Concerns over starter battery if left for a month

[funflair]

Very often you will find the two battery feeds at the electric control box EBL or whatever you have.

 

[JBob]

Just disconnect the van battery…if anyone try’s to nick it the first thing they’ll have to do is power it up thus re starting the tracker.
Or power your tracker from the hab batteries

 

[Wee Bold Davy]

I am going to fit a battery master after reading this thread. I have a 2015 bailey Approach 540. can anyone tell me where the split charge relay is located please? It appears to be the simplest place to install the battery master so as not to run long cables everywhere

Sorry can't help, had ours fitted by Van Bitz

 

[autorouter]

I am going to fit a battery master after reading this thread. I have a 2015 bailey Approach 540. can anyone tell me where the split charge relay is located please? It appears to be the simplest place to install the battery master so as not to run long cables everywhere

Usually the split charge relay is built into the 12V distribution/fusebox. There will be a thick wire from the fusebox to both the starter battery and leisure battery, so that is a good place to connect the BatteryMaster. The details of the connections vary slightly for the different makes and models of fusebox, but they are all very similar. What is the make/model of the distribution/fusebox?

 

[Lenny HB]

Just disconnect the van battery…if anyone try’s to nick it the first thing they’ll have to do is power it up thus re starting the tracker.
Or power your tracker from the hab batteries

Not a good idea to leave engine Ecu's without power may end up needing a dealer reset.

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[The Artilleryman]

Usually the split charge relay is built into the 12V distribution/fusebox. There will be a thick wire from the fusebox to both the starter battery and leisure battery, so that is a good place to connect the BatteryMaster. The details of the connections vary slightly for the different makes and models of fusebox, but they are all very similar. What is the make/model of the distribution/fusebox?

He will have a BCA pdu fitted in the most awkward to work on it.

 

[dorkins]

Slightly off topic, but I would never dream of going anywhere, car or MH, or leaving the MH for some time, without having my NOCO boost power pack with me. Not only has it got me out of trouble on several occasions but I've used it often to help others with a flat battery. It's remarkably small and stowable for something so powerful that can start vehicles several times on one charge (I don't have any ties to the company!). That said, it is not good for the life of a battery to allow it to discharge too low, so prevention is better than cure.

Couldn't agree more,these power packs really are brilliant, it's simple, make sure it's charged up, if your battery on return is a bit down or even flat, connect up and away you go! mine is not a NOCO but they are all the same principle get the biggest rating you can, my van is 2.8d, my car is 2.8 petrol and 4 litre petrol starts any of them if necessary, wouldn't be without.

 

[AshVanBitz]

Just had a quick look at the bumf on the Vanbitz website and it says that it charges the starter battery if the starter battery voltage is 0.5V below the leisure battery voltage. On a lead acid setup, that makes sense since both batteries should have the same resting voltage.

If leisure batteries are LiFePO4 then their resting voltage will be circa 13.6V (0.8 V above the 12.8V resting voltage of a lead acid). That being the case, with a voltage delta above 0.5V, the Battery Master will be triggered 100% of the time. Using the same trigger parameter (i.e. 0.5V below leisure battery voltage) used for the LA BM, ideally a LiFePO4 specific Battery Master should trigger at 1.3V (0.5 + 0.8) below the LiFePO4 leisure battery voltage. Thoughts AshVanBitz ?

However, I’m not sure that having the BM active 100% of the time is actually a problem as having the LiFePO4 feeding the lead acid battery 100% of the time is exactly what narrowboaters (myself included) are doing with their LeFePO4/LA hybrid systems.

Ian

Apologies for the delay responding. I am still a little rusty with all this social media stuff as Eddie was the one that loved trolling all of you
The Battery Master is suitable for all batteries as long as they are all 12V. It activates when there is a difference of 0.75V. When installed alongside a lithium is would generally stay transferring power the majority of the time if not always. This is not a bad thing as it means the engine battery will be the best it ever has been and you should never need to worry about flat batteries (as long as you have a good setup where the lithium’s also receive a charge so it can deal with the vehicles quiescent drain)

 

[bigtwin]

The Battery Master is suitable for all batteries as long as they are all 12V. It activates when there is a difference of 0.75V. When installed alongside a lithium is would generally stay transferring power the majority of the time if not always. This is not a bad thing as it means the engine battery will be the best it ever has been and you should never need to worry about flat batteries (as long as you have a good setup where the lithium’s also receive a charge so it can deal with the vehicles quiescent drain)

Thanks Ash, much appreciated.

jongood this somewhat confirms/validates the LA/LFP hybrid arrangement, i.e. there’s no real detriment to having a lead acid battery connected in parallel with a LiFePO4 battery (despite the usual cries about different technologies, different capacities and different (resting) voltages).

Ian

 

[funflair]

Apologies for the delay responding. I am still a little rusty with all this social media stuff as Eddie was the one that loved trolling all of you
The Battery Master is suitable for all batteries as long as they are all 12V. It activates when there is a difference of 0.75V. When installed alongside a lithium is would generally stay transferring power the majority of the time if not always. This is not a bad thing as it means the engine battery will be the best it ever has been and you should never need to worry about flat batteries (as long as you have a good setup where the lithium’s also receive a charge so it can deal with the vehicles quiescent drain)

Hi Ash

Thanks for confirming 0.75v my 0.65v guess was a tad out, my experience with the BM alongside lithium but no other external charge sources is that the BM only connect very occasionally and tends to hold the starter battery around 12.5v-12.6v, completely different with some solar charge of course and that might be what you meant.

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