Boring electrical post...... (1 Viewer)

[darklord]

Women, look away, this is mens stuff


Ok, so our current MH has a slightlky weird hab battery set up. It caught me out on our last outing so I,ll explain it.

I have the engine battery, then I have a second battery under the passenger seat, I also have another one in an underseat locker nearby.
So, forget the engine battery, the one under the passenger seat and the one in the locker are the ones in question.
They have between them, a large turn switch with three positions.......1 = battery one,.......2 = battery two.........and OFF which is obviously OFF.
next to this each battery has one of those big isolating switches with the red hey you have to push in then turn. The switch which contols which battery is in use has "do not turn to OFF with engine running " written on it, which possibly suggests boat use.

NOW, the problem......firstly.....until battery one runs out, you dont know to turn to battery two ( a tad inconvenient if it powers the step).
Secondly,........I ran some test's yesterday, and neither battery can accept a charge from either the engine or the EHU..unless its turned on !!!!!

I want to fit a third battery, so I think the above system will get binned and am looking at VSR,s as a sort of "Fit and forget" set up, the one question that maybe someone can answer, is how do you identify the cables that are used to charge the battery's via the EHU, as obviously i want them left well alone when I start removing this weird system.

 

[Wildman]

By measuring charge current on each lead when on hook up you can determine what is what. I suggest you identify All of the leads concerned before removing anything.
Instead of seperate batteries with a change over switch install as a bank i.e. in parallel.
Keep at least one master off switch and make sure everything is adequately fused.
If unsure of what you are doing may I suggest you get someone to help who has some idea or take it to a garage with a decent Auto electrician.
Faulty wiring can and do cause a lot of fires. DIY wiring can invalidate your insurance as it is a modification. If you are not qualified the insurance company will use that as a get out in the case of a claim either by yourself or a subsequent owner.
you could rewire the switch so that both batteries are in parallel, switch then becomes both on or both off nothing to remove. Replace the existing charge relay with a VSR, which then gives the engine priority.

 

[darklord]

Good advice, that was the intention anyway as I,d like the VSR;s and some form of battery monitoring display, I,d just like to remove the current set up as any installer will obviously charge for that and I dont fancy coughing up money to correct someone elses cock up.
With regard to informing insurance companies,......I modified many landrovers, and was in seemingly constant contact with my insurers, however, when I contacted Saga last year to tell them that I wanted to remap the motorhome, It was a longer process than getting a heavily modified landy insured, and what with the post on applying supplementary heating to your MH in the winter, I would not give the insurance companies room to wriggle:thumb:

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[WynandJean]

As requested?:

Wyn

Sorry, couldn't resist that!