Welcome 35 Solar/controller/wiring

[ThisIsTheLife]

Hello All,
Would be very grateful for some advice and pointers.
I have a Chausson Welcome 35, based on aTransit twin RWD, 2010.
Considering fitting a solar panel battery maintainer, not huge output, and probably dashboard mounted when required/in storage.
I currently have a single output solar regulator/controller for the panel.
The vehicle has 2 batteries (main vehicle and ‘aux’) under the drivers seat, and 1 under the passenger seat (leisure), ie 3 batteries although there is some interlinking at various times.
My questions I suppose are:
Is there any way at all that I can use the solar maintainer with single output controller to maintain all 3 batteries while the vehicle is stored and at rest ,remotely, ?
If so anyone know where the controller outputs need to be wired to.?
Its hard to get my head around this conundrum as , as far as I understand and I maybe wrong, but there are numerous relays and switches which :-
With EHU the leisure battery gets charged (and maybe a small amount goes to main vehicle battery although not 100% on this)
With engine running the leisure and vehicle main are linked up and both get charged, not sure about the aux although would imagine it would.
At rest, ignition off, with nothing running or connected the aux battery is normally disconnected to save power for start only .
Then of course there’s the added complication of allegedly the panel over the Hab door needing to be on to charge the leisure battery when the EHU is connected.
Maybe it’s an impossible dream to have one simple solution to charge them all at once via the solar battery maintainer when it’s left stored at a remote storage facility, (and with the panel above hab door off) but would appreciate any inputs at all, no matter what.
Many thanks in advance.
And Kindest Regards
Andy

 

[funflair]

I don’t know what wattage solar you are thinking about but I would say you need at least 60 to be worth bothering and why mess about with it on the dash as a bit more on the roof would be much better.

You say “batteries main auxiliary and leisure” auxiliary and leisure should be connected together as far as I am concerned.

On EHU your leisure batteries will be charged but not necessarily the starter battery, with the engine running all batteries should receive charge via a split charge relay,

So if you have a single output solar regulator you wire this to the habitation batteries and they will be kept charged, if you want charge to go to the starter battery as well which you will then you need either a du output solar regulator or a battery master connected between the leisure and starter battery.

Martin

 

[Just smiffy]

I used a similar panel to just keep my car topped up while away for the winter for 3mths it only just managed it... you would need something with a bit more power to do what you suggest,

I would look into having a panel up on the roof fitted with a proper controller, at least a 100w and that should keep them topped up better...

 

[andy63]

I had a similar transit battery set up on a camper...
I had the leisure and vehicle aux battery linked using a dual sensing voltage controlled blue sea relay ... 120 amp...
That way the solar looks after leisure and vehicle aux battery when in storage
As it's the vehicle aux battery which is always bearing the load of alarms central locking etc... the start battery can last week's...but if you wanted it topped or trickle charged as well when shut down you could just install a battery master type device....
Andy

 

[Off da Grid]

I have a duel output from my mppt Votronic solar controller.
The main output goes direct to the hab battery the second output is at 1 amp for the starter battery.
I was intending to use this output, may still do eventually, but there is a split charge relay fitted that allows the starter battery to charge from the mains charger when on ehu as it only charges the hab battery on a Fiat Trigano.
This same split charge relay usefully allows my solar controller to charge both batteries.
As our solar panel 255watt is so big it keeps the batteries charged without the need for the mains charger, which I’ve not used for well over a year.
We only need around 2 hours of sun and we’re fully charged..

As Andy63 said get a couple of split charge relays.
As long as the your solar setup can provide more power than your van at rest uses you’ll be okay
The windscreen will block a lot of the light spectrum that the solar panel needs so best to put it on the roof.
They actually need the uv light that windscreen can block that’s why even on a cloudy day a solar panel can still put out a reasonable amount of power

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[ThisIsTheLife]

Thankyou all for the replies :-
Funflair Smiffy Andy and Off da grid
My interest in something to just maintain the batteries was piqued when the hab display read batteries only 2/3 full when I would have expected ‘all full, and all the greens lit up ‘ on the hab display, (they do on charging but not at rest) but having checked each battery (all 3) individually they are reading around 12.85!, so all is probably actually ok anyway.
I have never had any issues whatsoever with batteries as yet, but seeing the panel display made me think that they may need some TLC when it gets laid up for a couple of months soon when I will be unable to visit it .
Project continues and will advise if I do indeed go ahead with a plan .....
Thanks again all

 

[Just smiffy]

Good to hear a reply...??

 

[Stealaway]

I have the 20A version of this setup

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