of. I like that box very much though.

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With the battery master would the van then deplete the leisure batteries as it does the van battery due to the vast amount of electrics it hogs up while sitting and then when I come to charge the van it has to charge the leisure batteries which would be more discharged than normal and the small amount it does feed into the van battery would take a long time to charge due to the small amount fed to the van battery? If I use the existing terminals would it not charge up the van battery in short order... rather than the smaller feed coming through the battery master?
 
Yes If you don’t have any solar to charge your leisure battery then battery master will deplete your leisure battery if it’s not being charged🤔
 
I have come to a decision... I will see if the jump leads will fit into the terminals on the charger if so I will snip the ends and screw them in. If not I will buy a wee AA solar charger for the van battery. I can leave on the dashboard see how that fares... Thanks for chatting with me.
 
You are most welcome I’m sure someone else will be along soon with more suggestions😊
 
Chossy said:
Hey,

My van battery dies pretty much after a month, fortunately the leisure battery charger I have has an extra set of ports in it so I can charge the van battery as well by plugging in the hookup cable in the side of the van and turning the charger on inside the van. However I don't have any spare leads to make up and I also am not sure what AWG / mm2 I should purchase... The run would be about 6m. The cables supplied with the charger would probably be about 10AWG / 6mm... can I just buy that and stick a 50a fuse on the van battery end of the +ve... the screw in terminals on the charger probably won't support much more than that and the short run to the existing leisure batteries has been fine.
Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...
If the charger has a second output for the starter battery I wonder why the manufacturer didn't wire it.
Normally the second output is only a couple of amps so 2 mm sq cable would be OK.

What charger is it?

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WIT?
It's got two outputs, I have two leisure batteries connected in parallel and I only use one positive and one negative, what's the use of the other outputs if it doesn't fire out a second charge?

I was intending on just having clips on the ends on the leads coming from the second output... that I would just clip onto the van battery when needed not permanently fixed. Are you saying that if the second output of the charger is connected to the van battery then even when off the current would still flow between the leisure battery and the van battery if left connected?
 
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When on EHU I keep my starter battery charged by plugging a Halfords 'intelligent' charger into a 240v socket inside the m/h and plug the 12v charger leads into the permanently live 10 amp cig lighter socket on the dash.

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Lenny HB said:
Yes, two pairs of terminals each pair connected together.
Click to expand...

So my two leisure batteries connected in parallel, using only one output will only charge one battery? WHAT!!. So how does one charge two leisure batteries connected in parallel with a single output charger? I absolutely cannot follow this at all.
 
Chossy said:
So my two leisure batteries connected in parallel, using only one output will only charge one battery? WHAT!!. So how does one charge two leisure batteries connected in parallel with a single output charger? I absolutely cannot follow this at all.
Click to expand...
If the batteries are connected in parallel they are effectively one battery.
 
Chossy said:
So my two leisure batteries connected in parallel, using only one output will only charge one battery? WHAT!!. So how does one charge two leisure batteries connected in parallel with a single output charger? I absolutely cannot follow this at all.
Click to expand...
Second paragraph of the overview
For the charger.
It states a SINGLE 12v battery OR a number of 12v batteries CONNECTED IN PARALLEL.
Any number of batteries in parallel appear as a single battery to a charger
It appears to be a single output regardless of number of terminals.
Also, those tiny 5 or 10 watt dash top solar panels are a gimmick and won't keep up with normal parasitic battery drain.
You need a 50watt panel especially in winter with low sun where it will struggle to produce a couple of amps for a few hours a day.
 
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Still can't follow it at all. I have two batteries connected in parallel, I have one positive output of the charger connected to the positive of the first battery, I have one negative output of the the charger connected to the negative of the second battery. What would be the purpose of the second positive and the second negative of the charger be? If I followed Lenny HB be said both pairs joined together... why would I do that exactly? : / so errrrr how does one charge two batteries with a single two terminal battery charger? you don't? I appreciate all the help I'm just finding it impossible to follow :)
 
Probably a simpler question is this.

Why in god's name has it got two sets of terminals.

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Chossy said:
Probably a simpler question is this.

Why in god's name has it got two sets of terminals.
Click to expand...
If your Relay is a one-off conversion the charger could be whatever was chosen/available. Even if it isn't a one-off, a pic or the make and model of the charger would help.

Apologies. The link you gave I took to be just for the '12v solar panels' so I didn't look at it. :doh:


12V solar panels charging kits for caravans, motorhomes, boats, yachts, marine
12V solar panel solar charging kits for motorhome caravan boat campervan yacht marine off-grid
www.photonicuniverse.com
 
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I think with your limited knowledge you need to get someone who understands Motorhome electrics to sort out your wiring.
 
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Me is thinking this thread is a wind up.

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Lenny HB said:
I think with your limited knowledge you need to get someone who understands Motorhome electrics to sort out your wiring.
Click to expand...
No, I will keep trying to understand, thanks for your help.
 
Okay, after doing a bit of research on that model number of charger, two separate batteries of identical make model and age can be charged simultaneously, the battery with least charge will get the most current until they are equal then both will go into absorbition and float together. I don't really think this is ideal as your starter battery should be a different type to your leisure batteries, the best solution in my opinion is a CBE battery master, this works differently to a vanbitz one, it will only link the batteries when the leisure batteries are over 13.6 volts and will cut off when the leisure batteries drop to 12.5 volts so won't flatten your leisure batteries, the feed to the starter battery is 1.5 amps I think, so should be enough to cope with normal parasitic drains.

Edit: up to 4 amps charging on the latest ones.

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Thank you very much ChrisL , I went to the van today and the central locking decided to work again and it started instantly : / so I think either someone tried to get into the van set it off and the immobiliser coupled with a somewhat depleted battery made all sorts of confusion. I'm going to monitor the battery with my multimeter over the next four weeks and see what happens to it. I might also just buy a wee charger like Spriddler suggested and leave some tails attached to the van battery and just hook it up to the mains socket inside the van when plugged in at home through the hookup cable, and just keep the two systems separate apart from the VSR that runs from the van battery to the leisure batteries.
 
Here's my take on this, for what it's worth. The charger in the OP's link is a single output charger. It seems to have two positive and two negative terminals. I think that internally the two positive terminals are linked together, and the two negative terminals are also linked together.

I think the reason for that is simply convenience. If you put one battery on charge, and you wanted to put another identical battery on charge too, then you could connect it to the second pair of terminals. However both batteries would be charged from the same charger.

However the OP has two leisure batteries which are already connected in parallel. The two positives are connected by a link wire, and the voltage difference between the two positives is practically zero. The same with the two negatives. So if a they are connected to one pair of terminals of the charger, they will both get the same voltage charge from the charger.

In that case, the second pair of charger terminals is redundant. If the starter battery was disconnected from the van, then you could connect it to the second pair of charger terminals. It would get exactly the same voltage as the leisure batteries, which is fine if it's the same type, but not so good if it's not.

It's not a good idea to connect the second pair of charger terminals to the starter battery while it's still connected up in the van. Because the starter and leisure batteries are both conneced to the charger, they are effectively connected together. That will cause problems. Normally w When you start the engine, it causes a massive current surge from the starter battery, but the starter battery and wiring is designed to cope with that. If the leisure batteries are connected, then part of the massive surge will come from the leisure batteries, which will cause problems with the wiring and also probably reduce the leisure battery life.

This is one of the reasons why you have a split charge relay in the first place. It's to avoid having the starter and leisure batteries connected while the engine is starting. The relay only switches on after the engine has started and the alternator is producing charge.
 
My VW Transporter drains the vehicle battery in a month without use.

I the summer a dash 10w solar keeps it topped up.

All other times it is plugged in to EHU on my drive.

I have a CTEK MXS 5 plugged in to the 240v socket, charging the vehicle battery through the dash 12v socket. I turn it on about once a fortnight if not in use.

You need to use a 12v socket that is permanently live and connected to the vehicle battery.

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