CTEK Battery Charger connection to Anderson Plug
Submitted: Sunday, Aug 28, 2011 at 09:21
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88728
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Mapesy (QLD)
Hi Folks,
Whilst there has been a lot of info posted on CTEK Battery Chargers I am unable to find what I want (so far).
I want to run a CTEK (or similar) battery charger off my Generator every so often to give the caravan and car (second) battery a boost. I have Anderson plug connectors on both the car (Landcruiser 100 series) and caravan (Jayco Sterling Outback).
Can I put an Anderson plug on the battery charger and connect that to either my Cruiser and/or caravan rather than connecting directly to the battery terminals?
Reply By: Von Helga - Sunday, Aug 28, 2011 at 09:34
Sunday, Aug 28, 2011 at 09:34
Mapesy,
Sure can however, you want to get every ounce of power being provided by the charger being saved by the battery and not be lost as heat (resistance) in the cable run to your battery/s, in particular whilst you run it off the gen set.
You can use a relatively longer AC cable to get from the geenie to the charger (closer to the batt) than that from the charger to the battery (via vehicle cabling).
Cheers
Trevor
AnswerID:
463688
Reply By: Member - Fred B (NT) - Sunday, Aug 28, 2011 at 09:35
Sunday, Aug 28, 2011 at 09:35
Gooday,
yes you could do that... However, in my view, you would be better off connecting the charger directly to the battery therefore eliminating a possible poor connection, voltage drop etc.
regards
AnswerID:
463689
Reply By: Von Helga - Sunday, Aug 28, 2011 at 09:36
Sunday, Aug 28, 2011 at 09:36
Mapesy,
Sure can however, you want to get every ounce of power being provided by the charger being saved by the battery and not be lost as heat (resistance) in the cable run to your battery/s, in particular whilst you run it off the gen set.
You can use a relatively longer AC cable to get from the geenie to the charger (closer to the batt) than that from the charger to the battery (via vehicle cabling).
Cheers
Trevor
AnswerID:
463690
Reply By: Notso - Sunday, Aug 28, 2011 at 10:00
Sunday, Aug 28, 2011 at 10:00
Yep, I did that with
mine so everything I have now has an anderson plug. Even the evakool fridge. I also have a couple of extension leads with anderson plugs so I have flexibility where I place things around the site.
AnswerID:
463692
Follow Up By: Meggs - Sunday, Aug 28, 2011 at 10:14
Sunday, Aug 28, 2011 at 10:14
I did the same I bought a heap of Andersen plugs from evilbay and fitted then everywhere. I have cig connections inside for TV and laptop but outside and battery charge it is all Andersen plugs. I also have an Anderson plug to cig lighter as
well. I also have Andersen plugs to connect up my 2 x 40W portable solar panels to each other and the van I believe I have about 10 of them.
I also made up a puller to make it easy to pull them apart.
FollowupID:
737526
Follow Up By: Notso - Sunday, Aug 28, 2011 at 10:38
Sunday, Aug 28, 2011 at 10:38
Yep, some of em are a bit hard to pull apart, any photos?
FollowupID:
737530
Follow Up By: snoopyone - Sunday, Aug 28, 2011 at 11:34
Sunday, Aug 28, 2011 at 11:34
You can buy the pullers of Derek on here Hardly worth the effort of making them for the price he charges
www.sidewinder.com.au
FollowupID:
737541
Reply By: olcoolone - Sunday, Aug 28, 2011 at 10:06
Sunday, Aug 28, 2011 at 10:06
We use Cteks in our workshop and cut the cable off where it comes out of the thick black sheathed lead from the Ctek...... don't cut the sensor wire if you charger has it.
Once cut remove the round black trim cover on the end of the thick black sheathed lead and cut the sheathing back 40mm leaving the exposed red and black wires and be careful not to cut the red and black wires.... re install the round black trim cover and connect the Anderson plug to the exposed red and black wires, with the alligator clips you have left over attached to the 200mm of red and black wire attach another Anderson plug to those wires.
Now you have the best of both worlds..... Anderson plug for the 100 series and caravan for direct connection and alligator clips for all others.
We use the 50amp version of the Anderson plug.
If you find the cable from the Ctek to the battery/Anderson plug s not long enough, buy X meters of sheathed twin core 6mm cable and another two Anderson plugs to act as an extension lead.
If done properly you will have nearly zero voltage drop.
AnswerID:
463694
Reply By: Mapesy (QLD) - Sunday, Aug 28, 2011 at 13:25
Sunday, Aug 28, 2011 at 13:25
Thaks Folks,
I thought it would be OK - I just had some concerns about the "breakers" in the system and whether they would allow current flow both ways.
Cheers and thanks for your input.
AnswerID:
463706
Follow Up By: Meggs - Sunday, Aug 28, 2011 at 18:51
Sunday, Aug 28, 2011 at 18:51
I just realized from your reply and my re reading of your post I cocked up.
To start at the caravan end you would normally have a diode between the van Andersen plug and the battery. Before this diode there would be a feed off to the 3 way fridge so allowing your fridge to run on vehicle supply and some charge to the battery. The diode is there to stop the van battery feeding back into the fridge which are hungry for power.
Now for the vehicle. With the above setup on the van the vehicle should be wired up so that when you stop a relay drops off the supply to the van otherwise it would discharge you vehicle battery. Another way it could be wired up is to have motion switch on the fridge to stop the fridge when the vehicle stops.
Now saying all that to connect your charger to the vehicle Andersen plug would be useless as the relay would be deenergised and no current would flow.
I don't have a relay on
mine as power is on all the time but I don't run my fridge on 12v when travelling. To charge the vehicle battery you will need to bypass this relay and go straight to the battery. On the van you can connect an Andersen plug direct to the van battery and you can use it to charge you battery weather by solar or a charger and it can be used as a source of supply if you need it. On the vehicle an Andersen plug needs to be fitted to the battery so you can plug your charger in there.
It all depends on your individual setup
FollowupID:
737586
Reply By: olcoolone - Sunday, Aug 28, 2011 at 22:29
Sunday, Aug 28, 2011 at 22:29
"Now saying all that to connect your charger to the vehicle Andersen plug would be useless as the relay would be deenergised and no current would flow."
You can use a Red Arc SBI dual module that can take a feed both ways but will still work as a normal SBI.
AnswerID:
463759