syncroscimon can you please.......

[lloydy]

Mine is a 50 amp battery to battery charger, it is on the sterling site. Got mine 2nd hand off eBay. I reckon all in with cable, batteries, charger big fuses and other bits and pieces, it cost about £450

[jed the spread]

Hi BJ,

I have a little bit of experience with the Sterling charges and it could be of some help.

I have a 160amp alternator to battery sterling that I foolishly didnt realise you need to take all the other stuff off the van so everything run through the unit. I also only had one 80amp leasure battery too for some reason (dont ask why as I really couldnt give you a sensible answer ) and although the unit would charge the single 80amp battery up quickly, because I had left the old zig unit connected it would also drain quite quickly. I made the school boy error of fitting this set up and my 12v compressor fridge the week before a long tour of europe and wrongly assumed everything would be tip top

To be fair the fridge is great and I was putting lots of hot beer in the freezer when inside the van was 50*c+ and thats way above the manufactures operating guide lines but the single 80amp battery would need the engine running for 40 minutes to get a full charge every 18 hours or so. It doesnt sound to bad right now but when its really really hot for more than 18 hours a day it is a right pain. When I had my TDI conversion done it flagged up the battery drain from the sterling on the computer when we plugged it in and that made the penny drop about removing the other stuff so everything runs through the Sterling (makes perfect sense looking back now but I am not one for saying something is amazing if its not working as it should, and it was down to my f**k up). Anyway..... everything was put through the sterling about three and a half weeks ago and I put a second 80amp in, then whacked the fridge on full to see how this new set up would go. I havnt been using the van during the week and everything was running off the liesure battery on the drive and went away last weekend and had the ebber going on low on constant for the two nights and the fridge is still going now. According to the manual the fridge cuts off at 11volts or something and its -18 in the freezer bit so this set up would give you constant power with realistic static times while away. My alternator is only a 90amp one so the sterling size might be abit over kill as are the cables I used, but I might get it re wound one of these days.

Hope this helps

jed

[B.J]

Thanks for all the advice so far, you've both been very helpful
I was planning on doing the same thing with the zig i.e. leave it attached as backup whilst testing the sterling.Best not to by the sound of it.
If 160amps is overkill I might opt for the B2B 50amp like Lloydy.
They look easier to fit too which is definitely a plus for me.

Does this set up make the zig completely redundant as a control panel then?

Cheers

Jamie

[guzzi]

I have another question?

Do you need to fit super thick wire to the negative ends as well (the battery and alternator etc)? or, as this is a short run does it not matter? My current earth runs look poxy in comparison to the 50mm2 i am running everywhere else?

Also where on the alternator did people connect the temp probe? Simon seems to have bolted his straight on the terminal, is this right?

Ta again

[jed the spread]

The factory zig will be redundant.

I bolted the sensor to the alternator using the tension adjusting bolt.

Hope this helps

jed

[ghost123uk]

Do you need to fit super thick wire to the negative ends as well (the battery and alternator etc)? or, as this is a short run does it not matter? My current earth runs look poxy in comparison to the 50mm2 i am running everywhere else?

In any circuit the current flowing down the +ve wire is exactly the same as that flowing down the -ve wire, so definitely YES, the -ve cables should be as heavy as the +ve ones.

[JerseyMike]

Has anyone had a look at the ctek equivalent?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CTEK-D250S-DU ... 633wt_1304" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It seems like a similar thing and looks quite versatile with the ability to connect up a solar panel and stuff.

http://www.ctekbatterychargers.com.au/d ... stems.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[B.J]

I like the look of this as I've already got solar installed on the front of my hitop. It's smaller and less expensive than the Sterling but the sales blurb states....
"The D250S DUAL is a fully automatic 5-stage charger that supplies 20A to 12V batteries of 40-300Ah."

And as far as ican see , the lowest powered Sterling is 80A or 50A on the B2B chargers.
Does this mean that the CTEK will take longer to charge your battery bank?
They seem to imply that you also need the CTEK Smartpass to charge quickly.

"Dual Battery System 4 incorporates the Ctek Smartpass. The Ctek Smartpass is a battery management system (current controller) which the manages the load current drawn from your available storage devices (batteries) Unlike the Ctek D250S dual rated at 20amps the Ctek Smartpass will be able to manage load currents up to 80amps for your Camper Trailer, Bus, Rv etc..."

[v-lux]

I've looked at these, as far as I can tell you'd need both parts to be equivalent to the sterling and even then it's not quite the same.

I am a fan of the ctek kit though, it's very nicely built. Would be interested in how it all works should someone take the plunge.

[JerseyMike]

I'm going to have a bit more of a read in to it and then take the plunge. I'll let you know how i get on.