Problem with Caravan Fridge & Battery charging?
Cure for Caravan Auxiliary Power Supplies i.e. Fridge & Leisure Battery Charging if your towcar has a Euro 5 or 6 engine with a Regenerative Braking Smart Alternator fitted. When fitted, nice cold fridge on 12v operation & fully charged battery! This is new on the market!
Caravan Battery to Battery Charger 12v 25A (part number; BBC1225) input 9v to 17v approx., output; constant regulated/inverted 14.5v for fridge & battery charging even with fluctuating input.
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0658/7343/files/Page16_CaravanWildside.pdf?6047287793136132886
Hope this info helps
Colin
Comments
-
There is however a negative to the Wildside (BBC1225) Caravan Battery to Battery charging system in that, if your Towcar is fitted with a Voltage Sensing Relay (VSR), when the Smart Alternator backs off to around 12.4 volts and stops charging the VSR will trip out, therefore Wildside will be of no benefit to a Towcar with such system.
On the positive side;
Firstly, the caravan auxiliaries using the Wildside system are still powered from the towcars battery even when said alternator stops charging, hence Wildsides' input voltage 9v - 17v approx.
Secondly, many modern towcars now control their outputs to the fridge circuit; 12s pin 6 or Euro pin 10 via the vehicle ECU and do not use Voltage Sensing Relays (VSR), therefore compatible with the Wildside operating system.
Alternative option undertaken by myself;
On my own towcar, the ECU does not control the fridge output to Euro plug pin 10. Until recently, my car was operating on a VSR, I got sick of all the drawbacks caused by it tripping out by low voltage even though it was adjusted correctly. This is how I sorted the problem. Using a 555 silicon chip, I made an electronic circuit to control a standard automotive relay to switch said supply. This circuit switches the power through to the fridge circuit three minutes after the towcars engine has been started, it also deals with auto stop/start, this method is of cause, not affected by low voltage therefore compatible with said Wildside system.
Just a thought to anyone else thinking of undertake such an idea, willing to supply circuit diagram if needed. However, you would need to run a thin 0.2mm² signal cable to the small terminal on the towcars starter motor solenoid so it is able to deal with auto stop/start i.e. making sure the fridge supply is terminated during stop/start cranking.
Colin
0 -
Interestingly, there is something I’ve noticed on the Wildsides’ circuit diagram shown on the above link; it is showing the habitation relay and not the changeover relay as well.
Within said diagram, the supply wire to the habitation relay is disconnected from the normal fridge 12v supply from the towcar and is connected to the “caravan disconnect” (cvan-dis) terminal. I know why, this is because the wildside can be programmed to allow the fridge upon the 12v side to function directly from the leisure battery for short periods of time when the towcars’ engine has been terminated. This could be of aid on motorway service area breaks etc. In this case, if the habitation relay was operating as normal from the fridge 12v supply, there would be no internal 12v domestic power within the caravan. The Wildside will still (via the cvan-dis terminal) operate the habitation relay to isolate the internal caravan electrics when the towcars engine is started.
The diagram is not showing the changeover relay, this is the relay that disconnects the permanent (not switched) auxiliary 12v supply to the caravan and then connects said supply directly to the leisure battery so it is able to charge from the towcar. This relay is also operated from the incoming 12v fridge supply when the towcars engine is running. Without this changeover relay, the towcar would be able to draw cranking power from the caravans’ leisure battery. So does this mean that the Wildside isolates the leisure battery from the towcar until the towcars engine is started? In other words, does it replace said changeover relay as well as undertaking its normal functions? Or has the relay been missed off the circuit diagram? I will have to find this out from Sterling-power directly before I install one. Interesting to say the least!
Colin
0 -
PS, just thinking the above point could be a problem with some caravans i.e. I understand that some caravans do not have two separate relays as explained above, they have a Single Coil, Double Pole, Double Contact Relay (DPDT relay) that undertakes both the above applications simultaneously. Again, could be interesting to say the least!
0 -
Wildside!
One of my inventions from a few years back is now going to become redundant due to caravans in the near future being fitted with the said new "Wildside" Caravan Battery to Battery Charger (BBC1225 or BBC1240), this ends any chance I may of had in the future to of had this device put into production. The reason why it will no longer function is the Wildside has back-feed Diodes, these block the leisure batteries power from supplying the device.
It's fair play though for Sterling Power the manufacture of Wildside.
0
