[jk999]

Hopefully you can help me does any of you charge your system battery from van battery if yes what device do you all use and is it right you don’t need to charge system battery at all once it’s all rigged up

[Smudger]

what you need will depend on your van,

if you have a smart alternator or start stop you will need a smart charger at £200 +

older or more traditional setup's is just a split charge relay wired in at £40 for a quality item

do you need to charge after installing - again depends on your work and amount to travel  - mine are now charged over the weekend to top up - this is a new thing as they have never needed it before in the last 10 years but now we do a lot more 2 man work and bigger sites so by the end of the week the battery really needs a little boost

Darran

[Mattymarske]

Have been using same split charge relay xline fitted to a van I bought off eBay in 2017 and it's still running fine in a different van. (Moved from Transit connect to nissan primastar)

I didn't additionally bench charge the xtank system battery for 3 years and it died but since buying a replacement battery I have bought a victron 15v waterproof charger so can leave it in van overnight  with no worries of condensation affecting it and usually complete 2 overnight charges a week (Wednesday and Sunday) keep sit topped up along with split charge. Lowest battery goes to is 12.3 on cold long days but battery is 3 years old and holds charge at 12.9 after victron charge (13.1 when split charge is running)

Only do 7000 miles a year in van as compact round/personal mileage so hopefully all runs for a few years yet. Victron charger more expensive but Bluetooth so can see charging cycles and use the quick connectors left on system battery terminals so can charge in situ.

[Mattymarske]

I also toyed with using a battery monitor that canal boat/marine applications and RV owners sometimes employ to monitor charge and discharge rates of battery.

 Had to use a busbar on leisure battery so bulky and open to condensation so stopped using it but handy to see via Bluetooth app how much the pump was using on various flowrates/dead end settings.

[jonny thompson]

I’ve done it this way for 10 years, just buy a very good heavy duty van battery

[jk999]

 Cheers lads sorry for late response 🙂👍