240v hook up battery charge.

[AlyJay]

On our ageing 2007 Ace airstream does anyone know if cab battery is meant to charge when hooked up or does this just charge aux battery up?
Had to charge cab battery up with mobile charger as it had drained during storage despite moho being connected to mains.
There is a battery charger hard wired which illuminates when hooked up bottom of wardrobe where mains inlet comes in.
Cheers Alistair.

 

[wildebus]

Very unlikely EHU will charge vehicle battery by default.
Being an British van, there is a fair chance it has a sargent electrics setup and it is possible that you can select which battery - leisure or vehicle - is being used to provide the habitation electrics. And if so, the battery selected to provide the electrics will also be the battery charged by the charger.
The above is all an assumption based on the vans age, likely spec and no changes made from standard.

What the best thing to do is get some kind of vehicle battery maintainer/trickle charger that will send a charge to the vehicle battery when you are hooked up and charging the leisure battery.
The best on the market is the Ablemail AMT12-2, or the AMT12-2B with built-in Bluetooth. There are other chargers that are not as good, and there are various Heath Robinson methods which are cheaper.

 

[AlyJay]

Very unlikely EHU will charge vehicle battery by default.
Being an British van, there is a fair chance it has a sargent electrics setup and it is possible that you can select which battery - leisure or vehicle - is being used to provide the habitation electrics. And if so, the battery selected to provide the electrics will also be the battery charged by the charger.
The above is all an assumption based on the vans age, likely spec and no changes made from standard.

What the best thing to do is get some kind of vehicle battery maintainer/trickle charger that will send a charge to the vehicle battery when you are hooked up and charging the leisure battery.
The best on the market is the Ablemail AMT12-2, or the AMT12-2B with built-in Bluetooth. There are other chargers that are not as good, and there are various Heath Robinson methods which are cheaper

Thanks Wildbus.

 

[TissyD]

I always left a small solar panel on the dashboard and plugged into the fag lighter socket on my old van. Saying that my engine battery has just died so don't know if it would have stayed charged.

 

[AlyJay]

Very unlikely EHU will charge vehicle battery by default.
Being an British van, there is a fair chance it has a sargent electrics setup and it is possible that you can select which battery - leisure or vehicle - is being used to provide the habitation electrics. And if so, the battery selected to provide the electrics will also be the battery charged by the charger.
The above is all an assumption based on the vans age, likely spec and no changes made from standard.

What the best thing to do is get some kind of vehicle battery maintainer/trickle charger that will send a charge to the vehicle battery when you are hooked up and charging the leisure battery.
The best on the market is the Ablemail AMT12-2, or the AMT12-2B with built-in Bluetooth. There are other chargers that are not as good, and there are various Heath Robinson methods which are cheaper.

This is the factory charger on bottom of fuse box.
The Aux battery does stay charged so it is working.
On the control panel above door theres an option to use cab battery for hab supply so your saying by selecting this it should charge the cab battery instead of hab?

 

[wildebus]

This is the factory charger on bottom of fuse box.
The Aux battery does stay charged so it is working.
On the control panel above door theres an option to use cab battery for hab supply so your saying by selecting this it should charge the cab battery instead of hab?

Not familar with that charger, but the way the selector switches usually work, it is a relay switching between the two supplies, and if the charger is integrated into that box, chances are it will switch charge as well as load (supply).
If you have a display showing both battery levels - either by number or LEDs - switch it over and see if the vehicle battery indication goes up

 

[AlyJay]

Ok, will try that tommorow when I refit the charged up battery.
From memory the control panel allows me to manually switch over to cab battery if hab battery goes flat with plenty of warning telling me the cab battery will go flat should I do this.
On the display it shows both batterys in a picure with the current voltage on each one.
The hab was way up but the cab was 12v.
I will investigate it more tommorow.
Thanks again Wildbus.

 

[trevskoda]

A simple wire with a inline switch connecting hab batts to starter bat will work, always best to use a smart charger, those ones in vans are poor.

 

[merl]

Is the control.panel like this? If so you'll be able to link the two batteries together quite simply at the 12v fuse box with a couple of piggy back fuse connectors over winter or long term storage.
PM me if you're interested Alistair.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I have that control panel Merlin, and it's been replaced 3 times. When talking with them, although the same part number on the front, they can be different. When I got this van, I did try the charger, and I did check to see if it charged the VB when it was switched; it didn't, but others might.

On previous vans I just ran a wire Pos to Pos with a fuse at each end, it did the job, but now I have the GizzMott which is brilliant, not needed the EHU at all this winter ta muchly.

 

[AlyJay]

Hi Merl, yes its the same.
I was thinking about buying a mains supplied trickle charger for the VB and connect it to 240v in van so when its hooked up I can switch it on or off depending if I was to trickle charge it or not.

 

[merl]

Hi Merl, yes its the same.
I was thinking about buying a mains supplied trickle charger for the VB and connect it to 240v in van so when its hooked up I can switch it on or off depending if I was to trickle charge it or not.

No point really, you've already got a charger running so you may as well use it to keep both batteries maintained, all you need to do is connect the two batteries together in parallel (side by side), the negatives are already connected so all you need to do is connect the positives together. Both positives are available at the fuses in the 12v fuse box so it's dead easy to swap the appropriate fuses for piggy back type and then connect the piggy back leads together.
You'll need a pack of 2 piggy back fuse holders

High Quality 2 x 12V Add A Circuit Piggy Back Fuse Holder Standard Blade 20 Amp | eBay UK

High Quality 2 x 12V Add A Circuit Piggy Back Fuse Holder for Standard Blade Fuses with 20 Amp Fuse. Relay Holders Bases. High Quality 2 x 12V Add A Circuit Piggy Back. Relay Holders and Bases. These Fuse Holders turn 1 slot into 2 which allows individual protection for each circuit.

ebay.us

and a couple of 5A fuses.
Your Nordelettronica 12V fuse box will have a type number on the front panel, probably a NE184? If you PM me with an image I'll look up which 2 fuses you need swap out.
We can WhatsApp video if you need help.

 

[trevskoda]

Hi Merl, yes its the same.
I was thinking about buying a mains supplied trickle charger for the VB and connect it to 240v in van so when its hooked up I can switch it on or off depending if I was to trickle charge it or not.

Use a smart charger, standard and tricke chargers are old hat.

 

[AlyJay]

No point really, you've already got a charger running so you may as well use it to keep both batteries maintained, all you need to do is connect the two batteries together in parallel (side by side), the negatives are already connected so all you need to do is connect the positives together. Both positives are available at the fuses in the 12v fuse box so it's dead easy to swap the appropriate fuses for piggy back type and then connect the piggy back leads together.
You'll need a pack of 2 piggy back fuse holders

High Quality 2 x 12V Add A Circuit Piggy Back Fuse Holder Standard Blade 20 Amp | eBay UK

High Quality 2 x 12V Add A Circuit Piggy Back Fuse Holder for Standard Blade Fuses with 20 Amp Fuse. Relay Holders Bases. High Quality 2 x 12V Add A Circuit Piggy Back. Relay Holders and Bases. These Fuse Holders turn 1 slot into 2 which allows individual protection for each circuit.

ebay.us

and a couple of 5A fuses.
Your Nordelettronica 12V fuse box will have a type number on the front panel, probably a NE184? If you PM me with an image I'll look up which 2 fuses you need swap out.
We can WhatsApp video if you need help.

Sounds like a plan, thanks Merl.
I will have a look tommorow and get some photos.

 

[Molly 3]

I always left a small solar panel on the dashboard and plugged into the fag lighter socket on my old van. Saying that my engine battery has just died so don't know if it would have stayed charged.

On modern vans the the 12 v socket is turned off when the key is removed

 

[AlyJay]

Bought this permanently fixed 2amp smart charger which I'm going to plug inside Moho allowing it to charge the cab battery when hooked up to 240v.
It gets good reviews & its a bit more within budget.
I looked into modifying fuse box with piggy back fuses but when I googled it the fuse box on these is a disaster area with other problems (non related) that can occur so I decided not to touch it.
Thanks for everyones advice it's pointed me in a direction of sorts.

 

[Vanterrier]

I followed W.ildebus advice on this thread and am very happy with the result...

Thread 'Charger upgrade' https://motorhomer.com/threads/charger-upgrade.49178/

K

 

[Stratto]

On our ageing 2007 Ace airstream does anyone know if cab battery is meant to charge when hooked up or does this just charge aux battery up?
Had to charge cab battery up with mobile charger as it had drained during storage despite moho being connected to mains.
There is a battery charger hard wired which illuminates when hooked up bottom of wardrobe where mains inlet comes in.
Cheers Alistair.

No it will not charge as part of the mains hookup. Using EHU to charge your leisure battery is not very efficient and can shorten the life of your leisure battery as it is not a smart charger it’s a power supply that just outputs the same voltage no matter how much the battery is charged. You can either use a smart charger plugged in or use a solar panel connect the vehicle battery to the leisure battery via a box to divert the solar charged leisure battery to the vehicle battery

 

[Stratto]

Not familar with that charger, but the way the selector switches usually work, it is a relay switching between the two supplies, and if the charger is integrated into that box, chances are it will switch charge as well as load (supply).
If you have a display showing both battery levels - either by number or LEDs - switch it over and see if the vehicle battery indication goes up

It’s not a charger it’s a power distribution with a power supply that outputs a set voltage that can fry your battery. You need a Victron IP22 if you want to charge your battery from EHU that has profiles that charge at optimal rate and stops when the battery is fully charged to protect the cells in the battery from overheating and shortening the life of your battery

 

[AlyJay]

It’s not a charger it’s a power distribution with a power supply that outputs a set voltage that can fry your battery. You need a Victron IP22 if you want to charge your battery from EHU that has profiles that charge at optimal rate and stops when the battery is fully charged to protect the cells in the battery from overheating and shortening the life of your battery

I've bought a smart charger for vehicle battery, I can turn the hab battery charger off independently so its no big deal.
The problem was the vehicle battery not being maintained which I've done what Wildbus said, just with a more in budget smart charger.
It's a 07 plate moho, so I fully understand its not going to have the most modern or best quality equipment on it.
Thanks for your help.