Leisure battery and electrical questions

[newbie]

should but you got keep in mind how much you use it nothing worse then gagging for a brew an both batteries low on power so you start engine an it charges van bat not leisure
try an get a 200ah if you can

[dirtydog]

Just ressurecting my ols thread.
Excuse the silly questions I've had the relay for a while now but the instructions have gone missing!
Finally getting around to sorting this out, I've got a brocot smart relay and just need to know if it's best to run the - neg and + pos inputs from the battery or just the + pos and then earth it to the van?
Where do I need to put 2 fuses in, one at the battery but where does the other go?
And do I earth the leisure battery to chassis?

Or if it's easier anyone got some instructions they can scan and send me?

Thanks Adam

[mrT]

Gas bottle and stove for the tea . .

[dirtydog]

:arrow: Gas bottle and stove for the tea . .

Bit old fashioned that isn't it?

[mrT]

get one with a grill and you can make toast aswell . . better than a battery powerd toaster what more can you ask for . .

[APH]

Just ressurecting my ols thread.
Excuse the silly questions I've had the relay for a while now but the instructions have gone missing!
Finally getting around to sorting this out, I've got a brocot smart relay and just need to know if it's best to run the - neg and + pos inputs from the battery or just the + pos and then earth it to the van?
Where do I need to put 2 fuses in, one at the battery but where does the other go?
And do I earth the leisure battery to chassis?

Or if it's easier anyone got some instructions they can scan and send me?

Thanks Adam

I take it as your using a caravan "smart" split charge relay then you only have a posative in, a switched posative out and a negative connection, if so the pos in goes to the main starting battery with a fuse in line (15 to 20 A), the negative can go anywhere on the chassis, and the pos out goes to the posative terminal of the leisure battery, I would not put a fuse in this, as its covered by the one in the posative input, but just in case of relay coil failure you could put the other fuse in the negative before connecting to the chassis (Rated at no more than 1 Amp). Hope this makes sense

As for the leisure battery, if its a proper gel type leisure battery then it can never be used for "Cranking" the van in an emergency, so earthing to the chassis is fine, I'd use very heavy gauge cable like welding cable or at least the biggest you can find for this, as then you'll never exceed its rating regardless of what you connect to the battery. If however you are using a normal van battery for the leisure one, and you may bypass the charging relay with a jump lead to be able to start the van if the main battery is flat, then the leisure battery negative must go back to the main batterys negative terminal to allow the vans own in line fuse to be in place if the starter should fail.

Hope I havent confused you too much with this!
Regards,
Andy.

[dirtydog]

It's a brocott smart switching relay it has a positive and negative in then only has positive out for aux battery and fridge. I'm sure the instructions said to put a fuse at the cranking and then another between the relay and leisure battery

[MrMPuk]

You need to have fuses to isolate the power supply. That would be once at each live source as close as possible.

[solarman]

Just my tuppence worth,if you want an inverter that can run everything then a pure sine wave inverter is what you need though these cost more they will run anything,anything to do with heat it's more economical to use gas,save your battery power for tv's and lights,cooking,boiling and heating use gas unless you have the largest leisure battery and the best means of recharging them,if EHU is available that is when you can cook elecctric although power or cost may limit this,battery power is for short term use if you want to prolong battery life,
Solarman.

[dirtydog]

Thanks, all this is going in my work van so will mostly be used for charging/running power tools, some work lights and sometimes boiling a camping kettle (900w) so I reckon this set up will do me fine

[robbie.cee]

surely 100 amp cable to join batteries? and 120 amp fusible link at second battery, 100 amp fusible link at main battery so WHEN the totally discharged second battery gets charge the first battery can sink full power through- the battery will draw as much as it can - it don't care if the wire is pony and thin- it'll try to draw current and wont care if it torches your van in the process.
my work van had above set up inc 120 amp split charge relay. got through a battery a year in rear as tight b*stards used standard car battery.....also fit battery isolator inline just for safety. ps the wire used almost 15 mm thick inc insulation

[MrMPuk]

surely 100 amp cable to join batteries? and 120 amp fusible link at second battery, 100 amp fusible link at main battery

The fuse ALWAYS needs to have a lower rating than the cable, you want that to fail before the cable.

[robbie.cee]

surely 100 amp cable to join batteries? and 120 amp fusible link at second battery, 100 amp fusible link at main battery

The fuse ALWAYS needs to have a lower rating than the cable, you want that to fail before the cable.

That was how all NTL Telewest /Virgin media vans were wired, by qi van installs!!! ie 120amp fusible link in rear, and 100 amp fusible link at front under bonnet

also there was a battery isolator just for inverter as beacons etc all off rear battery. spit charge relay somewhere hidden i guess never really bothered to look but i know there was one as normally had to run engine as rear battery aged!! to work the inverter when testing at roadside cabinets or watching cable tv at the roadside (in the good old days before virgin made us mentally busy)...

was just fyi ;o) regards