headlight wiring upgrade question

[busbuddy]

seen a lot of posts on the subject, never done it myself BUT

had a van come to me for a vagcom check and as a diesel it had an engine bay mounted battery, as the owner showed me around i noticed a lot of extra wiring coming off the leisure battery.....the headlight wiring upgrade has been wired from the leisure battery and was like that when they bought the van

never seen it done from the leisure battery before and even though its charged from the alternator whilst running i did think it wasnt a good idea

anyone else got it wired like that?

[CovKid]

Er....no

[Jeff J]

12v is 12v

[CovKid]

It certainly is although why they would do that is a different question. The proper way to beef up lighting circuit is to go HD right through: https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/VW ... ry_to_dash" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The only stuff that should be wired to leisure is all the items you use whilst camped. I don't use the stereo on site but I did wire that to the leisure so I can at least listen to it for say an hour whilst parked waiting and not affect starter battery. Electric windows also went on leisure so I don't have to keep putting the key in the ignition if I want to put a window down when I'm at some event.

[bigherb]

12v is 12v

Yep as long as the leisure battery split charge wiring is heavy enough to cover the load it does have some advantages only one new heavy cable needs to be run to the front rather than one for the lights and one for the leisure battery.

[CovKid]

Yep, although depends on location of leisure. Makes more sense to beef up entire dash supply though what with the fan and blower plus lights.

Even Ghosts rudimentary calculations give some idea of the demands on electrics:

Lights (x2) 10 Amps
Heater blower on full 8 Amps (???)
Rad fan on full 12 Amps (???)

Not that you'd run them all at once but at times you might and thats 30amps for starters, plus stereo and wipers. I guess it'd have to be a very hot wet evening

I have a separate cable to supply a leisure dash socket but not much goes in that except phone charger or DAB radio on mine. Leisure electrics rarely gets used in the front. Still, if it works it works.

[California Dreamin]

You can see why they have done it that way, (shorter distance to a 12 volt positive supply) but you have to be weary of a couple of things...as others have said..wiring it that way is fine but.....if ever the lights are left on the leisure battery will be flattened (no different to the starter battery being flattened I suppose) and ...the split charge circuit needs to be heavier duty due to the potential increase in current flow (charging the leisure battery AND supplying 10 or 20 amps two or four lamps).

Martin

[CovKid]

I would think that the shorter run is the only viable reason to wire headlights to leisure. It doesn't have any logic to it otherwise.

[zhuhaiping]

.if ever the lights are left on the leisure battery will be flattened

[Jeff J]

.if ever the lights are left on the leisure battery will be flattened

Yes, but the van will still start & the leisure will soon charge up again, perhaps that was the thinking of the person who did it originally.

[California Dreamin]

.if ever the lights are left on the leisure battery will be flattened

As said...could be a positive because you can still start the engine.

I can't see why people are objecting to this so much...wired in parallel the leisure battery is effectively just an extra 6 cells in a 'battery bank' already connected to the starter battery and is seen by the alternator as one big battery.
But to reiterate, fine..as long as the split charge wiring and relay are heavy enough.

Martin