Smart Charger and relay placement

[kezza87]

Hi guys,

Im in the process of getting all the kit ready to do the wiring in my van for the leisure battery. I plan on having a leisure battery under passenger seat with a single wire back to the drivers seat box where there will be a split charge relay. I plan to have the leisure battery fuse box in the kitchen unit cupboard.
My question is can I run the feed wire to the leisure battery fuse box straight off the split charge relay? and can I also put the smart charger in the kitchen cupboard and connect it directly to the Leisure fuse box.

The general idea is to not have a bunch of cables running across the floor to the passenger battery box and just have a single 25mm feed running to the drivers battery box..... if that makes sense.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[Mocki]

the short answer is yes!
however..... you will need a fuse next to the leisure battery as well as the fusebox for it the other end of the wire ( i would put the fusebox and the split charge relay under the driver seat, instead of taking room up in a cupboard!)
if you are useing a "so called smart" splitcharger, just be aware that ANY increase in voltage to it will trigger it , mains charger or solar panel as well as alternator!

[kezza87]

Thanks for your reply Mocki.

so I can basically put the smart charger anywhere along the line as long as its connected directly to the 12v leisure feed?

I had planned on putting a 50a fuse directly after the leisure battery and also I didn't go for the "smart" relay, I plan on splicing into the Blue alternator wire behind the van fuse box for a 200a relay I have got.

only reason I planned on having the fuse board in the cupboard is because externally mounted on the cupboard will be a switch panel for fridge, lights, pump .etc so thought it would be a lot less wiring, but then I do like the idea of having most of the stuff in the wasted space under the drivers seat.

whats the usual set up for this situation?

[California Dreamin]

Thanks for your reply Mocki.

I had planned on putting a 50a fuse directly after the leisure battery and also I didn't go for the "smart" relay, I plan on splicing into the Blue alternator wire behind the van fuse box for a 200a relay I have got.
?

I'm not sure that switching a 200amp relay with the blue alternator wire is a very good idea. A relay of that size takes quite a bit of current to 'switch' that's almost starter solenoid proportions and whilst using a heavy duty relay is a good idea, going this heavy means you'll need a standard 30 amp relay (triggered by the blue wire) to switch this bigger one and it all gets a little silly and over complex.
A 70 amp relay is plenty big enough and more easily triggered.

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Martin

[kezza87]

I didn't think about that I had just read somewhere that at least 100a relay was required. Thanks for letting me know. I will get a smaller relay.

[California Dreamin]

Depends on how big your bank of batteries is....a Typical one starter one leisure setup won't ever demand more than 40 amps even when flat.. that's a 70 amp starter and 100amp leisure.
Add a second leisure and that might rise to 45 - 50 amps but this is all initial and from flat, typically and rapidly dropping well below 30 amps within seconds. These are the extremes and given that we don't generally allow leisure batteries to discharge fully I would expect most of the time values well below 30 amps.

Martin

[kezza87]

Depends on how big your bank of batteries is....a Typical one starter one leisure setup won't ever demand more than 40 amps even when flat.. that's a 70 amp starter and 100amp leisure.
Add a second leisure and that might rise to 45 - 50 amps but this is all initial and from flat, typically and rapidly dropping well below 30 amps within seconds. These are the extremes and given that we don't generally allow leisure batteries to discharge fully I would expect most of the time values well below 30 amps.

Martin

Thanks for your help Martin, I was maybe thinking of adding another leisure battery in the future but also adding a solar charge system but not sure if that makes much difference to the relay.
Ideally I will need a relay with a ring style terminal as I planned on making that side of the relay my connection point for the leisure fuse board and smart charger.
If I were to keep the 200a relay would it work better if I ran a new cable straight from the alternator rather than splicing the blue wire?
Or I could just get a 100a relay which also has the ring terminals.



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