Club 80-90 Forums

Basically I'm a major novice with electrics and need advice on wiring up Mary. I want from a 240v external hook up, poweri[img][IMG][IMG][/img][/IMG][/IMG]ng both 240 sockets as well as charging the leisure battery (without zig unit, any recommended chargers?) Then from the leisure and van batteries run a 12v distribution fuse panel (zig cf400, powering cool box, lights and water pump. Basically what im askjng is if there are any budget chargers from the 240 inlet to the leisure? Desperados amigo!

oliverriddett wrote:Basically what im askjng is if there are any budget chargers from the 240 inlet to the leisure?

Umpteen. You're best with a "smart" charger, which knows when the battery's "full", but any 12v battery charger you can lay your paws on will do the job.

Fantastic. Thanks for your help

Can you charge and draw at the same time?

oliverriddett wrote:Can you charge and draw at the same time?

It's exactly what happens all the time your engine is running... The alternator puts charge into the battery, headlights etc take charge out.

There's really no brain surgery involved here - just think of the mains side as being an extension lead. You plug it in from the hookup, you've got a couple of sockets, maybe some lights, maybe a hidden socket with the fridge plugged in - and another hidden socket with a charger permanently plugged in. The one thing that differs from that a bit is that you have a big "safety switch" (the RCD) covering it all - and, again, that's not THAT unusual a concept - remember when everybody plugged their mower/strimmer etc into an RCD which they then plugged in to the end of an extension lead? You're just doing that.

Ok brilliant. So a 7.5 amp charger and an rcd on the 240 circuit. Thanks

oliverriddett wrote:Ok brilliant. So a 7.5 amp charger and an rcd on the 240 circuit. Thanks

...and tie the earth to the van body... There's plenty of good stuff in the Wiki.