Leisure battery wiring

squeaky · Post by **squeaky** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 5:52 pm

Right I have the info I need and all the parts to fit a leisure battery and get it charged when driving. The bit i need more info on is what do most people connect up to the leisure battery and how

I was thinking of powering the 12v sockets, the stereo and the interior lights from the leisure battery. Do I run wires to them seperatly or have relays to switch between the leisure and main battery? For instance if I cut the supply to the stereo and wire to a relay which is energised when the engine is running the closed contacts would connect the main battery to the stereo, when the engine isn't running then the relay isn't energised and it switches the supply to the leisure battery(I hope that makes sense)

What do you think

Also in the factsheet for the leisure battery it states
"When choosing a leisure battery, you must make sure that it is not more powerful
than the main vehicle battery. So if you have a 95 a/h main vehicle battery, don’t
buy a 105 a/h Leisure Battery."
Why is this?

Thanks

MountainGoat · Post by **MountainGoat** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 5:56 pm

Easiest way is to buy one of Willintons intelligent split charging wiring looms which are occassionally available on Ebay.

squeaky · Post by **squeaky** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 6:03 pm

MountainGoat wrote:Easiest way is to buy one of Willintons intelligent split charging wiring looms which are occassionally available on Ebay.

I have bought the battery tray from him off ebay

francophile1947 · Post by **francophile1947** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 6:10 pm

Wiring instructions to modify lights etc to run from leisure battery as follows (courtesy of Pippin):-
Look at the fuse board by the drivers right knee.
Remove the fixing screws and wiggle it forwards so that the rear is visible.

Counting from top left to right the numbering goes 1 to 8.

Fuses 1 to 5 are fed by a thick white/red from fuse BTN under the bonnet, which is always live.
(the fuse, silly, not the bonnet!)

Fuses 6,7,8 are fed only when the ignition is on via the thick red/black wire.
6&7 are curtains L&R, 8 is cigarlighter & mirrors.

1] If you do not have a secondary battery:

You can either select just the cigarlighter/mirrors or probably easier and handier select those and the curtains so that you can operate them without the ignition on.

Cut the thick red/black wire going in a couple of inches from the rear of the fuseholder for 6,7,8. Insulate the end that comes out of the loom.
Use a short length of similarly sized wire to extend the end going into 6,7,8 and tap it into the thick white/red that feeds fuses 1-5.

If you want to select just fuse 8 for the cigarlighter/mirrors then you would have to identify the blue wire coming out of fuse 8, cut that and insulate the end coming out of the fuse 8. The blue wire going into the loom would then need an in-line 15A fuse fitting and then tapping onto the aforementioned thick white/red that feeds fuses 1-5.

2] If you have a secondary battery you may wish to feed things from that rather than from the engine battery.

The instructions above are modified only by disregarding tapping anything into the aforementioned thick white/red that feeds fuses 1-5.
Instead you would need to connect it/them into an appropriately fused wire connected to the secondary battery.

While you are at it you could also feed all the internal vehicle lighting from that source as well.
To do so, cut the blue/red wire coming out of fuse 1 and insulate the end coming out of the fuse. Fit an appropriate 10A inline fuseholder to the end disappearing into the loom and connect it to the secondary battery.

Leisure battery can be bigger than the starter battery - don't know why fact sheet says it can't

tigs · Post by **tigs** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 9:35 pm

Oh Yeah, John

corblimey · Post by **corblimey** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:57 pm

Hi Squeaky

An alternative to the Pippin method is to patch the fuse panel like I did.

http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... hp?t=11189

squeaky · Post by **squeaky** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 11:04 pm

corblimey wrote:Hi Squeaky

An alternative to the Pippin method is to patch the fuse panel like I did.

http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... hp?t=11189

Thanks for that I can't wait to get my Bongo and start the surgery

mikeonb4c · Post by **mikeonb4c** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 11:25 pm

I asked about why the factsheet says leisure battery musn't be more powerful than starter battery. Everyone agreed it was a mystery and most likely wrong so I'd ignore it.

Not sure if there is much benefit to a relay as you suggest. It could be argued that once the engine starts, the split charge relay provides charge to the leisure battery anyway so drawing power from it doesn't drain it down.

I've not got around to moving over stereo etc. but when I do I'll follow corblimeys line as I hate the idea of snipping into the original wiring. In the meantime my LB provides power to an inverter (quick and easy and useful) and to a 3 socket unit from Halfords that has been mounted on the rear face of the centre console. Because it has a 'power on' light that drains a small amount of juice, I've fitted an illumated rocker switch on the dash to isolate and taken the opportunity to tap a digital voltmeter (also panel mounted) off that so that when switch is on I have a readout of battery condition (as well as confirmation that it is receiving charge when engine is started up)

moonshine · Post by **moonshine** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 12:53 am

mikeonb4c wrote:I asked about why the factsheet says leisure battery musn't be more powerful than starter battery. Everyone agreed it was a mystery and most likely wrong so I'd ignore it.

I don't know where that's come from either Mike. It's common practice on boats for the leisure batteries to be MUCH larger than the starting battery. My boat has two 1500cc diesel engines requiring only a 75ah starting battery, but I have water pumps, interior lights, navigation lights, fridge, bilge pumps etc, so my leisure batteries total 220ah to cope with all that. It's been that way for years, and I've never had a problem. The engines are only fitted with dynamos too!

My last boat also had a similar battery setup, with a single diesel engine running an alternator. I never had a problem with it, and neither has its current owner to the best of my knowledge. I also know of boats with whole banks of leisure batteries totalling many hundreds of ampere-hours.

stringman · Post by **stringman** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 10:44 am

Regarding the radio I have wired mine using 2 x 5pin relays and a seperate switch. You need two relays as the radio needs a permanent and an ignition feed. Both need to be taken from whichever battery is being used. Wire the normally closed side of the relays to the standard vehicle wiring so with the seperate switch in the off position the radio will work normally (switching on and off with the ignition). Use the switch to energise both relays so that when you flick the switch both feeds to the radio come via the relays from the leisure battery.
This means that in normal use you do not need to remember to switch the radio off when parked up. When camping you just flick a switch and the radio works using leisure battery with ignition switched off.
Sorry if this sounds complicated but it only actually took me about 10 minutes to wire up.

Majorbloodnock · Post by **Majorbloodnock** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 11:52 am

francophile1947 wrote:Wiring instructions to modify lights etc to run from leisure battery as follows (courtesy of Pippin):-
Look at the fuse board by the drivers right knee.
Remove the fixing screws and wiggle it forwards so that the rear is visible.

Counting from top left to right the numbering goes 1 to 8.

Fuses 1 to 5 are fed by a thick white/red from fuse BTN under the bonnet, which is always live.
(the fuse, silly, not the bonnet!)

Fuses 6,7,8 are fed only when the ignition is on via the thick red/black wire.
6&7 are curtains L&R, 8 is cigarlighter & mirrors.

1] If you do not have a secondary battery:

You can either select just the cigarlighter/mirrors or probably easier and handier select those and the curtains so that you can operate them without the ignition on.

Cut the thick red/black wire going in a couple of inches from the rear of the fuseholder for 6,7,8. Insulate the end that comes out of the loom.
Use a short length of similarly sized wire to extend the end going into 6,7,8 and tap it into the thick white/red that feeds fuses 1-5.

If you want to select just fuse 8 for the cigarlighter/mirrors then you would have to identify the blue wire coming out of fuse 8, cut that and insulate the end coming out of the fuse 8. The blue wire going into the loom would then need an in-line 15A fuse fitting and then tapping onto the aforementioned thick white/red that feeds fuses 1-5.

2] If you have a secondary battery you may wish to feed things from that rather than from the engine battery.

The instructions above are modified only by disregarding tapping anything into the aforementioned thick white/red that feeds fuses 1-5.
Instead you would need to connect it/them into an appropriately fused wire connected to the secondary battery.

While you are at it you could also feed all the internal vehicle lighting from that source as well.
To do so, cut the blue/red wire coming out of fuse 1 and insulate the end coming out of the fuse. Fit an appropriate 10A inline fuseholder to the end disappearing into the loom and connect it to the secondary battery.

Leisure battery can be bigger than the starter battery - don't know why fact sheet says it can't

Franco, I want to pay you for wiring up my leisure battery, how ya fixed?

mikeonb4c · Post by **mikeonb4c** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 1:25 pm

stringman wrote:Regarding the radio I have wired mine using 2 x 5pin relays and a seperate switch. You need two relays as the radio needs a permanent and an ignition feed. Both need to be taken from whichever battery is being used. Wire the normally closed side of the relays to the standard vehicle wiring so with the seperate switch in the off position the radio will work normally (switching on and off with the ignition). Use the switch to energise both relays so that when you flick the switch both feeds to the radio come via the relays from the leisure battery.
This means that in normal use you do not need to remember to switch the radio off when parked up. When camping you just flick a switch and the radio works using leisure battery with ignition switched off.
Sorry if this sounds complicated but it only actually took me about 10 minutes to wire up.

I like the sound of that a lot stringman, as I've found very little reason to want to rewire various Bongo items to run off the LB when I have a 3-socket running off the LB anyway. The one exception is the radio and your mod sounds v simple and effective. Its not going to Room 101, its going on my long long long list

francophile1947 · Post by **francophile1947** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 1:40 pm

Majorbloodnock wrote:Franco, I want to pay you for wiring up my leisure battery, how ya fixed?

You don't need me mate - took me just over an hour and is far easier than reading the instructions

corblimey · Post by **corblimey** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 1:53 pm

Have to admit I'm a little perplexed by your arrangement Stringman. Perhaps I'm missing something.

On a standard van (with no LB) the radio has a permanent feed from the starter battery and it doesn't cause any problems with flat batteries (ok, maybe if it's left on a drive for months without moving) so it's not likely to flatten you SB when you're parked up at a campsite for a couple of days.

If we leave the permanent feed from the SB that means you can ditch one relay. Presumably the switch was there to activate the two relays but now we've only got one and since a relay is a switch and we already have a switch lets ditch that relay too. That leaves us with a single switch to flip between the main power to the radio between the SB and the LB.

Since you still have to wire up the LB and the SB to your switch why not feed your LB into the fuse board instead (about the same amount of work) using either mine of Pippin's method. Then you'll never have to remember to flick switches again.

If I had to flick a switch I'd probably forget and thus end up with a flat battery.

If you still like the relay method then you can simply use one relay that is double pole, double throw (DPDT)

Sorry if I sound nit picky, I'm not trying to be. I'm just confused as to the advantages.

---Edit---

Ok, reread your post and I can see that you get the advantage that your radio will turn off when you turn off the ignition (if you haven't flick your LB switch.) Mine doesn't do that but then I don't really mind since it runs off the LB so I know I'll always be able to start my van anyway.

Majorbloodnock · Post by **Majorbloodnock** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 2:29 pm

francophile1947 wrote:
Majorbloodnock wrote:Franco, I want to pay you for wiring up my leisure battery, how ya fixed?
You don't need me mate - took me just over an hour and is far easier than reading the instructions

Boo!

Would've rather paid you 100 quid than an auto sparky

I'm crap at things like this and tend to pay others

Mind you, I think the split relay and wiring is a fair chunk of the install cost I have been quoted.