Advice for Battery and solar connection for 16.49.4 OB

[Laurence]

Hi All

We are just getting ready to finalise the details for our 16.49.4 OB.

I had one last item I was hoping to get some feedback on.
We are looking at mainly doing bush camping with our van, could i get a few respones for the following

What brand of battery best suits a van? (a friend is suggesting looking at an Optima Glass Tube battery.)

Can 2 of these fit in a van if required for extra power and how would that effect trying to recharge them via the vehicle?

If I don't get a solar kit from Jayco, what is the process to charge these batteries later using solar? connections ect

Some thoughts on these items would be greatly appreciated......

Cheers

 

[boots33]

Hi Laurence
Any type of sealed deep cycle battery will be suitable. The best type available at the moment are absorbed glass mat (AGM) batteries. Optima is one of the many manufacturers that have AGM batteries in their range.... whether they are any better than the others I don't know. I would check around and price a few different brands. As you are going to be doing a lot of bush camping I think it would be wise to at least get the solar pre wire option installed as this will allow you to easily add panels later on. The real question to ask yourself is how long your average stay off grid will be and how heavy your power requirements are. If you are going to be away for more than a few days at a time or you use lots of power then you will need to have some way to charge the batteries. The three most common ways to do this are

start the car and use it to charge (not ideal)
Use solar
Use a generator

You should also consider that if you get these items (panels, batteries) fitted by jayco they will be included in the overall weight of the van and not impact on your allowable carry limit. We do a lot of off grid as well, our stays are usually no longer than a week at a time. We have a 120ah agm battery and a 120 watt solar panel and even in overcast conditions have never had any problems but i would consider us as low power users.

I don't have a 16 but i would think you could fit two batteries in if you need to. Provided your vehicle has been wired correctly it will make little difference to how the batteries are charged. If your batteries are heavily discharged then it may take a bit longer to bring them back to full due to the larger capacity of two batteries.

You can add solar at any time, it just gets wired back to the battery through a regulator and fuse. There are many on this forum who can guide you on that if you should choose to have a go yourself.

 

[Laurence]

Thanks for the info Boots

I noticed the otionto get the prewire.

Do you know if it is as easy as plugging in a solar panel then and your are charging or os there other work that would need to be done first.

I was thinking of installing the second battery into the Vehicle (D-MAX) and then using it through the 12 piont plug Jayco has requested I install as I am gettting a 150lt fridge.

Not sure on your knowledge with this but do you thinks this is a viable option. I thought this would give us the ability to recharge when we do short trips during our stay.

cheers

LB

 

[boots33]

Thanks for the info Boots

I noticed the otionto get the prewire.

Do you know if it is as easy as plugging in a solar panel then and your are charging or os there other work that would need to be done first.

I was thinking of installing the second battery into the Vehicle (D-MAX) and then using it through the 12 piont plug Jayco has requested I install as I am gettting a 150lt fridge.

Not sure on your knowledge with this but do you thinks this is a viable option. I thought this would give us the ability to recharge when we do short trips during our stay.
cheers

LB

I have not seen how jayco do their pre-wire for solar but would expect they would have some sort of junction box on the roof with two wires running back down to the van battery via an inline fuse. how you hook up Depends on the panel you buy. If it has a regulator mounted on the panel you can just hook up the neg and pos wires to the roof junction box, make sure there is a fuse in the inline fuseholder and away you go. If you buy a panel without a regulator then you will need to install one in the wiring that comes from the roof. It is a fairly easy job just mount the reg somewhere close to the battery and connect the wires from the roof to the regulator and then on to the battery.

A second battery in the D-Max could be a good compromise, you will have the extra power available if needed and also have an extra source of power available for running things in your vehicle and as you say it will charge if your are out for a drive. You may also want to consider using an anderson plug if you are going to be using lots of power.

 

[Laurence]

Good stuff Boots

I will look into the prewire and anderson, night pop down to a battery shop and also see what they suggest.

cheers Mate!

LB

 

[relgate]

definately go the solar pre-wire