tebanksgmail.com Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 I have a 1998 Swift Royale on a Fiat Ducato base. I have a solar panel on the roof which charges the leisure battery which is located under the drivers seat and keeps it charged throughout the winter (and of course the summer!). I would like to use the solar panel to keep the main battery charged throughout the winter. I presume this is possible but is it safe? How might I do this? Thanks in advance for your help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davenewellhome Posted March 5, 2008 Share Posted March 5, 2008 Mornin' Eugene, Yes it should be safe to charge the engine battery from your solar panel. There are several possibilities. 1/ fit a "Battery Master" or similar device, this will trickle a small charge to the engine battery if and when the leisure battery is in a higher state of charge. 2/ some solar regulators have two outputs, one for leisure battery and one for engine battery, if yours has this then you could connect the second output to your engine battery. 3/ you could connect a separate cable between the two batteries with a fuse at each battery. You would need to remove one fuse before starting thew engine as the current drawn by the starter motor would blow it. Re-insert the fuse when the 'van is laid up or on site and the solar panel will charge both batteries for you. Hope this helps, D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyishuk Posted March 5, 2008 Share Posted March 5, 2008 davenewell@home - 2008-03-05 6:52 AM 3/ you could connect a separate cable between the two batteries with a fuse at each battery. You would need to remove one fuse before starting thew engine as the current drawn by the starter motor would blow it. Re-insert the fuse when the 'van is laid up or on site and the solar panel will charge both batteries for you. Hope this helps, D. Often seen this quoted on forums and magazines and it always seemed a pain to have to remember to keep spare fuses just in case ! It is possible to buy a resetable (if thats english ?) fuse or circuit breaker. Just press the button and it resets for reuse. Demon tweeks sold them for rally / race cars where electrics took a bit of abuse. Maplins sell a 10 amp / 12 volt (about £1.50) auto reseting circuit breaker. but I would prefer to press the button myself. I wired one in line with a simple on off switch, which I flicked off when starting or running the engine, and back on when dual charge was needed. rgds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted March 5, 2008 Share Posted March 5, 2008 Keep it simple! Have a look at http://www.motts.dsl.pipex.com/BRIDGING%20FUSE.htm It works just fine for me. Good luck C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dikyenfo Posted March 5, 2008 Share Posted March 5, 2008 Just doing the same job myself but am using [when it arrives] the CAK charge controller 22gbp which has an indicator to show when it has switched over. It charges the leisure battery first then the service batt. Part non BCM 12 pp 78. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel E Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 Bet it costs a whole lot more than a piece of wire and a fuse holder with fuse! Provided the solar panel has a charge controller, then connecting the positive terminals of leisure and vehicle batteries together with quite light wire (10 amp is more than enough) will do the job. This will maintain the vehicle battery at the same charge level as the leisure battery and charging of both will be cut off when they are full by the solar panel charge controller. You don't even need to connect the negatives together - negative earth will do that for you. I did this on my last motorhome with 3 solar panels, 2 80 amp hour leisure batteries in parallel and an 80 amp hour vehicle battery. I started the engine on a few occasions with the wire still in place without any harmful results. Then I put a reminder on our pre-flight checklist and that removed the problem. We never start the engine without 'pre-flighting' to ensure we've done things like remove the electric cable, picked up the levelling ramps, and closed the skylights. Mel E ==== Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 Snap *-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 My pre-flight check list is on a bit of thin ply wood that was to hand in the garage, an offcut. It has a couple of comments on it but the reminder is that I leave it on the drivers seat before leaving the van. When I return to the van I have to remove it from the seat and with the other hand swap the fuse to the park position. Twin fuse holder is in corner of drivers footwell. KISS and all that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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