Charging battery

markmacd
markmacd Forum Participant Posts: 42
edited March 2017 in Caravan & Motorhome Chat #1

New too caravaning. 

My van has a 110mA battery on ,and being a motorbike, i always use the oximiser trickle maintainer to keep battery in tip top condition. 

The leisure battery in my van is hooked up to the mains, presumably to keep it charged, so if i use the oximiser, will i need to switch the power off in the van and run an extension to power the oximiser, or can i just plug it into the mains in the van and power it via the van. 

IE, the van would be charging by 2 chargers if i did that. 

 

Does anyone else use these ? If so, how do they connect ?

 

Comments

  • Brian1
    Brian1 Forum Participant Posts: 242
    100 Comments
    edited March 2017 #2

    Most probably your 'van will have a mains unit that will automatically charge the leisure battery, also it will get charged when towing. 

    You'd certainly not want to have the battery connected to the 'van's mains unit and to an external charger at the same time.

    Most recent caravan mains units are reasonably intelligent about how they charge the battery (older ones - last century - perhaps less so).  We have a trickle charger for the car but never use it on the 'van - we simply connect the mains up the day before setting off (this also allows the fridge to be cooled down).

  • EmilysDad
    EmilysDad Forum Participant Posts: 8,973
    1000 Comments
    edited March 2017 #3

    you can't use two different chargers at the same time on a single battery. Can you access battery terminal or similar inside the caravan? My last caravan had mover terminals inside under a bed locker that I hard wired a Lidl smart charger to, but made sure I turned the caravan's charger off first before I used it. 

  • Wreaker
    Wreaker Forum Participant Posts: 16
    edited March 2017 #4

    Very interesting.  I have permanently connected (separate) solar charging for both my engine and leisure batteries.  They are still connected when I am plugged into mains and the battery charger cuts in.  I have reasonable electrical experience and have found that the controlers of each sort it out for themselves.  In 6 years I have never had a problem. Can anyone tell me if there may be a problem from two co-connected charging sources.

  • EmilysDad
    EmilysDad Forum Participant Posts: 8,973
    1000 Comments
    edited March 2017 #5

    good point Wreaker ...... smile

  • markmacd
    markmacd Forum Participant Posts: 42
    edited March 2017 #6

    Any definative answers on here to my question.

    The oximiser is an intelligent charger and will optimise the charge and condition the battery. From my reading the on-board battery charger only charges to 80-85% of the charge, so in reality it is never 100% charged. Hence my question. 

    I might just runa  separate extension and charge it using the oximiser when at home, and just use the onboard charger when on site, if no-one really knows the answer. 

     

     

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