Charging vehicle battery

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eyeball74 said:
Hi. I have a Fiat Bessacarr E480 and was wondering if the mains power unit charges the vehicle battery as well as the leisure batteries when plugged into shore power?
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Maybe is the answer, do you have a test meter?
 
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My understanding, with my Adria, is no.

So I have a 12v car battery charger that I plug into a 240v socket in the Habitation, when on EHU, and connect to the engine battery on the slowest rate.

Seems to work OK.
 
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So, it would appear that I may have solved my own problem. I went in with my meter and connected it to my vehicle battery. 12.3v reading. I then plugged in my shore power and no change. I then swapped my selected battery on my control panel from leisure to vehicle and hey presto, meter now reading 13.9v. It looks like if you select vehicle battery to power the habitation and connect to shore power it then charges the vehicle battery.

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The Old Man said:
My understanding, with my Adria, is no.

So I have a 12v car battery charger that I plug into a 240v socket in the Habitation, when on EHU, and connect to the engine battery on the slowest rate.

Seems to work OK.
Click to expand...
Hi Mr old man.
Like the idea.
How did you get the connecting cables from the Hab side to the engine bay cab side?
Have thought of this but can’t seem to find a way internally of getting through the dash bulkhead to the cab battery.
Interested in your thoughts.
Thanks.
 
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Your Bessacarr probably has a Sargent PSU, if so it almost certainly has the option to charge/monitor both batteries automatically.
If you can confirm the make and model of the PSU I may be able to help you with your query.
Geoff
 
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Captain Yoghurtpot said:
Hi Mr old man.
Like the idea.
How did you get the connecting cables from the Hab side to the engine bay cab side?
Have thought of this but can’t seem to find a way internally of getting through the dash bulkhead to the cab battery.
Interested in your thoughts.
Thanks.
Click to expand...

Being a simple soul;

I found that the 12V wires with clips on were long enough to pass out the door, closed the door on them where the rubber seal is fattest.

Lift the bonnet lid, clip onto the battery, used some pipe lagging around the wires and carefully lowered the lid until the latch engaged but not 'clamped' shut.

Van parked facing downwind avoiding chances of the lid blowing open and/or water ingress.

Battery charger on the dashboard, infront of the driving postion and 240v lead laced through the steering wheel, in case I should forget and try to drive or start the engine.
 
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As donkey has stated, if you have the Sargent electrical unit fitted
eyeball74 said:
So, it would appear that I may have solved my own problem. I went in with my meter and connected it to my vehicle battery. 12.3v reading. I then plugged in my shore power and no change. I then swapped my selected battery on my control panel from leisure to vehicle and hey presto, meter now reading 13.9v. It looks like if you select vehicle battery to power the habitation and connect to shore power it then charges the vehicle battery.
Click to expand...

you should be able to set it to charge both batteries as they need it automatically. The manuals for these units can be downloaded from their website or the resources section on this site has this information.
 
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The Old Man said:
My understanding, with my Adria, is no.

So I have a 12v car battery charger that I plug into a 240v socket in the Habitation, when on EHU, and connect to the engine battery on the slowest rate.

Seems to work OK.
Click to expand...
On my Adria the vehicle battery and the leisure both charge when on EHU. What voltage are you getting on your vehicle battery when on EHU without the charger arrangement? That will tell you whether it's charging or not

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The Old Man said:
Being a simple soul;

I found that the 12V wires with clips on were long enough to pass out the door, closed the door on them where the rubber seal is fattest.

Lift the bonnet lid, clip onto the battery, used some pipe lagging around the wires and carefully lowered the lid until the latch engaged but not 'clamped' shut.

Van parked facing downwind avoiding chances of the lid blowing open and/or water ingress.

Battery charger on the dashboard, infront of the driving postion and 240v lead laced through the steering wheel, in case I should forget and try to drive or start the engine.
Click to expand...
I like your style Sir 👍
Methinks this is a plan.
Thanks 😊
 
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Most motorhomes have a device that connects the starter battery/alternator to the leisure battery, to charge the leisure battery while the engine is running. This device will have a heavy-duty wire to the starter battery and the leisure battery. In your case this is probably a Sargent Power distribution/fusebox. You could connect the battery charger to the starter battery wire at the Sargent box, it will probably be more convenient than running a new wire all the way to the starter battery.
 
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autorouter said:
Most motorhomes have a device that connects the starter battery/alternator to the leisure battery, to charge the leisure battery while the engine is running. This device will have a heavy-duty wire to the starter battery and the leisure battery. In your case this is probably a Sargent Power distribution/fusebox. You could connect the battery charger to the starter battery wire at the Sargent box, it will probably be more convenient than running a new wire all the way to the starter battery.
Click to expand...
Dear Autorouter
Do you have a picture of what a Sargent distribution box looks like.
I am getting a bit confused, but also interested.
Thanks.
 
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eyeball74 said:
So, it would appear that I may have solved my own problem. I went in with my meter and connected it to my vehicle battery. 12.3v reading. I then plugged in my shore power and no change. I then swapped my selected battery on my control panel from leisure to vehicle and hey presto, meter now reading 13.9v. It looks like if you select vehicle battery to power the habitation and connect to shore power it then charges the vehicle battery.
Click to expand...
In an emergency you can switch to starter battery and use instead of hab battery when off grid.
Advised to only do it in emergency.... Flat hab battery etc.....too long and the starter battery will discharge to the point it won't turn over the engine.

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Burstner using electroblock ebl here and the EHU automatically charges both Leisure and Starter battery
 
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