Motorhome chargers.

Leem

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Morning and happy new year to all you good folk. Ok I have a 1999 swift sundance 590 rs. It has x2 120ah agm batteries, 360w solar with tracer 40a mppt, also have victron orion dc to dc. Now for my dilemma, I have just ordered a 200ah roamer lithium battery. I know the tracer and dc to dc will be fine after swapping settings, my concern is the motorhome charger which is an inter power max output 12amps. I am going to buy the victron blue smart 15 or 20 amp charger and install that. Can I leave the inter power charger in along side?. As it is not just a charger but has wires coming out for other things? . Many thanks for any help.
 
If I were you I would disable the built in charger (you should be able to just pull the specific fuse to it) and get a decent mains charger. I'd also go for the 30A Victron unit rather than the 15A or 20A with the size of battery you are looking at.
 
On our 2004 590 rs I've just swapped the original charger for a victron 12/30(3)
To charge our 3 x 100ah AGMs....

It's frankly like the difference between night and day charging wise.

Even when we just had the single factory fitted FLA...
Mains charging was slow to say the least.
 
My concern with disconnecting the charger are the other wires that are coming out of it. I have no idea what they are for?.
 
Leem said:
My concern with disconnecting the charger are the other wires that are coming out of it. I have no idea what they are for?.
Click to expand...
Disconnect its mains input. Leave the rest connected. That way, if something stops working you can easily restore the thing
 
mistericeman said:
Hard to say without seeing it OR a wiring diagram for it.
Click to expand...
The Sundance models use a Sargent provided system but which is fairly basic. Diagram is below.

Wiring Diagram Swift Suntor_Sundance 2002.jpg

Leem said:
My concern with disconnecting the charger are the other wires that are coming out of it. I have no idea what they are for?.
Click to expand...
Personally I would start by removing Fuse #6 (labelled 'CHARGER').

You have a DC-DC Charger fitted. Did you disable the Split-Charge Relay when you installed that? (top right in the above diagram. Physically located probably under the bonnet on the drivers side).
 
Leem said:
Would it harm the battery to just keep it connected?
Click to expand...
Not sure I understand your current setup, so I am not sure, but it is certainly a risk I would not take. Your existing charger will confuse the smart charger, which could damage your battery. Look at this way: your motorhome only has one steering wheel for a good reason.
 
Leem said:
Would it harm the battery to just keep it connected?
Click to expand...
The two chargers would be operating at different voltages and that would not be good. Your new smart charger would not be able to monitor the battery voltage and operate properly. Old charger needs disconnecting.
 
wildebus said:
The Sundance models use a Sargent provided system but which is fairly basic. Diagram is below.

View attachment 61853


Personally I would start by removing Fuse #6 (labelled 'CHARGER').

You have a DC-DC Charger fitted. Did you disable the Split-Charge Relay when you installed that? (top right in the above diagram. Physically located probably under the bonnet on the drivers side).
Click to expand...
Yes that looks the same as our 2004 model...
Wasn't sure IF the later version was slightly different as ours only had mains/240 in and 12v to the batteries out.

I removed it as I wanted the space for the victron I replaced it with.
 
wildebus said:
The Sundance models use a Sargent provided system but which is fairly basic. Diagram is below.

View attachment 61853


Personally I would start by removing Fuse #6 (labelled 'CHARGER').

You have a DC-DC Charger fitted. Did you disable the Split-Charge Relay when you installed that? (top right in the above diagram. Physically located probably under the bonnet on the drivers side).
Click to expand...
Nope I just installed it and it works a treat.
I think my electrics are earlier than this that is shown.
 
They are the only fuses in the motorhome apart from the fusebox I fit myself.
 
First pic is charger, black wire is the three core 230v EHU . The two on the right are leisure battery +/-.
Very simple to wire in new smart charger in its place.
 
Last edited:
Leem said:
Morning and happy new year to all you good folk. Ok I have a 1999 swift sundance 590 rs. It has x2 120ah agm batteries, 360w solar with tracer 40a mppt, also have victron orion dc to dc. Now for my dilemma, I have just ordered a 200ah roamer lithium battery. I know the tracer and dc to dc will be fine after swapping settings, my concern is the motorhome charger which is an inter power max output 12amps. I am going to buy the victron blue smart 15 or 20 amp charger and install that. Can I leave the inter power charger in along side?. As it is not just a charger but has wires coming out for other things? . Many thanks for any help.
Click to expand...

I recently fitted a Victron IP22 12-30(1) charger, works well although I decided to disconnect it from the VE.Smart network as I (personally) didn't like the way it controls the MPPT's charging mode.

Also as a note: it gets HOT to the touch. For general topping up I set it to 15 amp mode to reduce the heat output.
 
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