plug in the electric hook up at home?

Post by **irish.david** » 10 Apr 2008, 21:49

Sorry about that. Totally forgot. Will try and cook something up now.....

Dave

PS: It'll have to be in the morning. I've only just finished the software setup for a car-puter install on a mates car. Always always takes twice as long as you think it will.

Post by **irish.david** » 11 Apr 2008, 18:44

Ok, drawing is as follows:

[img:724:1024]http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u214 ... Hookup.jpg[/img]

This drawing assumes that your charger can be left connected to your leisure battery at all times without discharging it. If you're not sure if your charger can do this then all you need to do is connect it directly to your leisure battery with a multimeter, set to read mA, connected in series. WITHOUT switching the charger on you should read almost nothing on the multimeter. Anything more that 50mA (and even that would be high) and you'll need a double pole relay.

Hope this helps

Dave

PS: It's not shown on the drawing but it's a good idea to connect the chassis earth to the hookup earth.

Post by **mig** » 11 Apr 2008, 19:38

Thanks Dave,
Just what I needed.
Cheers

Post by **powelly** » 15 Apr 2008, 14:25

Any particular recommendations for a charger? Ive just had a quick look on the halfrauds website and they all look huge, found one on ebay that looks like it will fit under the seat with the battery but dont know if they are any good?

Post by **irish.david** » 15 Apr 2008, 17:30

Ok,

The one that i'd recommend is the one i've got fitted in my van. You can get it on ebay on the following link:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/3-STAGE-18AMP-LEI ... dZViewItem

You can also order it online from a company called rainbow conversions. A number of other people in this club have fitted it and i've only heard good things about it.

But it is £100 and if you don't want to spend that much here are a few cheaper alternatives.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/12-AMP-12V-MOTORH ... dZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/6-AMP-12V-MOTORHO ... dZViewItem

From the specs, both of these look like they work but i've not used them or had any experience of them.

Maybe someone else has something they can recommend from personal experience.

Dave

Post by **powelly** » 15 Apr 2008, 17:49

Cheers Dave,

I don't "want" to spend £100 but if its the right bit of kit for the job then will have to, unless of course anyone has any alternatives?

Post by **powelly** » 15 Apr 2008, 17:54

Just out of interest the difference between the 3 you posted seems to be the amperage (apart from the housing on the £100 one) what difference will a higher amperage make when charging a single leisure battery?

Post by **Mocki** » 15 Apr 2008, 18:00

the one i have is here but i have, as i said earlier, a 30amp psu that switches out the battery when hooked up......

Post by **irish.david** » 15 Apr 2008, 19:51

A 6 Amp charger will supply 72W of power on hookup before the batteries start to drain. If you're going to be using more than 72 W in total on the 12v system when you're hooked up in the campsite you'd be better getting something bigger.

The bigger the amperage the quicker your batteries will charge. In theory, if you have a 60 Amp/hr battery then a 6 amp charger will charge it from empty to full in 10 hours. In reality it'll be less cause a battery will never be completely empty or full.

That being said, those cheaper ebay chargers don't seem to be the intelligent type and it looks like you've have to change between a low and high current output manually.

Dave