Leisure Battery or No Leisure Battery??

Am I right in thinking that you still a separate feed to the caravan that would be wired to circuit on the car which is controlled by the ignition switch? Or has that also been superseded by modern electronic circuitry?

Without looking it up I can't remember what pins are which (13 pin or 12N/S dependant). One wire is fed via the split charge relay & powers the fridge when your car engine is running - split charge relay can tell via the voltage ie 14.4v that the engine is running. The permanant feed that you can power your caravan with as a back up becomes the feed for charging your caravan battery via the habitation relay inside the caravan - this gets a feed from the fridge supply. ;-)

 

Write your comments here...The habitation relay cuts the 12V supply to lighting circuits etc when the car engine is running, this is a safety thing to reduce fire risk.

The permant live powers the van when the plugged in with the engine stopped. Hence atc goes through the self check.

When the engine is started, and car voltage is sufficient, the split charge relay closes and allows the fridge to run and via the split charge relay. It also allows the control voltage to the pdu to bring in battery charging via the permanent live.

.......

The habitation relay cuts the 12V supply to lighting circuits etc when the car engine is running, this is a safety thing to reduce fire risk.

The permant live powers the van when the plugged in with the engine stopped. Hence atc goes through the self check.

When the engine is started, and car voltage is sufficient, the split charge relay closes and allows the fridge to run and via the split charge relay. It also allows the control voltage to the pdu to bring in battery charging via the permanent live.

 

Not all 'vans have ATC or pdu (power dist unit??) ...... I was trying to keep it simple & answer just answer the question. ;-)

It does not matter what equipment your van has the wiring is exactly the same for twin or single sockets.

The wiring system, for towing, should be identical on all cars.

It does not matter what equipment your van has the wiring is exactly the same for twin or single sockets.

The wiring system, for towing, should be identical on all cars.

You added a further complication to question that wasn't needed. And besides, I never went into what wire in what pin did what in which plug/socket.

All cars wiring is same except when your caravan is old enough to NOT have a habitation relay & then it's different. ;-)

There was a separate thread on the subject of charging a caravan battery.  Most vans will not charge to 14.4 + volts (boost charge) as this would damage the 12V system although I did see a Coachman brochure saying something about a dual voltage system.  From many years experience I believe that if you are always on mains hook-up and the battery doesn't discharge much then there is probably not so much of a problem but if you use the battery and fully discharge it then, for sure,you need to boost charge out of the van.  I use a CTek but they are expensive  The advantage of the CTek is that from fully discharged you can run a reconditioning programme which it is claimed will get rid of the sulphur on the plates and give the battery a new lease of life - only on wet batteries though, not sealed.

Am I right in thinking that you still a separate feed to the caravan that would be wired to circuit on the car which is controlled by the ignition switch? Or has that also been superseded by modern electronic circuitry?

Without looking it up I can't remember what pins are which (13 pin or 12N/S dependant). One wire is fed via the split charge relay & powers the fridge when your car engine is running - split charge relay can tell via the voltage ie 14.4v that the engine is running. The permanant feed that you can power your caravan with as a back up becomes the feed for charging your caravan battery via the habitation relay inside the caravan - this gets a feed from the fridge supply. ;-)

 

Write your comments here...Being a bit of a pessimist I would suggest that you are never,ever going to get a full 14.4 volt charge from your car alternator,down the cable,through a pin and socket connector(12 s or 13 pin ) through the connector cable,fuse board,relay and finally caravan battery !!!!!!!.Also ,in the event of a power down on site,you will not be able to run your electronic fridge or water heater without a battery in the circuit!!!Why would anyone even consider not installing a caravan battery?

What kills batteries quicker than anything is the charge and discharge cycles. Deep discharges are worst of all and to cope with this kind of use you need to buy the best you can afford. 

However if you are going to be on hookup most of the time including whilst in storage then any old cheap battery will serve you just as well as one which costs a small fortune.

Just my two penny worth.

peedee

Am I right in thinking that you still a separate feed to the caravan that would be wired to circuit on the car which is controlled by the ignition switch? Or has that also been superseded by modern electronic circuitry?

Without looking it up I can't remember what pins are which (13 pin or 12N/S dependant). One wire is fed via the split charge relay & powers the fridge when your car engine is running - split charge relay can tell via the voltage ie 14.4v that the engine is running. The permanant feed that you can power your caravan with as a back up becomes the feed for charging your caravan battery via the habitation relay inside the caravan - this gets a feed from the fridge supply. ;-)

 

Write your comments here...Being a bit of a pessimist I would suggest that you are never,ever going to get a full 14.4 volt charge from your car alternator,down the cable,through a pin and socket connector(12 s or 13 pin ) through the connector cable,fuse board,relay and finally caravan battery !!!!!!!.Also ,in the event of a power down on site,you will not be able to run your electronic fridge or water heater without a battery in the circuit!!!Why would anyone even consider not installing a caravan battery?

Not sure what you're arguing here :-?

My only mention of 14.4v was the voltage to switch the voltage sensitive split charge relay ............. I'm sure that by the time it's travelled to my leisure battery there will be a voltage drop ........... it can only be expected with 12v DC. But we seem to have deviated some what from the original question though.

There was a separate thread on the subject of charging a caravan battery.  Most vans will not charge to 14.4 + volts (boost charge) as this would damage the 12V system although I did see a Coachman brochure saying something about a dual voltage system.  From many years experience I believe that if you are always on mains hook-up and the battery doesn't discharge much then there is probably not so much of a problem but if you use the battery and fully discharge it then, for sure,you need to boost charge out of the van.  I use a CTek but they are expensive  The advantage of the CTek is that from fully discharged you can run a reconditioning programme which it is claimed will get rid of the sulphur on the plates and give the battery a new lease of life - only on wet batteries though, not sealed.

I can confirm that the Lidl charger also has a mode which removes sulphation. It does it by pulsing. Then when the battery voltage gets over about 10.5 volts it charges at 3.6 amps until it reaches 14.4 volts, or 14.8 if you select the frost setting. (I can't remember exactly the voltage at which pulsing changes into a steady charge as it was a long time ago that I was monitoring this when I had to do this on a friends battery).
Does the Ctek enter pulse mode when it tries to recover a battery?

There was a separate thread on the subject of charging a caravan battery.  Most vans will not charge to 14.4 + volts (boost charge) as this would damage the 12V system although I did see a Coachman brochure saying something about a dual voltage system.  From many years experience I believe that if you are always on mains hook-up and the battery doesn't discharge much then there is probably not so much of a problem but if you use the battery and fully discharge it then, for sure,you need to boost charge out of the van.  I use a CTek but they are expensive  The advantage of the CTek is that from fully discharged you can run a reconditioning programme which it is claimed will get rid of the sulphur on the plates and give the battery a new lease of life - only on wet batteries though, not sealed.

I can confirm that the Lidl charger also has a mode which removes sulphation. If the battery voltage is low at switch-on, it starts by pulsing. Then when the battery voltage gets over about 10.5 volts it charges at 3.6 amps until it reaches 14.4 volts, or 14.8 if you select the frost setting. (I can't remember exactly the voltage at which pulsing changes into a steady charge as it was a long time ago that I was monitoring this when I had to do this on a friends battery).
Does the Ctek enter pulse mode when it tries to recover a battery or does it have some other way of doing it?