Battery charger for camper trailer

Hi guys I am new to explore oz and joined yesterday. I was hoping someone may have some advice/experience with a good battery charger for use with my camp trailer.

I have a 100amp battery (may up grade to 2) and will be running 2 x Engel 35 litre fridges (anderson plug when travelling). I have a Honda Eu20i generator and want a battery charger that I can plug into this to recharge the batteries each night (when running the lights etc with the gen)

The charger will need to be able to cope with the fridges drawing power from the battery at the same time it charges as I don't want to muck around changing between 12v and 240v cabling for the fridges all the time. Also I would like to permanently mount the charger in the trailer.

Any suggestions - I have had I recommendation of a 21amp auscharge charger (but never herd of them)

Regards


Jason

Back Expand Un-Read 0 Moderator

Reply By: WATTS2C - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 11:35

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 11:35
CTEK battery chargers are regarded as one of the world's best chargers and are reasonably priced - not sure about running fridge while charging - will check on that and get back to you.

regards

martin
AnswerID: 423769

Follow Up By: Sir Kev & Darkie - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 11:37

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 11:37
I use my CTek to charge my camper battery with the fridge still running with no ill effects of doing so :)

Cheers Kev
Russell Coight:
He was presented with a difficult decision: push on into the stretching deserts, or return home to his wife.

Lifetime Member
My Profile  My Blog  Send Message

0
FollowupID: 694211

Follow Up By: Member - Jason B (NSW) - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 12:03

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 12:03
Kev, What sort of camper do you have. We have just ordered a Trak Shak with everything except the solar package (as we bought the Eu20i instead). We bought their fridges etc etc as well.

Cant wait, we are upgrading from our Southern Cross Ultimate Trecker Tent (which has been awesome).

Regards
0
FollowupID: 694214

Follow Up By: Sir Kev & Darkie - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 13:59

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 13:59
Jason,

I have a 2000 model Trak Shak without the roof rack. I bought it in the middle of last year and LOVE it.

I am currently using a 60l Engel but want to change that to 2 x 32l ones :)


Cheers Kev
Russell Coight:
He was presented with a difficult decision: push on into the stretching deserts, or return home to his wife.

Lifetime Member
My Profile  My Blog  Send Message

0
FollowupID: 694229

Follow Up By: Member - Andrew (QLD) - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 15:32

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 15:32
Charging the battery whilst powering the fridge.....the same thing as what the alternator does up front. Why the worry??

Andrew
0
FollowupID: 694239

Follow Up By: Member - Jason B (NSW) - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 17:02

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 17:02
What do you do when you are stopped for 4 days and not running the engine, also the alternator never fully charges the battery....I dont want to swap all of the fridge cables form 12v to 240v with the Generator all the time.

Depend on the duration of the trip I guess Andrew probably coulg get away with a weekend trip on the battery alone.

Regards

Jason
0
FollowupID: 694246

Follow Up By: Member - Andrew (QLD) - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 17:15

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 17:15
Sorry, no problem with your reasoning or use Jason....was rather commenting on the issue of whether a c-tek can charge a battery AND run a fridge at the same time.

Andrew
0
FollowupID: 694249

Follow Up By: Member - Jason B (NSW) - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 17:26

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 17:26
Thanks Andrew

The same question had me scratching my head also mate. Hence my thread. Some good advice from people who use them this way though. When I read the specs for the C-tec they mentioned an error mode if the battery didn't reach full charge in a pre-determined time.......this had me worried that maybe they wouldn't do what I was after.

Regards


Jason
0
FollowupID: 694253

Reply By: WATTS2C - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 11:39

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 11:39
good to know - as I'm still learning and tend to throw the harder questions to Don for articulate and accurate answers.

but nobody better to answer than someone who's out there doing it

mh
AnswerID: 423771

Reply By: Member - Jason B (NSW) - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 11:48

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 11:48
Thanks guys,

C-Tec is certainly a name I am familiar with. When I read the specs I was a bit concerned that the info suggested that if the battery didn't reach full charge over a pre-determined period that he charger would go into error mode. As I want to run the fridges from the 12v and charge at the same time I wasn't sure if this would pose problems.

Thanks for the info it all helps any suggestions on model and amps required.


Regards
AnswerID: 423774

Follow Up By: Battery Value Pty Ltd - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 12:18

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 12:18
Hello Jason,

well, if you want to make dead sure that the charger is handling the additional fridge load while correctly charging your battery, what better chargers are there than the ones designed by the fridge makers themselves....

I'm talking about Waeco chargers.

And the beauty is, although they are powerful 25A units, you save big time compared to the other brand mentioned.

But before you check out my profile for more info, may I suggest looking into solar to augment your boost/float charging with one or two 25A chargers in parallel.

That way you don't have to run the gennie for long periods of time.

Looking at your load requirement of around 2 amps average, you'll be using 96Ah over a 48 hour period, minus around 50Ah from a 100W or 120W solar panel, leaving about 50Ah for the gennie to put back into your batteries.
That's roughly 25% DOD for 2x100Ah, so you'd run your gennie every second morning for 1 hour (based on 2x25A chargers in parallel).
The solar panel will top off the charge to 100% during the rest of the day.

If only one 100Ah battery and one 25A charger are to be used, and no solar panel, you're looking at a 50% DOD per 24hr, and a daily gennie run time of at least 3 hours. But even then, it's recommended to fully top off the charge every week or so, by letting the 25A charger do its job for 12 to 24 hours.

These are the best options for good battery health and longevity.
If you don't want to fork over excessively for a 25A quality charger, and still get all the bells and whistles, there is help.

Now, for all the other valuable information, pls check out my profile.

Best regards, Peter
0
FollowupID: 694217

Reply By: Innkeepers - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 12:11

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 12:11
Hi Jason,
Last year we changed over the charger in our Bushtracker Van to a Xantrex True Charge 2-40. It is a 40 Amp charger and we currently have 3x100 AH batteries in the van.

Xantrex are expensive but have more charging options than the C-tek. ie,. it has 3 separate positive output posts to allow for similtaneous charging of up to 3 different types of battery. A feature that may be handy if you have one of your batteries fail in the outback and you cannot source an identical type to your existing battery.

Also the C-tek we looked at didn't have as many charging options as the Xantrex when it came to battery types. Then the biggest C-tek we could get was only 25 amps. If you had 2 x 100 Ah batteries that were quite low, it could be anything from 6-9 hours of charging with a 25 amp charger and around half that time with the Xantrex 40A Charger.

Our old batteries were very low one morning when our breakaway switch was accidently pulled out and activated the electric brakes overnight. We have the same generator as you do and with the Xantrex running on the flat batteries, I put a clamp meter around the main positive lead out of the charger and it was putting out 52 amps quite happily and of course the cooling fan was doing it's job to keep the charger cool as well.

We paid just under $600.00 for ours from Keogh Marine on the Gold Coast when others were asking up to $800 for the same unit.

Hope this helps
Cheers
Rick
AnswerID: 423775

Follow Up By: Member - Jason B (NSW) - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 12:15

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 12:15
Thanks for the info Rick. I will have a look at one on the net. Is the unit compact?
It sounds like it is what I am after ultimately I will upgrade to 2 batteries.

Regards
0
FollowupID: 694216

Follow Up By: Innkeepers - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 12:29

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 12:29
Hi Jason,
Your welcome to the info and that is always the value of these forums where you can draw from the vast experiences of others who have gone down that road.

Yes, the Xantrex is very compact unit indeed and not very heavy at all being switched mode technology.

I forgot to answer your other question about charging while running your fridges. You will be able to do that with any charger of reasonable output eg,. 20-60 amps.

Our Bushtracker Van has a 190Litre Waeco 2 door fridge freezer which runs off the batteries as it is a compressor fridge and in addition we have 2 x 40 litre Engels as well for extended stays in remote regions. The Xantrex doesn't even get the hiccups...good unit in our experience.

Keogh Marine have them on their web site for $570.00 right now and they charged us $18.00 postage I think from memory.

Xantrex True Charge 2-40 Battery Charger

Hope this helps
Cheers
Rick
0
FollowupID: 694219

Follow Up By: Innkeepers - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 12:36

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 12:36
Hi Jason,
That link I gave you has a "Specifactions" tab so you can see the dimensions of the charger, but this page shows you the charger with a coke can next to it.

Xantrex Charger Size

Cheers
Rick
0
FollowupID: 694221

Follow Up By: Member - Jason B (NSW) - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 12:59

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 12:59
Thanks again Rick.

It is certainly a neat compact unit. Sounds ideal for my needs. Do you run 240v from your generator in your van fro other gear, or do you use 12v with an inverter and just run the geny to the charger?

Also how noisy is the charger, in the Trak Shak it will be under the bed area.

Thanks for the advice this looks like a quality unit for sure.
0
FollowupID: 694222

Follow Up By: Innkeepers - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 13:50

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 13:50
Hi Jason,
Yes, to both.....we run the Airconditioning or the Microwave in the Van from the Honda Generator if we really need to, but that is a rare thing, however the Honda EU20i does it OK.

We also have a 1300 watt pure sine wave inverter in the Bushtracker to run most things electrical like the phone, GPS, UHF handhelds, electric toothbrush and a million other chargers.

The inverter will run the microwave and also the bread maker, but.....it really is such a big load on the batteries and I would not recommend high current draws for extended periods from your batteries. Look after them and they will look after you. After all, when you're in a remote spot camped by a water hole and haven't seen anyone for a week or more.....you can't just duck over the road and get new batteries.

In any case, if you have your generator running, then it's best to run 240Volt gear direct from the 240 Volt source, rather than converting 240Volt to 12 Volt and converting that back up to 240 Volt. Too many power losses in all those conversions.

Now for noise, well our charger is under the seat in the dinette and in the dead of night we can hear the cooling fan in the charger running.....Just.

In your application however, if you are only using 2 x 35 litre fridges and have sufficient battery storage...eg.. 2 x 100 Ah batteries, then you should be OK with bringing your batteries up to full when running your generator at night whilst your using your camping lights. A high capacity charger will bring your batteries up very quickly and when you turn off the generator to go to bed, you will also turn off the charger.

You shouldn't need it, however, should you need to top the batteries up during the day, then a couple of hours or so on the generator should see you through till evening time when you run the generator and lights again. So a quiet nights sleep will be the go.

In a van park on full time power, just turn the charger off before you go to bed and back on in the morning when you wake up.

Cheers
Rick
0
FollowupID: 694228

Follow Up By: Member - Jason B (NSW) - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 17:14

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 17:14
Thanks again Rick.


Makes sence to me. And am leadin towards this unit. I just need to find out if the 40qmp charger will fry my 1 battery or if it will be ok until I am able to fit the second...


Regards


Jason
0
FollowupID: 694248

Follow Up By: Innkeepers - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 18:14

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 18:14
Hi Jason,
The Xantrex is a smart charger and will only deliver the optimum amount of charge current required to the load and then slow down the charge rate to keep the batttery topped up. The load in this case is your battery.

It will be safe to use with your single battery and it will be equally as safe to use with your second battery in parallel with your original when you fit it. Provided that your original battery is in good condition at the time.

As I mentioned we have 3 batteries and it works well for that application.

Fear not, the Xantrex 40 will not fry your single 100ah battery.

If you check the specs of the charger on that link I gve you, you will see that the recommended load for that charger is between 100ah and 300ah, which makes it ideal for 1 battery or 2 or 3.

Hope this helps
Cheers
Rick
0
FollowupID: 694260

Reply By: WATTS2C - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 14:24

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 14:24
yes, Xantrex are good as well, and can be purchased for around the $600 mark -

why not check out our link.

mh
AnswerID: 423792

Reply By: WATTS2C - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 17:02

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 17:02
Something to think of if upgrading to 2 batteries - you may need to ditch your current battery.

Batteries are fussy things - not good to mix different brands or an old battery with a new one. It would give u problems.

Just a bit of advice transmitted from Don...

mh
AnswerID: 423811

Follow Up By: Member - Jason B (NSW) - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 17:21

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 17:21
Thanks MH

I will send you a PM when I am ready to purchase.

Thanks for the info on the batteries, they will be brand new, not sure what brand yet as we don't get the camper for 5 weeks. I may contact the Trak shak guys and see if they can factory fit duel batteries.

Failing this and assuming for our first trip we use only the one battery, will the 40amp charger be to much and damage the battery? I would like to buy the 40amp as I will be upgrading to duel batteries in the very near future if not prior to pick up.

Regards

Jason
0
FollowupID: 694251

Follow Up By: ABR - SIDEWINDER - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 18:00

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 18:00
I agree with mh.

Try to rather buy your own batteries from your local battery shop.

I would go for 120ah AGM's.

Regards

Derek
0
FollowupID: 694257

Reply By: Mandrake's Solar Power- Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 18:54

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 18:54
Environmentally friendly Solar Power ..

No fuel burden ,
No noise ,

Able to be used where generators are forbidden ..

No working parts to breakdown ..

I suggest an extra battery and a 160 watt Solar Kit ..
That would probably be sufficient until day 4 or 5 of cloudy / rainy weather ..

Cheers

Steve
AnswerID: 423829

Follow Up By: Member - Jason B (NSW) - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 19:15

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 19:15
Thanks steve for the info.

I did consider solar as it was available with our camper. However for our needs I have discarded it at this stage. I went with the Honda generator instead. There are many reasons I made this decision mainly because our power needs will vary vastly and I want to carry a boat on top of the camper. With 2 young kids we will camp mainly in shady areas and not out in the open also their desire to keep warm will require me running an electric heater at night during the milder months.

Solar is available for the camper @ $3800 for a 12amp system, and this may be added at a later stage for all the reasons you mentioned, however as we normally run camp lights and TV's DVD for the kids at night I just figured I would use a charger to top up the batteries while the Genny was running.


Regards

Jason
0
FollowupID: 694272

Reply By: Member - Peter W (WA) - Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 22:56

Monday, Jul 12, 2010 at 22:56
Isn't it great to see a series of follow ups and replys that give straight forward honest replies and no one slagging anyone else off. Should be more of it.



Peter
AnswerID: 423850

Follow Up By: Member - Jason B (NSW) - Tuesday, Jul 13, 2010 at 21:42

Tuesday, Jul 13, 2010 at 21:42
I must say Peter, that as this is my first post on this forum as I am a new member I have been impressed and grateful for all of the advice I have received and for the honesty and experiences people have shared regarding this issue.

As a result I have a much clearer idea of the direction I want to head.

Thanks for your comments.
0
FollowupID: 694417

Sponsored Links