Solar charging vehicle battery

[KernowCdo]

Hi all,
I’m not sure if this has been covered before, I’ve looked through the threads and can’t see anything like this.

I’ve got a 2010 4 motion SWB T6.

It has got a factory fitted Leisure battery ( and I presume a factory fitted split charge system ) to which I have added a second Leisure battery ( parallel connection ).
I have fitted 4x 80 Watt solar panels to the roof, which are connected to the Leisure batteries via a solar charge controller.
Is there a way I can connect the charge controller from the solar to the vehicle battery to maintain that battery ?
If I add a second split charge relay, will it conflict with the original one ?

Thank you for your time and help with this matter.

 

[DaveyB]

I believe that the Ctek smartpass System enables this, but it may only work with the Ctek split charge circuitry.

 

[KernowCdo]

Thank you for this, I’ll look it up and see what it can do.

 

[t0mb0]

I have a votronic mppt solar controller which mainly charges the leisure battery but it also provides a low output into the starter battery for when the vehicle is left for long periods.

Also, you could get a battery master (or similar) which allows current to flow from leisure to starter battery when the starter battery is significantly less full than the leisure battery.

 

[KernowCdo]

Thank you for your assistance with this.
I’m not sure which way I will resolve the issue but will update you when I have.
Regards.

 

[Deaky]

Seeing as the factory fitted split charge is just a basic relay switched by the BCM, you could replace it with a 2 way voltage sensing relay like a Duratec. These close when the voltage goes over a certain level on either side of the relay. This would allow your starter battery to be charged by your solar panels.

 

[KernowCdo]

Thank you. I’ll give them a look and see if that’ll work for me.

 

[travelvolts]

I would advise using a "trend monitoring" VSR like the Cyrix_CT to avoid relay cycling on and off as the extra load comes on line and drops the voltage below the switching threshold of the relay.