Guest Howard Posted January 13, 2005 Share Posted January 13, 2005 My A/S Symbol vehicle battery went flat while camping in the Cotswolds over Christmas, possibly due to cd/radio playing & phone charging. The van never moved for 12 days. The battery is perfect & has never let me down since being recharged & tested. There is no current drop in the veh/van circuits. So I intend to fit a spit charger, can anybody advise on a quality product. Thanks. Happy discovering in 2005. H. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PeteC Posted January 13, 2005 Share Posted January 13, 2005 You could use a device made for the job such as a ZIG charger unit This will charge the leisure bat. from the van engine or mains Do you have a fridge? They should not be operated from batteries, beause of the amount of current taken Fit a changeover relay so the fridge will operate from engine only when it is running and from the mains or from gas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Derek Uzzell Posted January 14, 2005 Share Posted January 14, 2005 Howard: what's a "spit charger", please? Do you mean a "split-charge relay" (which suggests your Symbol hasn't got a leisure battery at present), or do you mean a 230v mains-powered battery charger that can be used to charge either the leisure or vehicle battery? If you can outline what type of system your 'van's currently got, and how you are proposing to improve it, I'm sure I could advise - otherwise I haven't a chance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Clive Posted January 16, 2005 Share Posted January 16, 2005 Howard, Split charging is a method that enables the vehicle alternator to charge both starter and leisure batteries when the engine is running but ensures that when the engine is stopped that you cannot discharge your engine starter battery with circuits coupled to the leisure battery. You need one relay, some fuses and a small amount of wiring to put together a split charging circuit. If you have a 12 volt fridge then you can also run this when the engine is running using a duplicate of the split charging circuit. If you are sure that your van does not already have these features then email me and I will forward you some diagrams. cliveg4odm@dsl.pipex.com Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Derek Uzzell Posted January 19, 2005 Share Posted January 19, 2005 Howard: I've thought about this some more. The reason I asked my earlier questions is that I have trouble with Auto-Sleepers' motorhomes knowing exactly which vehicle people are referring to by name as A-S regularly re-use names for quite different vehicles. (A year-of-manufacture always helps in this respect.) But I think the Symbol name is unique and only began to be usef about 4 or 5 years ago. If this is correct, I think you are really looking to establish an effective way of keeping your Symbol's vehicle-battery charged while the 'van is standing idle. There are several ways you might do this and one is to replace the present control-panel (not the charger) with a panel that has switching permitting the 230V on-board charger to charge either leisure or vehicle battery. Such panels are made by Zig or Plug-in Systems (amongst others) and you would need to do some re-cabling to suit. Frankly, this would be taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut! If you search the forum using "battery charging" (omit quotes) as a search term you'll come across postings that should point to far simpler solutions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 Howard: I suggest you move your CD player, phone charger, burglar alarm etc to the leisure battery, and then have a battery isolator fitted to the engine battery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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