Basic no-leisure battery setup

[roadtripper]

The only thing you might need that's at the edge of DIY is crimping the connectors on the high current cables Starter -> DC-DC -> Leisure and that's simply because the tools to do it are expensive for a one off.

You can usually get those cables made to order though, or a local auto electrician. If you start a thread on your build and mention your rough location you may find a forum member with existing crimp tools might be willing to help for a few beer tokens.

 

[GJ_Davies]

I didnt bother with a leisure battery in my last van.

I had the usual LED lights and 12v sockets powered from the van battery but protected by a victron battery guard so it would never be drained to the point I couldnt start the van.

I'm rarely parked up for long - I like to get out and about to explore so the engine would always have a good chance to make sure the little power used was topped up.

If you plan on camping with 240v anyway then why not use a 240v-12v adaptor and run your fridge off that? Much cheaper, less hassle, and for 90% of the time you'll probably be driving about without the fridge anyway (assuming your driving/camping mix there!).

Where did you install the battery guard?
Did you just attach the battery to the victron guard and then a fuse box on the load?
I'm in the same situation, i only want to run 4 max led and a couple of usb's. It would be good to have the confidence that the starter battery doesn't get drained.

 

[cossie]

I’ve got this setup now but without victron so would appreciate any advice as above cheers

 

[roadtripper]

On the starter battery you'd be best putting a new fused auxiliary feed from a permanent live (on the T6.1 the plate fuse on top of the battery is ideal, for really low loads you might be able to tap into an unused circuit in a fusebox) and then put the battery disconnect in and then a small distribution fusebox after that.

If you put any form of USB in be aware that as active devices they will draw a small load even with nothing plugged in so have them on a switch. Even small it's enough to give an issue on a starter battery in a couple of weeks.

 

[GJ_Davies]

On the starter battery you'd be best putting a new fused auxiliary feed from a permanent live (on the T6.1 the plate fuse on top of the battery is ideal, for really low loads you might be able to tap into an unused circuit in a fusebox) and then put the battery disconnect in and then a small distribution fusebox after that.

If you put any form of USB in be aware that as active devices they will draw a small load even with nothing plugged in so have them on a switch. Even small it's enough to give an issue on a starter battery in a couple of weeks.

Do you know what threshold for the battery guard to activate? I’m getting a reading of 12.45 volts when the engine is off. Would 12.1v be minimum?

 

[GJ_Davies]

On the starter battery you'd be best putting a new fused auxiliary feed from a permanent live (on the T6.1 the plate fuse on top of the battery is ideal, for really low loads you might be able to tap into an unused circuit in a fusebox) and then put the battery disconnect in and then a small distribution fusebox after that.

If you put any form of USB in be aware that as active devices they will draw a small load even with nothing plugged in so have them on a switch. Even small it's enough to give an issue on a starter battery in a couple of weeks.

Thanks for this roatripper. I’m thinking of tapping in to the fuse box under the passenger seat as my loads will be very low.

 

[roadtripper]

Do you know what threshold for the battery guard to activate? I’m getting a reading of 12.45 volts when the engine is off. Would 12.1v be minimum?

Depends on your battery technology and also it's going to be done on voltage and voltage only accurately indicates state of charge at low currents (in or out) - heavy loads will drop the voltage anyway. So you'll tend to find that setting the level is a bit of an art as you don't want nuisance tripping from the occasional surge load on one hand put you don't want a low load to drain the battery so low it's damaged.

I'd very much regard any battery cutoff as an emergency belt and braces and get into the habit of turning off loads anyway as best practise.

For lead acid type batteries something like this state of charge chart might help. Your reading of 12.45 (if the battery is not under significant load in or out and has rested ~30 mins) is right in the ball park for the nominal 80% charge of an AGM battery in a smart alternator van with stop start - which is what I assume you have?

For low loads it would be safe to assume the voltage drop isn't going to be that much so your 12.1 volts comes somewhere around 50-60% - that feels about right but in your case you are doing this to preserve enough cranking capacity to start not just to avoid damage below 50% so I'd start higher. The higher you can cut off without it being a nuisance the better in a single battery approach - and ideally remember the worst case is going to be the ends of the season where you both need more time with the lights on but also want to preserve more of your charge as starting in the cold is harder.



Which battery guard are you thinking of using? The popular Victron one might not be ideal in your case as it's really designed for protecting leisure batteries from damage if you look it it's range of cut off voltages