Westfalia Battery Charging

[JonnyAtlantic]

When I replaced mine I put a 25a toggle switch to change between leisure and starter.
Connect the POSITIVE 12V output from the charger to the centre terminal on the switch, then the original red/black wire to one side of the switch, and the red/yellow wire to the other side of the switch. When the mains charger is on, you just switch the charging current either to the LEISURE battery, or switch the other way to charge the MAIN battery. Simple.

Same as wiring a plug for 240v feed blue neutral, brown live, yellow/green earth.

[AdrianC]

Same as wiring a plug for 240v feed blue neutral, brown live, yellow/green earth.

Yep. It's AC, remember, Bilson - so no +ve/-ve. The van body is earthed to the hookup earth, as well as the battery -ves.

Oh, and don't forget to make sure the RCD test button works!

[Bilson]

Oh, and don't forget to make sure the RCD test button works!

Thanks everyone for all the help, pretty sure I know what's going on, thanks for the heads up on the rcd, how can I test it?

[AdrianC]

thanks for the heads up on the rcd, how can I test it?

Press the button on the front that says "TEST", whilst the hookup's plugged in. It should snap off, then flicking the toggle back should keep it on.

[Bilson]

Press the button on the front that says "TEST", whilst the hookup's plugged in. It should snap off, then flicking the toggle back should keep it on.

tidy, cheers.

[vanzai]

I have a related question on this. Last time we were away the charger started to smell a little bit when on hookup (and was warm, but I guess that's expected to a degree) so we disconnected it to sleep. To be honest I had thought the black box was part of the Eberspacher heater until then My question is can I isolate the charger and still be on hookup for fridge etc by just flipping the switch in the van? (the van's in the garage at the mo but from memory isn't there a brown panel/box for it?). Cheers!

[AdrianC]

I have a related question on this. Last time we were away the charger started to smell a little bit when on hookup (and was warm, but I guess that's expected to a degree) so we disconnected it to sleep. To be honest I had thought the black box was part of the Eberspacher heater until then My question is can I isolate the charger and still be on hookup for fridge etc by just flipping the switch in the van? (the van's in the garage at the mo but from memory isn't there a brown panel/box for it?). Cheers!

No, the charger doesn't have an explicit switch. But you could remove the 12v fuse from behind the driver's side seatbelt, which'd stop the charger from actually charging the battery, and might stop the smell - or it might not. If you have a rummage around the charger, you can disconnect it from the mains under the back seat, though. IIRC you might need to remove some of the panelwork - but that's easy, just a couple of screws.