fitting a split charge relay to elite conversion

[ninjasmith]

Hi I've got an elite conversion bongo witha pms 3v fitted. been getting to the bottom of why the leisure battery didn't charge and I've discovered the pms 3v has no provision for this by default.

I've been reccomended a wilmington relay but they seem rather expensive at £68

There is also one important consideration (which may open a whole can of worms). my leisure battery is in the back under the bed. Three implications

1) I'm breathing noxious fumes if I charge on a hookup whilst sleeping in my van
2) two its a fire risk if I use the gas hob whilst charging on hookup
3) wiring in a relay which needs to receive a signal from the alternator is a pain as that wire doesn't exist at the moment. i.e. I have the starter battery wire and the leisure battery wire both available round the back of the pms but either wiring the leisure battery to the engine or the alternator to the pms will be a ball-ache

the way I see it the simplest solution would be fitting an isolation switch that connects both batteries and manually setting to charge when driving and isolate when stopped would work

or I could use comthing like the following voltage sensing relay I found on ebay for £12 and just wire in round the back of the pms
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VOLTAGE-SENSING-S ... a5ffcbd481

wrt to the points above I had a vw a few years ago with a leisure battery in the back. it didn't have a hookup so I could only charge when driving. so no sleeping in fumes. still I never had a problem and I'm exteremely loathe to get involved in re-wiring the whole van when the limit of my abilities is a bit of multimetering and soldering.

[Colin H F]

Hi I dont understand quite whats happened here Iv`e got the Elite conversion with the PMS3 system and that is the whole idea of it. if it has been wired up correctly it should be charging the LB while you are running, mine does . have you consulted Elite about this as I had a few wiring issues with them when I got mine. Colin

[ninjasmith]

Hi I dont understand quite whats happened here Iv`e got the Elite conversion with the PMS3 system and that is the whole idea of it. if it has been wired up correctly it should be charging the LB while you are running, mine does . have you consulted Elite about this as I had a few wiring issues with them when I got mine. Colin

yeah thats a good idea. I bought it secondhand but its probably a good place to start....

EDIT:- to be fair though if you look at my pms 3v thread you'll see I've measured the voltages and had a look for the relay and not seen it. also someone else reported having to fit one to their elite conversion. so maybe I do need to. will still ring tomorrow though.

[MountainGoat]

What type of Elite conversion do you have? I can't understand why your leisure battery should be under the bed at the back. I have a full side Elite conversion and my leisure battery is under the bonnet on the front passenger side.

The Willinton Intelligent Split Charging Wiring Loom is the Gold Standard. I replaced my original Elite split charging setup as it kept braking down. Fitted it myself and I am no lecky, the instructions and photos are easy to follow.

However I can't see how you can fit a Willinton Loom if your leisure battery is in the back of the Bongo. The Willinton Loom is tailor made to connect two batteries under the bonnet.

Tony

[ninjasmith]

not sure what type of elite conversion it is. I bought it secondhand. got some documentation but its nextdoor where the GF is asleep.
EDIT:- I've got no documentation the vendor told me it was but there was none of the documentation from them. no reason not to believe him though. will still ring elite though


due to the seperation of batteries I was thinking a voltage sensing relay is the way to go. I imagine £15 might be a little cheap though still it might do the job?

[MountainGoat]

If your Bongo has an Elite Conversion then you will find a disc with their name on it stuck to the inside of the pillar on the sliding door side of your Bongo.

Tony

[ninjasmith]

If your Bongo has an Elite Conversion then you will find a disc with their name on it stuck to the inside of the pillar on the sliding door side of your Bongo.

Tony

by pillar do you mean the 'pillar' of metal/frame which runs from the floor to the ceiling between the sliding door and the passneger door?

[MountainGoat]

No the pillar at the back end of the sliding door.

Tony

[Colin H F]

My setup re batteries is the same as Tony`s. LB under the bonnet passenger side and thats where I would suggest you put yours,
I would`nt like a battery in the van . If you look at some of my past threads relating to PMS 3 systems you will find mine and geoffs wiring diagrams, not a massive job to undertake. Colin

[g8dhe]

The Ebay relay you have spotted is only rated at 30 amps, this is a little on the low side, I would suggest that a minimum of 40 amps is required. However you might get away with it if you leave the battery in the rear as the wiring resistance will limit the surge current when the relay first pulls in and the battery is partly discharged. If you do move the battery to the front then I would strongly recommend that you go for a larger relay than 30 Amps. This is the strength (and a large part of the cost of the Willinton kit) as he supplies a 100Amp relay, plus the quality and his after sales support! I should add that I don't use a Willinton kit but only because I built from scratch and wanted a couple of non-standard features

I would also not like to have a battery in the rear, as you have realised having a Hydrogen generator sat under the rear (seat?) un-ventilated is not ideal! Especially as the Bongo is built to have a second battery under the bonnet. Cabling the from the bonnet to the PMS 3 shouldn't be that difficult, but having said that I don't know what conversion you have. I know upgrading the +12v cables in mine was actually quite easy, also depending on what items you want to put on the leisure battery having the cabling go past the fuse block down by the drivers knee is very handy as your able to switch over from the ignition / starter battery so much more easily. Again this is where the Willinton kit makes life so easy as he has already pre wired just about everything you need and plugging in the connectors to replace the fuses is a doddle.

[ninjasmith]

thanks for all the advice. I've looked everywhere around the frame of the sliding door and no sign of an elite conversions sticker

still the van runs pretty well so i guess I can just upgrade the rather shoddy workmanship of the conversion over time.

medium term I will move the battery but I think for now just a cheapish voltage sensing relay is the way to go, especially as the charging will then be when the van is on the move.

I'm sure it can't be a massive problem. my old t2.5 used to have the main starter battery under the drivers seat and the leisure in a cupboard near the bed and I never heard anything bad about that!! I mainly want to recover the space the leisure battery lives in by moving it to the front.