Mk7 Minibus twin battery questions

[Heskie]

Hi all,

New to the forum. Converting a Mk7 T430 17 seat minibus into a camper.

I’ve come up to a bit of a stumbling block with the batteries. I have a 130Ah AGM leisure battery to install, with a Redarc 40A b2b charger with solar. I’ve had my first question answered which is that the front battery is disconnected from the started battery by a relay when the ignition is switched off. Couple of other questions though:

Which battery is it better to attach my charger to and why? I understand that there are user terminals on the back of the battery box, I can’t actually get into them for some reason, but I understand that these are attached to the aux (front) battery. My Redarc charger is also ignition controlled though and surely if I attach to the aux battery then the starter battery will then not benefit from the solar panels. That said I don’t know if the charger feeds the vehicle battery or not.

I also need to find an ignition feed. Presumably there will be one in the battery compartment since there is a split charge relay controlling the two vehicle batteries, is this correct and if not is there an ignition controlled user fuse connection anywhere I can tag it on to?

Thanks in advance for your help, I’ll get some pics up when I get a little further with it.

Kieren

[Airthies]

Connecting B2B charger is best into the UCPs they are fitted with 60a fuses.

You shouldn't need to charge rear battery while ignition is off as it is isolated so it will not be drained.

Here's too links for downloading the BEMM manual. One is direct from ford the other is a copy I have in Dropbox.
You'll find everything you need in that manual and more. Especially good for knowing where earth points are and wiring harnesses routing to make sure you can accurately screw through it rather than only hitting it by accident when fitting your lining in the back

https://www.etis.ford.com/bemm/bemmGeneralInfo.do

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7peyd0zg9nev4 ... M.pdf?dl=0

Sent from my A55ho11 using Crapatalk

[Heskie]

Connecting B2B charger is best into the UCPs they are fitted with 60a fuses.

You shouldn't need to charge rear battery while ignition is off as it is isolated so it will not be drained.

Here's too links for downloading the BEMM manual. One is direct from ford the other is a copy I have in Dropbox.
You'll find everything you need in that manual and more. Especially good for knowing where earth points are and wiring harnesses routing to make sure you can accurately screw through it rather than only hitting it by accident when fitting your lining in the back

https://www.etis.ford.com/bemm/bemmGeneralInfo.do

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7peyd0zg9nev4 ... M.pdf?dl=0

Sent from my A55ho11 using Crapatalk

Much appreciated, thank you.