Hi
Our Elddis motorhome doesn’t have the facility to switch to vehicle battery charge when we have it connected to the mains supply - it only changes the leisure battery ( thanks Elddis). To maintain a full vehicle battery charge and so as not to lose all the functions that need a charge, can any of you experts out there recommend a suitable charger that will trickle charge over the winter? I have a Ctec one but it gets very hot for some reason.
Many thanks
Hi joelewes
I have a Milenco Optimate 10 connected to mine during the winter months. I have connected the short flylead which comes with the charge direct to the battery and the connector then emerges out from under the cab carpets and sits out of the way in the passenger side footwell.It is therefore a couple of seconds job to connect or disconnect the battery charger.
When the weather is warmer and the sun is shining I use a solar panel to maintain the battery since the alarm brings the battery down.
You should get the charger for under £60 this week..
Quote: Originally posted by jimsmimm on 21/11/2018Aldi have them in every now and again, I use one for keeping my bike batteries topped up over the winter.
Our local Aldi had them in earlier this week. I have one and they are great. £13.
Hi joelewes, this is my first post on here so be gentle with me! Just read your post, we have a 2016 Elddis 180, same problem as you, we went a year thinking the onboard charger charged both batteries-no!
The simple solution is to run a lead from the positive terminal of your leisure battery, to the positive on the cab battery, fit an in-line fuse to the lead, when you want to charge the vehicle battery, simply insert fuse to connect both batteries, result, vehicle battery also recieves charge. Remove fuse when running engine. I've fitted a 10amp fuse, if you forget to remove, it simply blows but doesn't affect normal operation. I'm no electrician, I found this solution on several websites after some searching, it's worked great for us this year. Hope this is of use.
Regards Bill.
Hi Bill, and welcome. A slight variation to your system would be to get a mains operated relay. Break your battery to battery connection and connect the two sides of that break to the normally open contacts of the relay. That way, when the mains charger was connected, the mains would energise the relay closing the contacts and connecting the batteries. When the mains was disconnected the relay would de-energise breaking the connection between the batteries. That way you would never need to remove the fuse.
Hi Colin, thanks for that, something else to consider. I must admit, I was gutted when I realised how our van had been wired. Our last m/h, a 2006 swift 590rl had the older style control unit with the option to charge leisure or cab battery at the flick of a rocker switch! So much for progress! Thanks for your info,
Regards, Bill.
Thanks as usual for all your solid advice. I will give it some thought. Just one question - if I go to the leisure battery charging the cab battery, what sort of cable would I require?
Our previous 2007 Compass Avantgarde didn't charge the van battery on hook-up either(although there was a rocker switch which would allow you to select which battery you could DRAW FROM) and although I thought this lack of charging facility was going to be an issue, when it came down to it, it really wasn't.
We used the van regularly anyway, but for the few times that it would sit for maybe a couple of weeks, I just used a small *monitoring type battery charger, powered from an on-board "mains" socket, plugged into the van/cab battery(which was under the cab floor)via a permanently connected fly-lead.
(*our CTek charger has since died, so I've just replaced it with a cheaper(20 quid?) Maypole version- Example of Maypole charger )
I suppose, if the cab and hab' batteries, and the on-board charger, were all close to each other, it may be worth looking at linking them properly?,providing the charger is up to it?(but even if it was, I wouldn't leave it on full-time, instead just maybe overnight,once a week or two?).Our batteries were at opposite ends of the van, so it just wasn't worth the moither, hence a separate charger.
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Topic: Winter trickle Battery Charger
