leisure charge

[Bazw]

any one throw some light at this
i have 3 batteries in the van,main,leisure the split relay charges both & a spare
if i connect another split charger, from the leisure to the spare, will it work or will it just cancel out ?as it will read the main battery, and will it make a town halls of the original set up, as they wont read whats charged and whats not
i can earth the spare and i have a croc clip as the live feed to the leisure so can easily switch batteries easily for the 12 v supply and recahrge (if it will work)

cheers

[kevtherev]

connect the spare to your leisure battery in parallel.

Are they the same amp hour?

[Bazw]

same amp
not the worlds smartests on electrics,in parallel?

[dansimpson]

same amp
not the worlds smartests on electrics,in parallel?

positive to positive, negative to negative

[Bazw]

will that mean that i dont need another split charge as the paraellel will act as 1 unit and charge off the in situ split?

[Red Westie]

will that mean that i dont need another split charge as the paraellel will act as 1 unit and charge off the in situ split?

Indeed.....you will effectively just double the amp hour rating.
As a side note*
Make sure all batteries are in good condition
Make sure the split charging circuit is man enough for the job
Try and seperately charge the additional battery so it's at a similar charge level before connecting (not one flat and the other fully charged.

Martin

[Bazw]

in terms of the split charger am i working off fuse rating?

[kevtherev]

30 amp minimum
I use a 70 amp split relay for my parallel batteries.. available from most good motor factors.

Martin has a good point there, try and equalise the charge in the batteries before you connect them or the lowest charge one will rob the good one

http://www.thetoolboxshop.com/0-727-23- ... 2162-p.asp

this one even has the fridge switch incorporated..

or there's cheap but good from maplin

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Mod ... &U=strat15

[Bazw]

cheers fellas

[Bazw]

anyone had a go with these?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Heavy-Duty-Relay- ... 5d2bc621e8

[kevtherev]

OTT in my opinion...
for a camper 40A is enough

I had 70 because of the fridge and the "toys" I have draining the batts

[DiscoDave]

40A will do but at that price you'll not go wrong with a 100A one, and you certainly shouldn't run in to any problems with the contacts welding shut when the batteries are over flat.

[Red Westie]

This one would be a good compromise....70amps is more than heavy enough.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HEAVY-DUTY-70amp- ... 1e585ffd46
Martin

[Cruz]

Do the batteries need to be close together or could one be under the passenger seat and t'other under the bench seat?

[Plasticman]

No, they can be apart, Its important to have a cable of sufficient capacity for the connection ,solder better than crimp, from a purist etc point of view the cable lengths should be the same from relay to each battery as there are differences in the resistanceetc, how much of a 'real' issue this is in our application I will leave to the squigly merchants on here.
mike
As a footnote I do like the look of the 100amp relay especially the bolt on terminals, propper that is..