harry the horse Posted March 16, 2010 Share Posted March 16, 2010 Hi fellow wanderers. Have any of you out there had any experience with a Sterling battery to battery charger? My style of camping is a 3 day stay then I'm off again. Thanks. HTH. (>) :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trooper Posted March 16, 2010 Share Posted March 16, 2010 We have had one for3 years, absolutely perfect for your proposed plan. Would not be without it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harry the horse Posted March 17, 2010 Author Share Posted March 17, 2010 Thanks Trooper. I was going to fit a 125 solar panel but was advised by two very well known suppliers of Sterling B to B this is the way to go in my case, they also sold panels so I knew I could trust their judgement. But I wanted to here from a user. Did you fit it yourself? :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brambles Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 The B B charger works well, but what are you trying to achieve with it and my question would be where are you going to get the power from for the B to B charger and are you trying to boost the power in your leisure batteries or your engine battery? Where they can be useful is to control the charging of your leisure batteries better than the alternator can, but there are also intelligent alternator chargers available for speeding up the charging of leisure batteries. So before a informed answer can be given more info is needed regarding what you are trying to do or what your problem actually is. You mentioned Solar panels, this is a souce of additioal power to recharge yoru batteries durig your three dats stay, or at least provide some extra charging. If you are fitting to draw power from yoru engine battery this is a bad idea and a second leisure battery would be a better option. If you are trying to keep your engine battery topped up because of drain for alarms etc, then it is a good idea to make sure you always have engine starting power but is at the xof taking power from the leisure batteries and over a long period they will run out of available power to keep the engine battery topped up. I can not tell from yor post what your style of camping is or yoru needs. p.s. Welcome to the forums. forgot to welcome you as I see you are new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo3090 Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 It also depends on what make and age your van is. Newer Autotrail vans won't like an Sterling B2B charger being fitted and from what I remember any newer van using a Sargeant Electrical control system won't either so it might be worth chcking on that first before you fit it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trooper Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 Hi HTH, My b2b charger is fitted to a burstner which some say it is not compatible with the existing charger, it isn't the bat gauge is not accurate, that is all, but its best to check if it will have any real effect on your system, your suppliers would no doubt know this, also I would think you need 2 leisure batts, and no I didn't fit my own, after having 2 M/Hs on which the batts would not last long enough I had this fitted from new, have lasted 5 days using tele LED lights, heating, etc ,no problems Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davenewellhome Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 Sterling's B2B charger is an excellent piece of kit although it is rather big and bulky and not particularly pretty so consider where it will be positioned. I use one on our Iveco home conversion. I have also fitted a few for customers, two of which were on German vans with Schaudt Electroblock distribution units and to date no problems other than if the electroblock has a battery capacity meter built in this will not read correctly as the B2B will be outside of its measuring function. Next week I am fitting a "Smartgauge" battery capacity display for a customer who has a Sterling B2B on his Hymer. Tomo is correct, the Sterling B2B and Sargent control systems are not compatible and will upset each other so if you have an Auto Trail or a Swift/Bessacar van with a Sargent unit then skip the Sterling idea. D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harry the horse Posted March 19, 2010 Author Share Posted March 19, 2010 Thanks to Trooper, Brambles, Tomo3090 & Dave. I have collated your adice in the grey matter & will give the B2B due consideration. Thanks again. What a wonderfull site this is, 11 yr's of motorhomeing & still learning! H. B-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Highe Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 Hi We had a Sterling charger fitted by VanBitz and it does speed up the recharge of the leisure batteries from the vehicle battery but we can only just about manage for two nights in winter (using sat TV, blown air heating and LED lighting) before we need to drive 100km or so. But we only have two 80 Ahr leisure batteries. The Sterling does rather mess about with the Electoblock so we also had a Nasa battery monitor fitted which does reflect the available charge pretty accurately. When the leisure batteries do give up the ghost in (I hope) five years or so we will replace them with traction batteries with a lot more capacity, but we have the space and the payload. I would strongly recommend talking to Dave Newell or VanBitz to discuss your precise needs. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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