Power supply while camping

Thanks craven, so is the regulater the thing that will charge the battery or do i need one of those smart chargers or trickle chargers. There are way to many things out there and i am confused. How do i know when the battery is charging or what the current charge of the battery is? Do i need something in case the battery is overcharged or will that not happen. Also sorry one last one, is when not camping and have access to 240v mains power how do i charge the battery and what is needed to do this

Just beware of some of the Supplied Regulators.

I've bought 2 120W folding sets, both had faulty regulators.

A friend bought the same & same deal. Dead Reg.

Worst thing is they both were overcharging, hence appearing to be doing basically what is required, but certainly a recipe for killing batterys in the very short term.

Cheers

Phil

If the panel has a regulator built-in then thats all you need, just connect the output of the regulator directly to the battery. The regulator prevents the battery from being overcharged by the panel (ie is equivalent to your 'trickle charger'). Most regulators will have some sort of indicator to let you know when they are charging, but that indicator is one of the key differentiators between the cheap and expensive regulators.
The battery becomes the central connection point for all of your battery related gear. eg connect the solar panel, mains charger, lights, fridge to the battery simultaneously and leave them all connected if you like. Whichever charger has a power source (eg sun or mains power) will charge the battery and the regulator in the other device will block any feedback, the lights and fridge will run as required. If you use good quality equipment then the battery will never be overcharged as they automatically limit their charge rate to the state of the battery (ie they REGULATE themselves).
BTW do not use one of those old style cheap mains trickle chargers, get one of the modern multistage chargers from the likes of redarc/ctek/projecta. Or get a combined unit like the redarc bcdc 1220 or 1240.

PS. The words,"this" are links.

Thanks everyone for your in depth info. I think i am learning a bit from you all and also browsing a bit more on the internet.

Toyocrusa, you mentioned putting the battery in a box with fuses and output connections. How do i do this and what fuses do i need and how do i put this all together.

Thanks

Have a look at the ABR Sidewinder website or I think he has an ad on here.
Also have a look here.
Bob

Thanks Bill, i wasnt sure if i was going a bit over the top or not. Sounds as though your system works well. Do do you leave your fridge in the car on the 100Ah battery or do you take it out when camping to be connected to the Thumper?

Maybe i can just get the Flyer and put a 100AH battery in it. Is it easy enough to have this connected to the alternator whilst driving (and is this hard to do?) and then disconnect it from the alternator to remove the Flyer from the car to use solar panels to charge it away from the car at a campsite. I guess the fridge is too heavy to be putting in and out of the car so maybe i can just leave the Flyer in the car and connect solar panels whilst it is in the car with the fridge. What would you suggest, i have not done any thing like this before and appreciate your opinion.
Thanks

Glenn,

I use a couple of different methods, depending on whether I take the camper trailer, or tent camping.

At times I leave the fridge in the vehicle, connected to the 100Ah battery in the Flyer.
When you buy the Flyer ($395) you receive all the necessary cable, connectors, fuses, etc. to connect in to the primary battery and the isolator inside the Flyer will protect the primary (starting) battery from being discharged.

I installed the cabling and terminated it in the rear cab with a 50 amp Anderson connector. Then I use a short "patch lead", a piece of twin cable with an Anderson connector each end to connect the Flyer to. The Flyer also has an Anderson connector on its input port, plus a second one for output to another circuit.
As my Flyer is installed at the back of a cargo drawer system, I find it to heavy and awkward to move and leave it where it is and simply connect the solar panel lead to it.

If you have a Whitworth Marine outlet in your area, you can compare the weight of the 80Ah vs the 100Ah Remco batteries to help you decide what may be "portable" and what is not. As my Flyer is mounted at the back of a cargo drawer system, I find it too awkward and heavy with the 100Ah battery in it to remove

When I use my camper trailer, a longer lead connects to the Flyer's output port and runs out the back tailgate to connect to the camper cable. The camper has a Ctek D250S dual dc-dc charger installed close to the battery bank to ensure a sound charging circuit when travelling.

Installation instructions come with the Flyer kit, or you can have an auto electrician install it for you.

Note: When buying the Flyer (if you decide to use one) be sure to add an accessory mounting bracket to secure the Flyer in your vehicle.

OK so let me see if i understand this now.
You have a Flyer in the back cab that is connected to the alternator using the cable supplied with the Flyer but have installed an Anderson clip so you can disconnect the Flyer when you need to. Then you have your fridge connected to the Flyer via the output port in the Flyer, and can also plug the solar panels into the Flyer to charge the battery in the Flyer when not driving.

From here when you have the camper you run another cable from the Flyer out to the camper cable (what is the camper cable?). Can i ask how the camper cabling is set up. Does this have its own battery as well and you connect the cable from the Flyer to the second battery or does it need to be connected to the Ctek first and then the Ctek gets connected to the battery.

Thanks

The camper cable is a heavy duty twin core with an Anderson plug on one end which goes to a Ctek D250S dual dc-dc charger via a 25 amp fuse. to the output of the D250S two 80Ah AGM batteries are connected in parallel and also with a fuse to protect the circuit from a short circuit.
Another twin core cable circuit allows me to connect the solar panels to the solar input port on the charger.

The camper cable and batteries were standard with the camper trailer when I bought it. What I have done is to install the Ctek dc-dc charger into the circuit just before the batteries, with an appropriate sized fuse on both the input and output circuits.

The Flyer has two Anderson connectors mounted "back to back" on the rear face of the casing.
One is the input connector and has a dual battery isolator in its circuit to the internal battery.
The second "output" connector is fuse protected and is used to connect another heavy duty circuit, such as a camper, or caravan charging circuit to it.

The fridge connects to a 12 volt merit type socket on the front face.