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I have read some amusing forum arguments, especially on caravan and other 4wd forums, regarding charging diodes vs ctek vs redarc, deep cycle vs sla vs calcium and I'm not after another one. I'm a redarc fan and will be sticking with their product for my dc-dc charger and I don't need to be told about the money I'm throwing away instead of a charging diode and some backyarder relay setup. I would just prefer an open discussion especially if you're running redarc gear.
This is my build so far, hoping to keep up quality, versatility and reliability with the electrical system as well
http://www.pradopoint.com/showthread...dless-Wishlist
As for charging I was going to buy myself a BMS1215S2 12, 240v with solar but the cheapie I was looking at sold.. $1500 new, saw one in arb ex demo for $1200. It would be handy to have everything in one place and with the remote indicator it is a very comprehensive smart setup. Probably overkill considering atleast in the immediate future I won't be looking at a camper trailer to monitor as well. But I like it..
BCDC1240 is my next option, around 450 with solar reg and I would just buy a suitable ctek 240v multi cycle charger and put an Anderson plug on it and use that, probably cheaper and with 2 units one or the other could fail and be replaced and not break the bank. Also would have the option of using the 240v charger on other cars.
As far as the starting system goes, from what I understand you use a relay for starter switching function regardless of your charging setup and also you switch the auxiliary in to parallel with the main battery. I would like the capability of having either the main, aux or both starting in emergencies and at the same time to isolate the auxiliary 12v distribution panel I want to set up in the back. This way there is less no non essential current draw and isolates any equipment that could be sensitive to whatever craziness I'd have going on in the engine bay. I would prefer to run heavy gauge wiring from each battery to a relay then the output to the starter. From what I've seen this isn't done very often.
As for batteries I have a standard and a deep cycle currently controlled by a simple voltage sensing setup but I'm considering swapping the deep cycle out for an optima.
Solar will be a consideration but as far as I can see if I set this up right I should be able to add solar or an external system on a trailer using the right connectors without any changes to my main system
I was hoping to run a panel or box in the front with relays etc for engine bay run equipment to keep all tidy and central and another in the back to run radio, amps, uhf, internal and auxiliary lighting lighting from. Any experiences with narva or is there something better suited to a 4wd engine bay?
Thanks in advance
This is my build so far, hoping to keep up quality, versatility and reliability with the electrical system as well
http://www.pradopoint.com/showthread...dless-Wishlist
As for charging I was going to buy myself a BMS1215S2 12, 240v with solar but the cheapie I was looking at sold.. $1500 new, saw one in arb ex demo for $1200. It would be handy to have everything in one place and with the remote indicator it is a very comprehensive smart setup. Probably overkill considering atleast in the immediate future I won't be looking at a camper trailer to monitor as well. But I like it..
BCDC1240 is my next option, around 450 with solar reg and I would just buy a suitable ctek 240v multi cycle charger and put an Anderson plug on it and use that, probably cheaper and with 2 units one or the other could fail and be replaced and not break the bank. Also would have the option of using the 240v charger on other cars.
As far as the starting system goes, from what I understand you use a relay for starter switching function regardless of your charging setup and also you switch the auxiliary in to parallel with the main battery. I would like the capability of having either the main, aux or both starting in emergencies and at the same time to isolate the auxiliary 12v distribution panel I want to set up in the back. This way there is less no non essential current draw and isolates any equipment that could be sensitive to whatever craziness I'd have going on in the engine bay. I would prefer to run heavy gauge wiring from each battery to a relay then the output to the starter. From what I've seen this isn't done very often.
As for batteries I have a standard and a deep cycle currently controlled by a simple voltage sensing setup but I'm considering swapping the deep cycle out for an optima.
Solar will be a consideration but as far as I can see if I set this up right I should be able to add solar or an external system on a trailer using the right connectors without any changes to my main system
I was hoping to run a panel or box in the front with relays etc for engine bay run equipment to keep all tidy and central and another in the back to run radio, amps, uhf, internal and auxiliary lighting lighting from. Any experiences with narva or is there something better suited to a 4wd engine bay?
Thanks in advance