Thread: Camper Battery Charger

I always connect my CTEK the night before while the fridges are running.......

If you want something automated I.e. Once you connect 240 to the van than in it sure what the best option is.

almost any charger will work to some extent however, The dumber the charger the better off you're likely to be as the fridge cycling will mess up a lot of the multi stage chargers also Some chargers dont like sitting with a battery on the leads with no mains power available.


to do what you want I suggest you get a sparky to wire up a contactor (relay) on the mains input that will only connect the charger to the battery when the 240v power is applied.

While hes at that its also worth getting him to put in a couple of outlets with RCD and everything else so that when you do go and hook up at a campsite you dont have to run more than one supply lead or an external powerboard so you can plug stuff you normally have on the inverter in the car onto the mains. (trust me on this, its going to happen)

Originally Posted by weeds

I always connect my CTEK the night before while the fridges are running.......

If you want something automated I.e. Once you connect 240 to the van than in it sure what the best option is.

In reality, any charger that has supply mode I think will do the job to keep the fridge running, and is probably all I really need. Before I go down that path, I'm curious to see if there's any smart chargers out there that can charge a battery whist something is drawing.

This post https://www.exploroz.com/forum/10158...lst-under-load seems to suggest many chargers will do what I want just fine - the smart chargers might be problematic.

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

While hes at that its also worth getting him to put in a couple of outlets with RCD

You beat me to it whilst I was away researching

Luckily the Trayon has an RCD and outlet - handy for those very rare occasions like down in Jindabyne when we actually paid to stay in a caravan park, and used the 240V for the little ceramic heater - never been so warm huddled under canvas!

Any suggestions on a 'dumb' charger that will work with a AGM deep cycle?

Ive got a few but none of them are currently available.

There was a mob doing an All in one unit for campers 6 or so months ago that was a combination mains powered battery charger, battery managment unit (solar, external charge and low voltage cutout) and inverter all as a wall mount unit.

It might be worth looking at some of the DIY battery tank units as they have most of thast stuff built into them now, all thats missing is the battery.

Engle have one but I think I could build it into a box out of off the shelf jaycar bits cheaper.

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

There was a mob doing an All in one unit for campers 6 or so months ago that was a combination mains powered battery charger, battery managment unit (solar, external charge and low voltage cutout) and inverter all as a wall mount unit.

You don't happen to remember the name of this, or any other unit to narrow my search?

no, but Im crap with names.

I know they are popular with the winnebago type and van people, you coudl try one of their mags or a google search.

Red arc made one for a while but it was crap.

You don't need supply mode..
A Ctek MXS25 in charge mode will do fine..
(Supply mode is based on the battery being removed and just powering by itself).