Thread: Camper Battery Charger

Originally Posted by Don 130

We have a 'Setec' device in our camper trailer. The battery stays connected, as does the fridge. It also runs 12 volt lights and 240 volt power points. The truck or solar charges the battery, or when plugged in, 240V does it.
Don.

Which model Don?

Originally Posted by drivesafe

Hi Ranga, as Tombie posted, you do not need a battery charger with a "SUPPLY" mode, as this will NOT charge batteries properly.

All you need to do is work out how much power you are going to be drawing from the battery while you are charging the same battery.

Then select a battery charger with at least 10 amps more charging capacity and you will then be able to charge your battery and power your accessories at the same time.

Furthermore, it is standard RV practice to simply connect the battery charger to the battery and leave it that way.

Then set up your 240vac connection as you planned and then when ever you are on mains power, the charger with automatically charge your battery and power your accessories without you needing to do anything more than connecting the mains to your camper.

If you have solar, this to simply connects directly to your camper battery and the same with power coming from the tow vehicle.

There is no need to separate anything at any time.

Thanks Tim,
I thought there was a problem with some smart chargers getting confused by the load on the battery - is that the case?

The solar panel is connected to a MorningStar PS30-M Prostar 30A regulator - I assume this doesn't need to change? This regulator displays battery voltage, solar current, and the load current. Is there anything I should look for in a charger (I notice some like the Projects 2500 have a remote display panel) or are these 3 enough? I thought perhaps an indication of charging might be useful, and considering the charger will be out of sight, the remote panel may be useful.

Finally, any particular charger you would recommend?

Thanks everyone for the advice.

This setup works automatically in our camper with no problems. Just plug in the 240 volt, the fridge switches to 240 volts and the 240 volt charger comes on, tests the battery and charges when required. Just need the 240 volts wired correctly. We just have mains plugs in the battery box running back to an external mains plug for the power lead. Plug the fridge and charger into the mains plugs in the battery box and it works automatically.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

This setup works automatically in our camper with no problems. Just plug in the 240 volt, the fridge switches to 240 volts and the 240 volt charger comes on, tests the battery and charges when required. Just need the 240 volts wired correctly. We just have mains plugs in the battery box running back to an external mains plug for the power lead. Plug the fridge and charger into the mains plugs in the battery box and it works automatically.

I should have mentioned, that my fridge only runs on 12V, hence will always need to be powered from the battery.

Hi Ranga,
Basically the only 240V in ours comes from the inverter.
The fridge is a 12V Evercool.
The battery charger stays connected to the battery.

When bush camping, the genie gets plugged in to the charger and run as needed if driving and solar are not enough.
When staying near 240V, the charger is plugged in to an extension lead and left there.

The charger is multistage I believe, and when I bought it, the dealer said he could cut one wire and make it suitable for charging whilst there is a load on the battery. I could not see a need for that with the vehicle I had at the time, so declined the offer.
It is still unmodified and has been just fine for 6 years on the same 100A gel battery.

Cheers

Our Cross-over is completely 12v powered.
The 240v feed does only 3 things.
1. Powers the charger
2. Straight through (via C to an external 240v socket on external
3. Supplies a 240v / USB power socket inside for appliances when hooked to main.

All other items inside and out on the Camper are powered solely by the 12v system. Including lights, fans, fridge, water pump.

All the charger does is keep charging (similar to how an alternator works in simplicity) it looks at the battery and adds power appropriately...

Recently I repurposed my Ctek MXS25 to this task when the primary unit provided with the Camper began to fail (15 years old).

Way too easy to set up

Originally Posted by Ranga

Which model Don?

ST20
http://www.setec.com.au/pdf/ST-Series-User-Manual.pdf
Don.

The Setec is very vulnerable (and bulky)
More suited to a full sized Van.

Ctek / Projecta or Traxide has a 20/30a Charger which are IP rated, more compact and better suited to Camper use..

Traxide (Tim) has a very good quality unit.. well worth consideration.. Pronautic is the brand.


A Setec is ~$500-550
A Pronautic is ~$450

The Proanutic (designed for Yachts) is also able to correctly maintain Lithium batteries so more versatile if you end up upgrading.