Engine battery charging

[gail]

Hi everyone, a question regarding charging the cab battery with the excess from leisure batteries charged via solar panel. Can this be done? This is the first motorhome we’ve had where whilst hooked up the cab battery isn’t receiving a charge. Hence lockdown flat battery.

 

[TUCANO]

I am not a techy type but answering your question will hopefully pull some informed members in, at the very least you should buy a B to B charger that charges one battery from the other.
Hope this has the desired effect

 

[bigwood]

There are lots of posts about this but I have the simple answer to this question. I bought a battery master device. This puts a small charge from youre leisure battery to you’re vehicle battery during charging. It was a case of connecting a couple of wires between the two batteries and the battery master and forget it.
I am lucky that the two batteries fitted to my van are next to each other so it is easy to connect but it may not be so easy for some layouts.
I can’t remember were I bought mine from but it was about £20/£30.

 

[gail]

Thanks for all your input, I’ve just googled vanbitz engine master so I’ll have a look at that sort of thing. Seems a pity to waste the power the solar panels give us , and then end up with a flat engine battery. Wish we’d realised when we had the new cab battery fitted last year still living and learning

 

[mrh74]

Votronic Duo solar controller of the right size, has a secondary trickle charge option for topping up the van battery. Although there seems to be a lot of positive posts on using the battery master. I've gone for the Votronic solar controller.

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[bigwood]

When we bought the van we had no idea about the different controllers for solar. This was our first van with a solar panel. It seemed a cheap and easy way to keep the vehicle battery topped up.
I did think about changing the controller when I tidied the wiring but it the system works as is so why spend money.
I think mine was from vanbitz. The advert was some thing on the lines of fit and forget.

 

[AndyPK]

Our latest van (Elddis Majestic 155) has a solar panel fitted with a controller that has two outputs (for two batteries)....... but only one connection had been made - to the leisure battery, so I got Marquis to utilise the other output to connect to the engine battery. I just wonder why it wasn’t connected in the first place - they’d probably say so that a second leisure battery could be connected, not that there is any room for one!!!

 

[PeteH]

Our latest van (Elddis Majestic 155) has a solar panel fitted with a controller that has two outputs (for two batteries)....... but only one connection had been made - to the leisure battery, so I got Marquis to utilise the other output to connect to the engine battery. I just wonder why it wasn’t connected in the first place - they’d probably say so that a second leisure battery could be connected, not that there is any room for one!!!

To be 100% sure I would have to get the instructions for mine out. But I have the feeling that the second output connection is for running a "load". Direct from the panel, but at regulated voltage?. The Actual panel output can be anything from 0 to 20+volts or higher. I have a meter which measures the panel itself and it was showing 24V last week in the full sun!.

 

[Nasher]

Vanbitz Battery Master takes excess current from the leisure battery (whether from solar, EHU or a better state of charge) filtering out anything nasty and regulating the charging current to an acceptable 1.1amp

I fitted a Battery Master wired to the Voltage Sensitive Realy (VSR split charging) and fixed it next to the VSR in my van - it took about 10 minutes

The advantages of topping up the cab battery from EHU or solar is obvious, but there is an added advantage for me (and I'm sure others) is that it will take power from the leisure battery if it has a better state of charge.
My moho gets parked up for for weeks in the Alps for for 4 weeks on my snowboarding trips, no solar or EHU and always starts without a problem (which is the main reason I fitted it). Other (cheaper) devices don't do that

There is a discount for Funsters

Fit & forget

 

[Pausim]

Beware the confusion between:-
a) devices designed to keep the engine battery topped up from the leisure battery, often called battery maintainers
and
b) devices that charge the leisure battery from the engine battery/alternator, generally referred to as B2B or battery to battery chargers.

Your problem points to towards a). The Vanbitz Battery Master seems to be popular with many Funsters.

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[gail]

ok everyone, the charging unit we have on our mh is a Sargent Px300 3 stage switching charger which suggested to me that it should do just that switch from one to tother. We rang Sargents and they say yes px300 has the capacity to do just that. However the garage who fitted this unit 2018, 6 months before our ownership, did not connect it to the cab battery too, maybe because at point of sale from the factory in 2007 they hadn’t either so the garage followed suit. My question is now how simple would it be for us to finish the job and connect it to the cab battery. . Love a challenge .

 

[gail]

mmnnn I like the sound of these Vanbitz battery masters

 

[Al-Di]

is it possible that a fuse is missing(blown),

 

[gail]

yes it may well be connected Alan and Diane, and a fuse blown, it’s just locating the wiring if it has already been connected. It requires further investigation. 2 years down the line with this mh and 10 yrs motorhoming it’s still a learning curve. it’s a great life.

 

[Nasher]

mmnnn I like the sound of these Vanbitz battery masters

Think I'll have to speak to Vanbitz about some commission








PS I am joking, no tie up with them other than a happy battery master user

I should add that in the current situation whereby my van sat unused for 12 weeks, it was handy to just connect up to my home EHU and know that both batteries are getting fully charged

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