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Spilt charge relay

u will still need to bench charge once a week or every 2 weeks depending how much cleaning u do

as u need to do a fair bit of driving before the split starts charging the leisure battery

the plus side of it is

wehn the battery is dead u can keep cleaning if u leave van ticking over :)

 
cheers peter

i do do a fair bit of driving throughout the week as a fair bit of my customers are rural then factor in normal stuff day to day stuff id do maybe 100- 150 or so miles per week

but handy tip there regarding leaving the van on tickover when leisure battery dead didnt know that cheers

 
cheers for that Greenpro

Sure a video would be good to see how to wire it anyway

though by time i factor in wiring and the other stuff id be near the price of the kit i seen would i?

 
cheers peter
i do do a fair bit of driving throughout the week as a fair bit of my customers are rural then factor in normal stuff day to day stuff id do maybe 100- 150 or so miles per week

but handy tip there regarding leaving the van on tickover when leisure battery dead didnt know that cheers
We have done that on a number of occasions to get us out of a dilemma. We don't do much mileage so our split charge relays don't help us much with recharging, but its always nice to know that we have a backup.

However, you need to ensure you vehicle is fully secure. If your van got stolen then you will invalid your insurance. Its also illegal to leave your vehicles engine running in the street unattended. I had a steering lock on my Suzuki van I used to put on when I owned a trailer system. The leisure battery on that trailer was replaced once a year and always seemed to be flat.

Full fitting instructions are included with each relay. All you mustn't forget is that your leisure battery - terminal needs to be earthed to the van's chassis as well. We have 2 of those same relays.

 
Cheers lads ill get on and order the kit as i havent the spare parts to build one

Spruce are you referring to the one i linked too that you have 2 of them kits? cheers for heads up on having to earth it

 
Do many of you use a spilt charge relay as oppose to having to bench charge your batteries? Im looking for a spilt charger and found this CAMPER VAN SELF SWITCHING, VOLTAGE SENSING SPLIT CHARGE RELAY KIT - 12V, 30 AMP
Anyone use it or know if it will do the job im after?

By looks of it it looks and sounds perfect but just want to be sure

tks
that's the same one I have been using in my vans for the last 4 years.

I have a 110amp lesure battery. since I put the battery in the van 4 years ago, it has never been on a mains charger.

I have run a 2 man system off it for 2 years.

 
I fitted my split relay on last summer. I didn't need to bench charge my battery since. Well worth twenty pay pounds to buy or even less.

 
Cheers lads ill get on and order the kit as i havent the spare parts to build one
Spruce are you referring to the one i linked too that you have 2 of them kits? cheers for heads up on having to earth it
No, we didn't buy the kits, just the unit as we wired the units in ourselves.

What we need to make sure of is the you have enough wiring and that you know where you want to fit the relay. It isn't a sealed/weather proof component so it needs to be inside your van where it won't get wet. There maybe places inside the engine compartment but you may not have control over a mechanic washing the engine with a jet wash.

So we found mounting the relay close to the leisure battery best. So you need to measure how much wire you need from your battery to you SCR and how you are going to get it into the van.

 
OK yeah will have to figure were to put it somewhere 100% dry, i could use under the bonnet maybe as my battery is on a wee shelf on the tank so maybe not a good place to keep it dry

The next thing i was thinking was were do i feed the wiring through from the van battery through the dash someway to the leisure? I want a nice neat job with no or little exposed wires if i can, my van is a mk1 connect

cheers

 
I use this relay on my transit. I have a 115 battery and have never bench charged it. It has been on the van for over two years. Good piece of kit.

 


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As in this image, connect a wire from the earth on your main battery and to the relay (OV) as shown. The same with the positive (12v in)but put an inline fuse in place. Then another wire to the leisure battery (I believe I used another inline fuse here) from the relay (marked as Aux Battery). Ignore the other lighting (12v Live Out) and fridge O/P points. I also think that I put an additional earth from the leisure battery earth to the bodywork on the van.

I am not an Auto-Electrician though, I just followed the instructions that came with the kit. Mine gives a very audible click after the engine is running, this is the Smartcom kicking in.

 
Do a search on YouTube for fitting a split charge relay. Mark Munro put one up although I have never watched it.

To add to @SPCleaning.

You will also find those terminals marked on the inderside of the relay so you can't go wrong. You can use double side tape from a hardware shop to stick it in a good place.

 
View attachment 6435

OK yeah will have to figure were to put it somewhere 100% dry, i could use under the bonnet maybe as my battery is on a wee shelf on the tank so maybe not a good place to keep it dry
The next thing i was thinking was were do i feed the wiring through from the van battery through the dash someway to the leisure? I want a nice neat job with no or little exposed wires if i can, my van is a mk1 connect

cheers

If your Connect is a LWB (03 - 06) then there is another solution. I'm not sure if this applies to a SWB though.

Its actually quite easy to fit a split charge relay as there is a power point take off in the rear offside of the LWB van which is used in the people carrier I'm told. Its tucked up behind the horizontal support bar just above the rear wheel arch. You got to remove the plylining and plywheel arch and feel for it. Careful as there is a sharp piece of metal there and you can cut your fingers as I did. You just need to splice into the red and black wires going to the plug.

There wasn't a fuse in the fuse box for it, but if you do use it, then it is a 15amp one. I think it is labeled as AUX, but I can't remember exactly - it was 4 1/2 years ago. The fuses are behind the glove box. In my experience we haven't blown a 15 amp fuse on any of the other split charge relays so this should be ok. It's easier to fit an intelligent split charge relay - you just need a positive and negative to earth will do fine.

View attachment 6435

We were using this point to supply current to his pump via a Varistream to begin with.

If you look at the relay the black and red wires on the left are the spliced ones from the plug already in the Connect. The brown one on the left is the wire going off to the leisure battery + terminal.

This relay is at the back door. I welded up a frame for an 85 amp hour battery and we bolted it to the van's foor just in front of the wheel arch box cover so was out of the way.

 
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Thanks for that info spruce most helpful

Yeah mine is an 04 LWB so I should have that wire you refer to which woulf be dead handy, the actual wire itself is it a loose end wire as in just ends and dosent connect to anything then you splice the ends and connect to spilt charger wiring?

I dont get by what you mean about having to use a fuse under the glove box, do these need to be fused to there? Can they not just be fused inline? Maybe im taking it up worng

 
This wiring ends in a socket. The accessories plug plugs directly in to it on the people carrier and later versions of your van.

The fuse box is behind the glove box. I cant remember if the glove box must be taken out or dropped (lowered) down to access the fuses. Your driver's handbook will explain. There will be fuses for active circuits. The circuits which aren't active will not have a fuse in them. As I mentioned earlier, the wiring harness used in your van is the same as the people carrier. So there is an empty slot in the fuse box for this circuit on you van. You need to purchase a 15amp blade fuse - I think its a small one. I would buy a few TBH incase you need to replace it. If you don't put a fuse into it then you won't get current to your split charge relay. (Your driver's handbook will have an illustration of the fuse box and what fuse protects which circuit. You will be able to identify which where the fuse is you will need to put in.

If you don't understand how to do it then I would suggest an auto electrician.

 
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