Charging Ebikes off grid.

[AussieMick]

My wife and I both have Ebikes which we would like to use when away.
We spend most trips away in the van off grid.
My bike has a 625 wh battery and my wife's battery is 500wh.
In my van I have a 150ah lifepo4 battery which copes with extended days off grid as I have a permanent 150w solar panel on the roof and 2 solar blankets I can use if necessary.
Does anybody have
experience of travelling with Ebikes and keeping them charged.
My options seem to be fitting an appropriate inverter to my van or getting a stand alone power station with solar charging so I don't flatten my leisure battery as I need to keep fridge etc running indefinitely.
Any thoughts which option is more practical. Thanks.

 

[CAB]

What wattage are the chargers?

Do you need full charge every day, alternate days, or once a week?

How much solar do you get a day? Can you refill the lithium daily?

Not done this myself, but these questions may help the discussion.

150ah times 12 is 1800wh, but you wouldn't want to run it down to zero.

 

[AussieMick]

Thanks for replying.
Solar keeps my leisure battery topped up each day with normal usage of fridge, lighting, phone charging etc but charging Ebikes would pull a fair amount out of the battery.
One charger is 4A at 240v and the other is 2A at 240v.
Ideally I would like to charge bikes up as needed each day.
Most towns in Australia have a caravan park, even remote places so thinking it might be easier to stay the night at a caravan park with EHU when bikes need charging and have a shower as well.
Still trying to work out what is more practical as bikes wouldn't need fully charging everyday.

 

[soldas]

Personally I'd have an external power station (Jackery, ecoflow etc) that can output 240v.

Charge the bikes off that and charge the power station off a stand alone solar panel, EHU or trickle it off your leisure via 12v.

That's my set up for my Ebike/van.

 

[TonyM]

One charger is 4A at 240v and the other is 2A at 240v.

Check the listed output figures. 4A at 240v is 960W, which would give a charge rate greater than 1C for your 625Wh battery. 4W is probably the 110v rate - most chargers work on anything from 110v to 240v. The output figures will be a better guide - something like 8A at 40V. That would tell us what size inverter you might need.

If you used half your bikes' battery capacity every day, you would need 875Wh per day just for the bikes. Australia gets more sun that the UK (depending on whereabouts you are), but I doubt you get more than 1000-1200Wh per day. But if you start with a full battery, you should get several days before you need an overnight on EHU. Do you tend to stay parked up in one place, or drive every day or so? Does your leisure battery get charged from the alternator or starter battery while driving?

 

[AussieMick]

Sorry to take so long to reply.

My leisure battery is charged by alternator and solar when driving and just solar when parked.

We tend to stay off grid for several days and rely on solar to recharge leisure battery as fridge is important to keep food and drinks cold.

Occasionally we use a caravan park but normally get an unpowered site but could get a powered site to charge ebikes and leisure battery ( also shower and toilet).

Possibly a stand alone power station that also has solar charging may be the best option.

 

[TonyM]

My turn for a delayed reply - sorry.

We still don't know the output figures for your bike chargers. You will need that to know what size inverter you need whether you go for a stand-alone inverter or a powerbank. A powerbank is useful if you also have a use for it away from the van, but an inverter is smaller & cheaper if you can get away with it. If you mostly camp when there is some sunshine, my guess is that you would manage.

It also depends on what physical room you have available. It may be easier to fit an inverter in somewhere out of the way. Even if you do need more battery capacity, it may be easier to find a place for a larger or 2nd battery than to have to find an accessible place for a powerbank - they can be an awkward lump.

 

[AussieMick]

The bosch ebike charger is rated:
Input 220-240v ac 50-60 Hz 1.65 Amps
Output 36v dc 4 Amps

 

[TonyM]

Output 36v dc 4 Amps

If that's the larger one & the other is half the size, you could run the pair of them from a good quality PSW 300W inverter. If it's the smaller one, you would need 500w for both.

I'd only go the powerbank route if you have another genuine use for it in addition to charging the bikes. You have surplus power in your existing system & it is inefficient to use that to charge the powerbank to then charge the bikes - better to do that directly.

 

[AussieMick]

Thanks for your reply. I agree it's simpler to use an inverter off my leisure battery for the occasional charge than lugging around a power bank in my van.
I have plenty of solar panels when needed and usually enough sunshine to recharge my leisure battery.