rockylizard wrote:

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Gday...

I have no idea how your van is set up ...  however, the house battery in my van is charged directly from the vehicle, when the plug is connected, and the engine is running.

The Cetek battery charger in the boot of the van, which charges the van battery, only does so when connected to 240V.

If no 240v connected, and vehicle not connected and charging, then the solar panels (if they have sun) provide the charge to the battery.

I stress I do not know how your van is set up .. but that is how mine works. 

cheers - John

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 Thanks John, at the moment the current from the tug goes to the Setec and then to the batteries. The Setec also charges batteries from 240AC. The Setec from 240 only takes the batteries to 13.65 volts. Now I will have the tug current go straight to the batteries like yours does. To charge from Genset I think I will get a 240 charger and run that from the genset 240. That should take the batteries higher than the Setec 13.65 volts. I may yet have to add an extra solar panel to the van roof as most on here recommended I do. The Setec take the tug 14.2 volts and reduces it to 13.65 into the batteries!!

Aussie Paul. 

Treecrest14 wrote:

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If running a new cable from car to van, ensure you have a 'device' (not sure what it is called) which only allows power to the van when you car battery is above 13volts. ie stops you draining your car battery if car is parked and the van is connected and charging your van battery.

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 Thanks Glen, yes I have that device fitted.

Aussie Paul. 

Woody n Sue wrote:

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I have a ctek DC to DC charger between tug Anderson plug and the house battery that takes whatever the tug is putting out and ups it to 14 v to charge the house battery .

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 This is the ONLY way to fully charge a house battery.

Having a battery to battery circuit will NEVER fully charge due to voltage drop.

JC.

 Firstly, are you having problems with your fridge on 12 V? If not then why change it?

Secondly you should not hard wire a fridge to your battery. If you want to use the one cable for both purposes you need a fridge switch to protect your house battery. If the fridge is working properly you can save the expense by leaving the fridge on its present circuit.

Thirdly if you wish to use the same cable for both purposes then increase the size above what I recommended. That plus the cost of the fridge switch is adding even more cost to the installation.

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No problems with fridge Peter.

Fridge is not wired to house battery.

From tug I have leads to fridge, and Setec charger that only works when the tug engine is running.

So,  I could use a dc to dc charger after the Setec which is either supplied by 240 from our genset /caravan park, and also from the tug.

Am I correct thinking this way?

Aussie Paul. 

We have just had a redarc dc dc 1240 fitted directly next to our 2 x 120ah calcium batteries when connected to tug it is pushing about 15.2 volts in to the batteries ,which I believe is correct for calcium batteries .My question is I have a 180watt portable solar panel ,that as its own regulater on the end of the 5 metre cable ,with this I have connected an Anderson plug and an Anderson plug directly to the batteries .But now we have the redarc is it possible to connect the solar panels through the regulater and straight to the Anderson plug on the front of the A frame of the caravan . I was wondering if this would work so that the calcium batteries would get a higher voltage charge threw the dc dc and on a dull day would I get a better charge with the solar panels 

thanks for any input Trevor 

Trevor law wrote:

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We have just had a redarc dc dc 1240 fitted directly next to our 2 x 120ah calcium batteries when connected to tug it is pushing about 15.2 volts in to the batteries ,which I believe is correct for calcium batteries .My question is I have a 180watt portable solar panel ,that as its own regulater on the end of the 5 metre cable ,with this I have connected an Anderson plug and an Anderson plug directly to the batteries .But now we have the redarc is it possible to connect the solar panels through the regulater and straight to the Anderson plug on the front of the A frame of the caravan . I was wondering if this would work so that the calcium batteries would get a higher voltage charge threw the dc dc and on a dull day would I get a better charge with the solar panels

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 If you have a BCDC1240 it is capable of being used as a solar controller. The output voltage will be controlled by how you have terminated the the orange wire - this applies equally to the solar operation and the alternator operation. The diagrams on in the the user manual  show how to wire up the unit. You will note that the blue wire is connected to earth for solar operation and the alternator voltage for alternator charging. You will need a relay to change the blue wire from one condition to the other when you change from one operation to the other. You will need to wire the operating coil to an ignition switched circuit in your tug through a spare contact in your 12 pin trailer to operate this relay.

I suggest that you contact a Redarc techo on Phone: (08) 8322 4848 to confirm the above and discuss the above with him. Also discuss the consequences of getting the blue wire switching wrongly connected.

Jaahn wrote:

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Where did you get the figure 15.2 volts to charge your the batteries. Sounds too high to me. Check that before you cook them.

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 The OP stated he has a calcium battery. That term troubles me as a few styles of lead acid batteries have calcium in them. Read about their construction in this page. If you click on the " <<<Previous     [Home]     [Top]     Next>>> " links at the bottom of the page you can read the whole paper. There are some on the forum that should read the lot before they continue posting rubbish.

There is a common tendency for industry to refer Ca/Ca batteries as simply calcium batteries. This is probably what the OP has. Ca/Ca batteries need higher voltages to charge them. I remember the early days when some vehicles started to be equipped with Ca/Ca batteries. Some owners thought it was the go to fit the more common cheap batteries to their vehicles and wondered why they were boiling them dry.

Here is a snippet from another forum posted by a respected supplier of charging equipment:

RV Powerstream P/L replied:

Chargers are yet to catch up to calcium technology which basically needs 15.1V.

Sterling Power has a calcium charge in his new Combi Inverter chargers but nothing that small.

If there was a Calcium capable charger around I doubt it would be cheap as the extra cost to include that capacity would keep the initial costing up.

The potential to get to 15.1V could be achieved by a flooded wet cell rate of 14.8V for boost with a solar absorb and float to 15.1V but that would not be achieved for a budget of under $200 either.

I would not recommend calcium in a cycling application without the capabilty to charge them correctly as the life of the battery may be shorter than expected.
Ian

aussie_paul wrote:

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Would this be suitable to use from the tug to house batteries? I would situate it as close to the house batteries as possible, and supply it with 6 B&S cable.

http://thegreynomads.activeboard.com/forum.spark?aBID=51933&p=3&topicID=60565706

 

Aussie Paul. 

 

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 Not sure how you'd charge your batteries from a McDonalds burger

Well, I have no idea how all that happened. I put the Simpson Macas into gmail chat to daughter Emma, somehow I stuffed it!!!!

Here I am AGAIN!!!! Could you find my paddle please Dougwe?

Aussie Paul. 

As anybody got a paddle.Because I know one day I will come across that creek one day

Has anyone used the 12volt 8 amp DC output from a genset through a DC to DC charger to the house batteries? 

Aussie Paul. 

aussie_paul wrote:

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Has anyone used the 12volt 8 amp DC output from a genset through a DC to DC charger to the house batteries? 

Aussie Paul. 

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Waste of time Paul,, better to use a 240V charger from genny,,, multi stage charger the best.