Great info thanks Tim. My van is 2014 with the basic system same as you had, I’m just putting a plan together now and was thinking similar to what you have done but didn’t know how to go about it. Also, thanks for the tip on the dometic 190 fridge, I have the same in my Avan. Cheers Coop
Been on the road for 6 weeks with this setup and the batteries have performed really well. I have not been below about 85% at anytime except I left the 3 way fridge on 12v after I stopped one afternoon ( it runs on the caravan batteries), woke up in the morning to a totally dead 12V system by 7am but it did run till 6am - so a bit over 200A/hrs. Happy with the way it has all worked on all modes of charging and delivering power to the van.
Another great video Tim, you explain it all in easy to understand for people like me who do not understand electrics, so thanks, i am also looking to changing to lithium , but one thing i cannot find a clear answer on is, once installed in the caravan, do you need to trickle charge lithium like we do with agm or once they are fully charged you can disconnect the 240v lead to caravan charger. P.S. i did buy the Bushman fridge for the van and i am very happy with it and lucky me ,my fan is very quiet , unlike yours, so thanks for your help, kind regards, Grant
Hi Grant, sorry been away and xmas and all been a bit busy. I chnged out the fan to a slight larger 60mm and its very quiet. Lithium does not trickle charge. The charger charges the battery through specific charge profile then the charge terminates completely usually determined by the (Battery Management System (BMS) that is part of the battery not the charger. Its good to leave the battery discharged to about 50% for long periods. Cheers Tim
Hi Tim. Thanks for the video. Just wondered if you found the 100w panel enough or if you upgraded it. Sorry if you mentioned it in the video and I missed it. Also, did you pout an inverter in, Cheers
Hi Lenny, sorry a bit slow looking at the comments at the moment. I upgraded to 2 x 170 watt Renogy flexible panels mounted on the roof on aluminium support rails to space it off the roof. The old 100 watt was quite low output. These 2 panels provide about 16-17 amps in full sun and I have an external Anderson connector that parallels in with the roof panels to provide an additional 300 watts and that provides the ability to track the sun and provide for situations when I'm in partial or full shade. This combination with the 200A/h battery satisfies all my needs now. Cheers Tim
Thanks Tim, can you throw in some links to the products you bought? Also interested in how you are giving the the DC to DC charger the “accessories” input? Did you use that little blue PCB on top?
Hi Rachel, OK will put the links in description to those products. The D+ input pin is used to enable or switch on the charger. In this instance I initially simply put a very light gauge connection between the + Input terminal to the D+ so that when I connected the vehicle it would start charging. It was normally the last thing I did before I drove off and the first thing I disconnected when I stopped. However I decided to install a Low Voltage Dropout Relay which is the small blue board. This removes +12V from D+ when the input voltage drops below 12.7V at the input terminals of the charger. As I mentioned in the video I also run this charger at 50% charge (20A) normally to minimise load on the vehicle alternator. However I have a switch on this input to the LC terminal (also from the +12V Input terminal) to enable and disable this feature. I would only normally run it at 40A to catch up after several no sun days and only when highway driving at speed when the alternator is at high revs and to keep the heat low. AT 40A output there is a minimum load of 50A on the vehicle alternator from this charger (plus the tow vehicle's own load).
Great info thanks Tim.
My van is 2014 with the basic system same as you had, I’m just putting a plan together now and was thinking similar to what you have done but didn’t know how to go about it.
Also, thanks for the tip on the dometic 190 fridge, I have the same in my Avan.
Cheers
Coop
Hi Dave, sorry for the delay in replying I only look at comments every now and again. Thanks for the comments. Good Luck.
Hi Tim thanks for sharing some great info right there
Cheers Mark
Thanks for the feedback and hope it helps
Great video Tim, I want to replicate this sort of setup on my van.
Been on the road for 6 weeks with this setup and the batteries have performed really well. I have not been below about 85% at anytime except I left the 3 way fridge on 12v after I stopped one afternoon ( it runs on the caravan batteries), woke up in the morning to a totally dead 12V system by 7am but it did run till 6am - so a bit over 200A/hrs. Happy with the way it has all worked on all modes of charging and delivering power to the van.
Another great video Tim, you explain it all in easy to understand for people like me who do not understand electrics, so thanks, i am also looking to changing to lithium , but one thing i cannot find a clear answer on is, once installed in the caravan, do you need to trickle charge lithium like we do with agm or once they are fully charged you can disconnect the 240v lead to caravan charger. P.S. i did buy the Bushman fridge for the van and i am very happy with it and lucky me ,my fan is very quiet , unlike yours, so thanks for your help, kind regards, Grant
Hi Grant, sorry been away and xmas and all been a bit busy. I chnged out the fan to a slight larger 60mm and its very quiet. Lithium does not trickle charge. The charger charges the battery through specific charge profile then the charge terminates completely usually determined by the (Battery Management System (BMS) that is part of the battery not the charger. Its good to leave the battery discharged to about 50% for long periods. Cheers Tim
Hi Tim. Thanks for the video. Just wondered if you found the 100w panel enough or if you upgraded it. Sorry if you mentioned it in the video and I missed it.
Also, did you pout an inverter in,
Cheers
Hi Lenny, sorry a bit slow looking at the comments at the moment. I upgraded to 2 x 170 watt Renogy flexible panels mounted on the roof on aluminium support rails to space it off the roof. The old 100 watt was quite low output. These 2 panels provide about 16-17 amps in full sun and I have an external Anderson connector that parallels in with the roof panels to provide an additional 300 watts and that provides the ability to track the sun and provide for situations when I'm in partial or full shade. This combination with the 200A/h battery satisfies all my needs now. Cheers Tim
@@timterry8714 all good. Thanks for reply. Sounds good. Still working out how much power i will need :)
Thanks Tim, can you throw in some links to the products you bought? Also interested in how you are giving the the DC to DC charger the “accessories” input? Did you use that little blue PCB on top?
Hi Rachel, OK will put the links in description to those products. The D+ input pin is used to enable or switch on the charger. In this instance I initially simply put a very light gauge connection between the + Input terminal to the D+ so that when I connected the vehicle it would start charging. It was normally the last thing I did before I drove off and the first thing I disconnected when I stopped.
However I decided to install a Low Voltage Dropout Relay which is the small blue board. This removes +12V from D+ when the input voltage drops below 12.7V at the input terminals of the charger. As I mentioned in the video I also run this charger at 50% charge (20A) normally to minimise load on the vehicle alternator. However I have a switch on this input to the LC terminal (also from the +12V Input terminal) to enable and disable this feature. I would only normally run it at 40A to catch up after several no sun days and only when highway driving at speed when the alternator is at high revs and to keep the heat low. AT 40A output there is a minimum load of 50A on the vehicle alternator from this charger (plus the tow vehicle's own load).