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car go split charge relay

smearclear

Member
Messages
48
Location
tongham, Farnham
Can any one help me i am using  a CarGo split charge relay 140amp it seems to be switching on and off every other second. I am using a normal 590amp battery not a leisure battery

The Battery as been working for six weeks but split charger just seems to be clicking on and off today.  Where the split charger is 140amp and the second battery is 590amp  will this caused problems.

Thanks Carl

 
This can be lots of things from a faulty unit, bad electrical connection to discharged batteries @smearclear

Has it recently started happening that you are aware of, If so whats changed recently that could have contributed to this.

Make sure that the black earth wire has a good ground on the chassis of the car. We usually remove the paint at this connector to ensure a good ground.Then check all your connections at both batteries, both fuses and the 2 connectors at the relay. Also ensure the earth cable from the leisure (auxiliary) battery to the vehicle's chassis has a good ground as well.

What size battery cable are you using?

These relays are designed to connect the leisure battery to the charging system at 13.3v and cutout at 12.8v. This is relating to the starter battery voltage. If the starter battery and the leisure battery have low charge then it could be possible that relay switches on and off. It also could be alternator related.

What vehicle is it?

It would help if you had a voltmeter so you could determine what the battery state of charge is with both batteries, and then when the relay is cycling to determine what is actually going on when its happening. I would be tending to think the vehicles starter battery is the where the problem is.

I would be tempted to put a charger on each battery and fully charge them and then see if this solves the issue.

Never heard of a 590amp battery tbh. As its a starter battery could these be cold cranking amps? (There is no problem using a starter battery to run your pumps - its just not the best solution.)

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I've been searching the motorhome forums looking for similar issues.

I've come across a couple. One reported his alternator was at fault and packed up soon after it started happening. A new alternator cured the problem.

Another said that if both batteries are low on charge then the auxiliary battery could be absorbing more current than the alternator can deliver. The result is that the battery voltage drops and causes the relay to switch off.

 
Thanks Spruce gave the battery a charge and all working again split charger working again. Also my earth terminal on aux needs a better grounding so going to get a better cable because i think i will have the same problem with the aux battery not getting full charge  Thanks for the help well pleased. Carl 

 
Thanks Spruce gave the battery a charge and all working again split charger working again. Also my earth terminal on aux needs a better grounding so going to get a better cable because i think i will have the same problem with the aux battery not getting full charge  Thanks for the help well pleased. Carl 


What you could do is put a switch on the VSR earth cable (the thin wire). This will give you a little control over the relay. I'm sure that it the same as the Durite VSR being bi directional. This means that the relay works both ways. If you put a battery charger on you auxiliary battery it will also charge the vehicle's starter battery. Having that switch de-activates the relay. It will also allow you to run your vehicle with the auxiliary battery removed.

I think what was happening is you auxiliary battery had low charge and I'm guessing your starter battery had low charge as well. The alternator obviously doesn't have enough 'beans' to charge both. As the relay activated your auxiliary battery was zapping the power from the starter battery. As the voltage dropped the relay deactivated. The starter battery voltage jumped up above 13.3v, activated the relay and the same cycle repeated.

 
I am no expert on this at all, but I would guess you need to take into account the age of your van battery and also as we get colder days and nights also if you are only doing short runs with a fair amount of stop starts as we typically do in our job, your battery will get depleted more than you may assume

I don't have a use for a volt meter, so once a month or when I remember, I connect my battery charger to my van battery, to see the state of my battery and top it up, the first time I did this was 4 weeks after I had bought a brand new battery and it was 50% depleted I guessed it had maybe been sat on shelf for a good while, since then it's usually depleted by around 25%, Just to add I don't have a relay fitted as I only travel about 2 miles from my house or less most days 

 
I am no expert on this at all, but I would guess you need to take into account the age of your van battery and also as we get colder days and nights also if you are only doing short runs with a fair amount of stop starts as we typically do in our job, your battery will get depleted more than you may assume

I don't have a use for a volt meter, so once a month or when I remember, I connect my battery charger to my van battery, to see the state of my battery and top it up, the first time I did this was 4 weeks after I had bought a brand new battery and it was 50% depleted I guessed it had maybe been sat on shelf for a good while, since then it's usually depleted by around 25%, Just to add I don't have a relay fitted as I only travel about 2 miles from my house or less most days 


I'm finding the same atm with this new van. The battery to battery charger is keeping up with my daily wfp use from the leisure battery but the van battery needs charging up about once a week or the voltage starts to drop too low.

Having a 160 amp alternator isn't the bee all and end all of starter battery charging. My old van's alternator charged at 14.6v with a 90 amp alternator where this one charges at 13.9v. This seems to make quite a difference.

The old van had its battery in the engine compartment so any gassing from a higher charging rate would escape to the atmosphere no problem. The current van has the battery inside the driver's cabin. Even although the battery is fitted with a breather tube to outside, my guess is that they are covering the safety side by reducing the charging voltage as well.

The starter battery is much bigger than the old van equivalent, so my guess is that this is also a bigger capacity reservoir to compensate for a lower charge rate.

 
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