Glen York Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 Hi All, I'm new to the forum and new to motorhomes, I have a Compass Avantgarde 200 and my question is; Can I replace the existing built in battery charger with a Smart charger such as a Ring Auto Pro Smart Charger RSCP12? When on EHU the accommodation lighting and the water pump run off the 12v system. I have replaced nearly all of the internal bulbs with LED's therefore power requirement is fairly low, however, I do intend to buy a 12v TV in the near future and I am not sure of the power needs for one of them. Best Regards Glen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 Hi Glen - welcome to the O&ALive forums. On-line adverts suggest that Compass Avantgarde 200 models were marketed from around 2002 to 2006, so your motorhome's electrical system should be reasonably modern. The Ring Pro Smart Charger RSCP12 is a portable battery charger not designed to be permanently mounted in a leisure vehicle. I don't know the details of your Avantgarde's charging system but, as long as it includes a separate bbattery-charger, in principle replacing the latter with an RSCP12 should be practicable. However, I doubt that the RSCP12's maximum output of 12 Amps will be any greater than your existing charger's output. If that's so, and your present charger is functioning OK, I can't see much point in fitting a replacement that won't provide more oomph.Top-of-the-range high-output chargers tend to be expensive, though this one is reasonably cheap: http://www.amperorassociates.co.uk/c-battery_chargers/BatteryC-3_18A.html Frankly though, as your 12V power requirements are relatively low and you use EHUs, if your present charger ain't broke I suggest you leave it in peace. Save the money and spend it on ungrading your current battery capacity if you eventually find you need to. GOOGLE-searching for 12V TVs suggests that (depending on the size and model) a power consumption of 2 Amps (24W) to 4 Amps (48W) could be expected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen York Posted September 4, 2012 Author Share Posted September 4, 2012 Thank you Derek for your reply, My thoughts were really concearning the long term maintenace of the battery, rather than it being a power issue as the 12v system power requirement is fairly low. I actually have the smart charger mentioined in my post, and was thinking that it would save me having to remove the battery from the vehicle to connect it to the smart charger when not used for long periods. I agree that it would be better to install an additional battery, as I intend to use Aires and Stelplatze when touring Europe. I also appreciate that it is best to use two identical batteries, as I understand that correctly installed they are supposed to behave as if they are one battery. Thanks again. Glen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen York Posted September 4, 2012 Author Share Posted September 4, 2012 Thank you Derek for your reply, My thoughts were really concearning the long term maintenace of the battery, rather than it being a power issue as the 12v system power requirement is fairly low. I actually have the smart charger mentioined in my post, and was thinking that it would save me having to remove the battery from the vehicle to connect it to the smart charger when not used for long periods. I agree that it would be better to install an additional battery, as I intend to use Aires and Stelplatze when touring Europe. I also appreciate that it is best to use two identical batteries, as I understand that correctly installed they are supposed to behave as if they are one battery. Thanks again. Glen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted September 4, 2012 Share Posted September 4, 2012 How about leaving your motorhome's electrical system as is, but adding extra cables to the + and - terminals of your leisure battery? You could then connect your Smart Charger to those cables when the motorhome was out of use for long periods. This suggestion assumes that your leisure battery is inaccessible: if that's not the case and you can easily connect your Smart Charger directly to your leisure battery's terminals, then why not do so? (Not sure why you feel the need to remove your leisure battery to charge it via the Smart Charger.) Plainly, if you were using the Smart Charger to charge the leisure battery in the way I've described, you'd need to be careful how you did it, avoiding the possibility that you were charging the battery via the original on-board charger fitted by Compass as well as via the Smart Charger. I can understand your wish to exploit your Smart Charger to optimise your battery's long term maintenance. I wonder though if it's worth the bother (or at least worth the bother of replacing the existing on-board charger with the Smart Charger). If you keep your leisure battery well-charged when you aren't using your motorhome (and the Compass-provided charger should be able to do that adequately), I'm wary that you'll get additional benefit from using a (possibly) more sophisticated charger rather than the standard one. I owned a 1996-built Herald that I sold in 2004. The vehicle was not used from November through February and the only charging the leisure (and starter) batteries received during those out-of-use periods was every couple of weeks via the motorhome's common-or-garden on-board charger. After 8 years both batteries were still fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen York Posted September 4, 2012 Author Share Posted September 4, 2012 Thank you again Derek, I will take your advice and leave things well alone, and simply ensure that the battery is regularly charged during hibernation periods. The reason for my question in the first instance is because I have read many discussions on other forums concerning battery life. However, I now feel that the answers to many items on this forum appear to be from people who are more informed and knowledgeable. Best regards Glen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 Glen York - 2012-09-04 9:48 PM Thank you again Derek, I will take your advice and leave things well alone, and simply ensure that the battery is regularly charged during hibernation periods. The reason for my question in the first instance is because I have read many discussions on other forums concerning battery life. However, I now feel that the answers to many items on this forum appear to be from people who are more informed and knowledgeable. Best regards Glen. Fun innit... If you are thinking about going for multiple leisure batteries at some stage, you might want to trawl through the following: http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/search/query.asp?action=search&searchforumid=3&searchforumid=16&keywords=batteries&author=brambles&days=&Submit=Search Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.