As you know th e sargent has the ability to charge the engine
battery with both sollar and mains witch I find very useful .so the job list goes on,
it would make life easier if lithiam drop in replacement are as they are advertised , simply drop in ?? .
On the EC325/328, it charges the engine
battery only if the control panel is set to Vehicle
Battery though. It is one or the other, not both.
If you had a proper mains charger like the
Victron IP22, and then set the Control Panel to Vehicle and the Sargent Charger switched on you would actually be charging the Engine
battery from the Sargent and the Leisure
battery from the
Victron. Sorted.
Sargent
Solar Controller? limited and basic. worth using a different one regardless of anything else.
Lithiums are rarely really "drop in" if you really want a managed system. Apart from suitable charging which a van may or may not have, you need a way to monitor them so you don't get a unexected surprise. A Sargent system that tells you (badly usually) the voltage and nothing else is not good enough.
Going back to your first point about very useful to be able to charge the Starter .... Selecting between Vehicle and Lesiure on the EC328 is manual - so if you were to leave the van in storage over winter, for example, you would need to decide WHICH
battery to charge, it will not do both. it is better to fit some kind of Trickle Charger so you can do both at the same time.
If you have Lead Leisure, then a
Battery Master and many other similar devices will do that. If you have Lithium Leisure, then the only kiddy on the block as far as I am aware is the Ablemail AMT-12. You can get something like the Votronic Duo
Solar Controller if you were to upgrade the
Solar, but that is limited to
Solar trickle only, not EHU.
(PS. I do like my Sargent Unit with the control panel, but the charging features are poor and dated)