[Pope vader]

does any one use a split relay to a leisure battery, as thinking of going down this root, as all the battery i want to buy are only 60 amps

[concept]

Yes, never had to charge battery in 2.5 years, only just recently replaced it. 110a leisure battery.

I use http://www.rawcomponents.co.uk/split-charge-kits

Grey advice and fool proof instructions. Comes ready with connectors etc all in place.

[mark blundell]

yeah same never had to charge it in 9/10 months and im using an old car battery £15 from scrap yard

[alanwilson]

yeah I'll second that - split relays are the way to go.

much easier on the battery as it is always being topped up, plus the added convenience of not having to put your battery on to che=arge at night, plus as its always charged you'll not lose a days work due to battery being flat.

just remember to check fuse once a week/and, or test that baattery is charging with a multimeter every now and then.  Keep spare fuses in the van as they can blow once in a while and you don't want to be caught short over a 15p fuse.  But even if it does fuse and the battery goes flat, you can replace fuse and continue working, they charge really fast so even 10mins with the engine running will give you around 30mins of pump running full speed.

we have a split relay in each van and have never topped up batteries or changed them in over 5 years.

[Spruce]

I'm not sure what type of Split charge relay the Raw Components unit is, but we have used this very effectively.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12V-30AMP-SELF-SWITCHING-SPLIT-CHARGE-RELAY-KIT-/180785150458?pt=UK_Campervan_Caravan_Accessories&hash=item2a17a279fa

This is an intelligent unit which basically means that you don't have to 'tap' into the alternator charge warning light to trigger the relay. It automatically gives the van battery charging priority so you can hear the relay 'kick in' a few seconds after the engine has started. It only needs one wire from the battery to the relay and another to the postive of your leisure battery. The other wire you need is a earth from the relay to the van body. Our leisure batteries negative terminals are all earthed to the van body as well.

We don't do enough mileage for the van the keep our leisure batteries fully charged, so we need to supplement this charge periodically with our portable battery charger.

The last van we put on the road was connected up to the vans battery as some on here do. Unfortunately the end result was that the van's battery was flat after a few days. This was the second van we tried this on. The first van also resulted in a flat battery.

Spruce

[alanwilson]

Hi Spruce

Thats the same thing you have there, a split charge relay.

Van battery is assigned as master and the wfp battery as slave.

[concept]

Intelligent is worth the extra investment

[dave.e]

Why don't you just use the van battery i have for the last 11 months now with no problems at all and i only do about 6miles a day

[Pope vader]

Why don't you just use the van battery i have for the last 11 months now with no problems at all and i only do about 6miles a day

i use that at the mo, keeps flashing batt,  they batt tested and says fine,  so went to get a new one and all they sell is 60 amps,  i have a 110 am lesire battery doing nothing, so thought about using it again, but cant be bothered to keep charging it,  as will be running as a 2 man from feb

[Spruce]

Hi Spruce

Thats the same thing you have there, a split charge relay.
Van battery is assigned as master and the wfp battery as slave


Hi Alan
The first relays we used were non intelligent in that they needed a secondary wire from the alternator charging circuit to activate the relay. We now use intellgent relays as per the ebay advert so don't need this extra wire.

The Raw Components unit has no spec details that I could see on their site, so I didn't know whether it was an intelligent on 'non-intelligent unit. That's what I meant unless I misunderstand your comment.  

Cheers

Spruce

[alanwilson]

sorry spruce - i didn't read your post fully.

I didn't realise the raw components unit wasn't an intelli charger.

you can buy intelli chargers for £20, thats what both of ours are, 1 wire from main live to relay, 1 wire from relay to battery , earth for leisure battery taken off van body.

simples!

[Pope vader]

might go get one tomoz and fit it

[Spruce]

sorry spruce - i didn't read your post fully.

I didn't realise the raw components unit wasn't an intelli charger.

you can buy intelli chargers for £20, thats what both of ours are, 1 wire from main live to relay, 1 wire from relay to battery , earth for leisure battery taken off van body.

simples!

I couldn't agree more. For some reason fitting that extra wire from the alternator was such a pain in the butt and doubled the time taken to fit it. On both previous vans the wire off the alternator was really difficult to get to. On my little Suzuki van, I just tapped into the wire in the harness rather than tryng to get a spanner onto the wire directly at the back of the alternator.
It was so quick and simple to run a single wire from the vans battery terminal through a fuse and into the back of the van near the leisure battery to connect up to the relay.

Again, I'm not sure what that Raw Component relay is, but if it was an intelligent type unit I bet they would have advertised it as such.

Spruce

[alanwilson]

yeah I had a look on their website and they have an intelli charger at £45 - you're right though, its just so much less time consuming to fit.

[Simon@ Clearview contractors]

I like the idea here, and the cost at £15 odd for a 30A one is good, but the batteries I use are higher Amp per hour  and I dont think I wanna be spending £45 on the kit.

Does it really matter that much with using a 30A kit and a 50-80A kit?

[Handyman Window Cleaning Services]

i paid £17 on e bay.

i fitted it my self easy, just
+ to red (van bat)
- to Black (van bat)
 then on th other side of the relay there are three slots i used the aux bat option
aux bat to Red (leisure bat)
then black leisure bat to earth

earthing it was wher i went wrong at first, but i found a earthing point in the end.


i strongly recomend a split relay has my battry was loseing its charge and it would only last 3 hours, now it dont need to worry

[Spruce]

I like the idea here, and the cost at £15 odd for a 30A one is good, but the batteries I use are higher Amp per hour  and I dont think I wanna be spending £45 on the kit.

Does it really matter that much with using a 30A kit and a 50-80A kit?

My van has a 110 ah leisure battery protected with a 13amp fuse. It hasn't blown yet, even when the old battery was flat once. Leisure batteries will only accept a slow charge. My van is a Citroen Relay with a 150 amp h alternator.

The other 2 vans have 85ah batteries, protected by 15amp fuses and they haven't blown once yet either.

Spruce

[Dave.]

I've got the same one as Spruce, I bought just the relay only from the same suppliers as I had loads of wire and connectors already.

Can't fault it, easy to install - the hardest part was finding a neat and easy way to run the single wire from the van's battery to the back of the van.

The only time I charge my battery now is when I've not driven enough to charge it for the next day.  I then use an intelligent charger that prevents overcharging

Time to leave CIU and concentrate on NYE - have a good one everyone

[alanwilson]

simon - you will get one for £20 that will supply enough for a 110 Ah battery.

Not sure where we got ours but try googling it.

[Dave.]

i paid £17 on e bay.

i fitted it my self easy, just
+ to red (van bat)
- to Black (van bat)
 then on th other side of the relay there are three slots i used the aux bat option
aux bat to Red (leisure bat)
then black leisure bat to earth

earthing it was wher i went wrong at first, but i found a earthing point in the end.


i strongly recomend a split relay has my battry was loseing its charge and it would only last 3 hours, now it dont need to worry

The third slot on mine was a constant live (from the vans battery)  I wired in a cigarette lighter in the back which can top up the charge on mobiles etc and I use to power a rotating orange beacon, which I use on a couple of jobs when it's early & foggy when I'm parked in the road