Oddest Campervan Battery Bank so far ...
- Thread starter wildebus
- Start date
MarkJ
Forum Member
Are they on the Alpha site yet? Couldn't see them....probably being dim.
wildebus
Forum Member
Not yet. They will be in the same package as the 150Ah Lead Acid. I was going to go for a pair of the 150s until I was told about the 160Ah Lead Carbons at a small price uplift.
wildebus
Forum Member
Tidied up the Transit Electrics.
Only doing minimal things myself to help the owner have a useable setup while they decide what and how they want the electrics to be.
Pulled gently on the little 0V/ground lead on the VSR and it just came out the hole from the cab, so was either never connected as I thought or connected badly. I didn't bother testing any of the existing connection setup as even if it had worked it was still not fit for purpose.
Moved the VSR to a little electrics 'sled' I prepped up, along with the existing 6-way fuseblock (which had not be connected at all) and wired up the Starter battery to one side and a temporary Leisure battery to the other. Replaced all existing battery wiring (which was mostly 1.5mm2 twin mains cable!) with decent 16mm2 cable, adding in fuse protection (which was totally missing previously) and a 2-way isolation switch which will let them remove power to the hab electrics (Pos OFF) plus allow them to select either Leisure battery supply (Pos 1); Starter battery supply (Pos 2); or join them together (Pos 1+2) (which could be handy to help the Starter battery bank maybe at some time?). Normal operation will be switch on Position 1 (down pointing to the Leisure battery
).
And finally moved two twin-core (mains ) cable sets over to the fusebox for proper connections with fuse protection (the other fuses are just there so they don't get lost!). The Red/Green/Brown wires coming out the Switch are for a "Battery Watch" kit - Voltmeter with a 3-way switch so they can check the voltage of the Starter and Leisure batteries with the one display.
Probably add some cable tidies or P-Clips next month. Right now the Leisure battery is just a temporary one for them (actually the old one taken from Campervanannies Adria - thanks Annie ) until the new ones are available in January from Alpha Batteries, so they can use the Camper to go away for a few nights over the holidays.
So once new batteries are in, battery wiring will be finalised and secured.
Only doing minimal things myself to help the owner have a useable setup while they decide what and how they want the electrics to be.
Pulled gently on the little 0V/ground lead on the VSR and it just came out the hole from the cab, so was either never connected as I thought or connected badly. I didn't bother testing any of the existing connection setup as even if it had worked it was still not fit for purpose.
Moved the VSR to a little electrics 'sled' I prepped up, along with the existing 6-way fuseblock (which had not be connected at all) and wired up the Starter battery to one side and a temporary Leisure battery to the other. Replaced all existing battery wiring (which was mostly 1.5mm2 twin mains cable!) with decent 16mm2 cable, adding in fuse protection (which was totally missing previously) and a 2-way isolation switch which will let them remove power to the hab electrics (Pos OFF) plus allow them to select either Leisure battery supply (Pos 1); Starter battery supply (Pos 2); or join them together (Pos 1+2) (which could be handy to help the Starter battery bank maybe at some time?). Normal operation will be switch on Position 1 (down pointing to the Leisure battery
).And finally moved two twin-core (mains
) cable sets over to the fusebox for proper connections with fuse protection (the other fuses are just there so they don't get lost!). The Red/Green/Brown wires coming out the Switch are for a "Battery Watch" kit - Voltmeter with a 3-way switch so they can check the voltage of the Starter and Leisure batteries with the one display.Probably add some cable tidies or P-Clips next month. Right now the Leisure battery is just a temporary one for them (actually the old one taken from Campervanannies Adria - thanks Annie
) until the new ones are available in January from Alpha Batteries, so they can use the Camper to go away for a few nights over the holidays.So once new batteries are in, battery wiring will be finalised and secured.
Pudsey Bear
Forum Member
Not too dissimilar to how I did my selfbuild Dave.
I had the 2 x 110ah LBs and the 110ah Vb all connected via 25mm2 cable and 100a fuses, The solar went via the controller to the LBs which had a 4mm2 fused at both ends link wire to the VB so all got some charge, The s/h Zig panel controlled the lights and pump, Aux went to the fridge vent fans, there is also a toggle swith so I just set it up to look at the VB/Lb and routed it via the volt meter below, this was done during the build, I connected the 3 batteries later, EHU charging was done by a Ctek 5a charger, but usually the 100w solar kept it all happy as the van was fully charged when it was plugged in.
I had the 2 x 110ah LBs and the 110ah Vb all connected via 25mm2 cable and 100a fuses, The solar went via the controller to the LBs which had a 4mm2 fused at both ends link wire to the VB so all got some charge, The s/h Zig panel controlled the lights and pump, Aux went to the fridge vent fans, there is also a toggle swith so I just set it up to look at the VB/Lb and routed it via the volt meter below, this was done during the build, I connected the 3 batteries later, EHU charging was done by a Ctek 5a charger, but usually the 100w solar kept it all happy as the van was fully charged when it was plugged in.
Pudsey Bear
Forum Member
If it's of interest the controller, still making the same model, it was seperately reccomended by two very good MoHo sparkies on facts and quite a few on the forums bought them with no issues, they were on Ebay for a while but shipping issues buggered it up as did customs.
I have one kicking about somewhere but someone has put it away.
www.mppsolar.com
I have one kicking about somewhere but someone has put it away.
MPP Solar Inc » PCM2012/3012 Series
www.mppsolar.com
wildebus
Forum Member
thanks for posting that. It reminded me that I have an old Zig Panel (from Streetsleeper I believe
) and I could use this to provide some controls in this camper which could look quite tidy. The owner was going to look at the panels you can buy from switchpanel.co.uk (popular amongst VW self-converters I believe) but if I have the Zig sitting around and not doing anything, may as well get it 'recycled'.Ref solar, for the initial solar setup, I shall be supplying them with a top-of-the-line controller in the form of a Chinese no-brand 10A PWM unit with a value of ... oh, maybe nearly a fiver?
At a later stage, that can be changed out for something that is actually worth fitting, but as a placeholder for the cabling, it will be ok.wildebus
Forum Member
I took out the 4 17Ah Batteries and checked them out and charged them up ... think they are pretty good still. From what I found, I worked out how the van was wired up by the man who made it (I won't use the term "converted" as that is over-egging it).
One of the batteries powered the 3 LED ceiling lights - that was down to around 12.4V
One of the batteries powered a USB socket - now that battery was down to about 5.5V. This must have been the USB battery as the USB socket apparently used to work, then started to flicker, and then died. So ties up with the low voltage there.
And none of the batteries had a charger connected.
One of the batteries powered the 3 LED ceiling lights - that was down to around 12.4V
One of the batteries powered a USB socket - now that battery was down to about 5.5V. This must have been the USB battery as the USB socket apparently used to work, then started to flicker, and then died. So ties up with the low voltage there.
And none of the batteries had a charger connected.
Pudsey Bear
Forum Member
I always thought the Zig stuff quite aesthetic but badly designed for a self build, wasn't supposed to be of course, but that one was £2 at a breakers in Pontefract , it had just enough on it to be useful, and I liked that it was positive switchgear not this membrane crap so many are now.
wildebus
Forum Member
Yip, the Zig stuff, PWM control boards and similar and going up to the Sargent Control panels I think are good in terms of their looks and typically better than the average self-builder could make in terms of the appearance, but the stuff behind the boards (Mains Chargers typically) are poor, so updating that bit but keeping the switch panels is a good idea.
Some of the cheap membrane switches are horrible. The Sargent control panels are fine but cost of replacements are mad if one is needed.
Pudsey Bear
Forum Member
In the Siena it has the Nordeletro shite, it's had four while we've had this van and I still can't change the clock on it with out it blowing.