Electrickery help needed (1 Viewer)

Pyke13

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Jan 17, 2018
24
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Well crimbo and new year is behind me and so are thoughts of horse boxes, I was planning a new and bigger build. This changed when a mechanic showed n explained how good my smiley transit bus is. Then made a serious cash offer on it.
I'm keeping Donk, my bus and carrying on with my original plans.
These include running water, I know how posh of me!! Under slung fresh and foul water tanks and plenty leccy.
This is where the confusedness starts, what's best for my hard earned cash to be spent on. I will try and run you lot thru my train of thought, not an easy task!
Things will be bought on a week to week basis, I live full time in the bus so have a bit of disposable income to plow into it


4 off these, 260w solar panels from bimble http://www.bimblesolar.com/260w-gb-sunsolar
To be purchased 2 in about a months time after the batteries and a2b charger with another two probably about a month after that.

4x110 ah halfords batteries, there made by yuasa and can be tested and exchanged at any halfords. My thinking is they won't last the length of the warranty with full time use, so easy replaced no matter where in the country I end up

For quick smart charging while driving https://sterling-power.com/pro…ttery-chargers-up-to-130a

Or one of these,

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0…Fulk%2Fitm%2F192149130179

If I go for the Ctek charger it has a built in mttp charge controller. Apparently I can connect as many solar panels of any size to I tank it will only take a max of 30a out of them. If I go for the sterling one I will be using a 100ah controller

I want to be able to park for a week in winter without having to run the engine or a genny for power. I live round about the Aberdeen to Inverness areas

I plan on running 2x iPads, 2x phones, propex gas blown air heater, laptop, Mifi, tv, lights, radio, compressor fridge and charge a few other things, mainly Cree head torches and Cree bike lights. Both of which take a fair bit to charge.

I know sitting for a week is a fair task to rely on solar for in winter with six hours of light
Is 1kw of solar enough? laid flat on the roof.

Oh yeah, one of these to keep an eye on the whole lot, https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0…Fulk%2Fitm%2F152115704438

I may even pay someone to install some of it as there's a lot of money going into it and don't want to get it wrong
Is there anything I'm missing or anything I should be adding or swapping??
Thanks in advance for any help and advice.
P.S most of this is new to me so be gentle on me
 

Jim

Ringleader
Jul 19, 2007
36,187
128,609
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Since 1988
Hi Pyke13, you weren’t being ignored, your post has only just gone live, so only now are people seeing it. We moderate your first few posts if they have links in them in our fight against spam. yy
 

EX51SSS

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welcome animated smiley3.gif

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funflair

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Dec 11, 2013
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Hi Pyke13

I think you could do better on the battery front, bigger and better, value for money and pretty serious performance I would go for flooded lead acid deep cycle traction batteries like Trojan.

Martin

EDIT should add if you have the payload to carry them.
 
Oct 2, 2008
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payload is a biggy . You need to know MGW , axle weight limits and what it weighs now . Then start adding weights of everything that you want to have , it soon adds up esp batteries and liquids Hi-smiley.png
 
May 7, 2016
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In Aberdeen the sun only rises 10* above the horizon in December. I suspect that even on a clear sunny day you will get very little from horizontally mounted solar panels. Perhaps a system for angling them towards the sun would help a bit.

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Pyke13

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Jan 17, 2018
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Was thinking about two of these
Or 4 of these,

I've read so much about batteries lately my head hurts!!

My clutch went last week so I've had other things to worry about, mainly driving round the Cairngorms for a week with no clutch

With any luck my clutch will be sorted tomorrow and I should be ready to order the batteries in the next couple of days.

I have about 500kg payload to spare and 600 kg on the rear axle. So new worries about weight
 
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Pyke13

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Jan 17, 2018
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Got the clutch sorted today, wasn't the clutch. It was a crack in the clutch arm that needed welded. It will be getting replaced as soon as I can find a decent one. With the money I saved on the clutch repair I treated myself to two butchers steak pies and four 6v 225ah Trojan traction batteries.
Just need to work out how to wire them up for 12v, I know how to do it in pairs. I just don't know how to connect the two pairs.

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pappajohn

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Aug 26, 2007
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Just need to work out how to wire them up for 12v, I know how to do it in pairs. I just don't know how to connect the two pairs.
That's easy.....
Wire them in pairs as 12v (pos to neg) then look at them as two conventional 12v batteries with a pos and neg...ignoring the link wire between pairs.
Connect pos of one pair of batteries to the pos of the other pair and the same with the neg terminals.
You now have one 450ah battery at 12v and connect to the vans electrics as one large battery....pos = live (12v).......neg = earth (0v)
 
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Pyke13

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Jan 17, 2018
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So the wires coming from the split charger, connect + to one battery and - to the other or connect both -/+ to the same battery?
Sorry never dealt with multiple batteries before
 

pappajohn

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Depends how you define 'battery'
Once a pair of 6v are linked together they become one 12v battery.
With what is basically a pair of 12v batteries it's easier to connect pos and neg to the same 12v battery.
Would be different with 4 or 5 12v batteries but not worth it with two.

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Pyke13

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Jan 17, 2018
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Cheers for the advice, I think I've got a rough idea on how to do it now.
 
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Pyke13

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Jan 17, 2018
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At the moment I'm charging them thru my split charger.
this project is going a bit slower than I thought due to it snowing and me disappearing snowboarding rather than earning money

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