Gold Coast auto

[Werner]

Hi

New to the forum. Very new camper trailers and the electrics (still working through Collyn's books). We are a week into a 6 month trip and still learning and setting up the trailer as we go along (work kept us busy until the end). I've got a Mission trailer which came with a 5A CTEK battery charger, 10A solar charge controller, battery separator, 80W Solar panel and 100Ah Royal DC31 battery which seems to be a deep cycle calcium battery.

Upgraded the electrics when we had drawers installed in the Prado 150 a few days ago. Added a 120Ah Ritar RA12-120 AGM deep cycle battery, replaced the solar charger and battery separator with with a 25A Projecta DC/solar battery charger and replaced the 5A CTEK with a 25A CTEK battery charger. Plan is to add a 120W Projecta folding solar panel and 300W inverter.

Drove 8 hours to the Gold Coast today and it seems that the batteries did not charge that well (was showing 12.5V). (Everything seemed to work when we were at the place of installation and would take it back but not worth the 8 hour drive.) Could it have something to do with having different battery types as the DC battery charger is set up for AGM. I was told that the batteries are connected in parallel.

Visiting family in the Gold Coast for the next week and was wondering whether anybody had a recommendation for an auto electrician that is familiar with camper trailers electrics.

Thinking that another useful piece would be a battery monitor. I've looked at the reviews of the monitors on the website but haven't been able to find a review that compare a few of the battery monitors. Though it would be helpful to understand how the different ones compare before choosing one.

Thanks in advance.

[Peterr]

Where on the Coast are you ? Bloke in Palm Beach Ave , at Palm beach , is great...

Not the one in the blue buildings(useless) , further towards the M1 from the ocean!!

[robcaz]

Hi Werner,

Sounds as if you have been doing your research & have set up your camper with the correct chargers etc.

If you were on the Sunshine we have a couple of contacts there who would be able to check what's going on.

The DC-DC charger would be between the starter on the vehicle & the 120 amp hour AGM in your camper so it is only charging your camper trailer battery. Mixing battery types refers to when you have two batteries of different types in parallel being charged by the one charger.

Check if there is voltage across the camper trailer battery terminals when your motor is running???

Have a look at your Anderson connectors between the vehicle & the camper making sure the terminals have not pushed back so they not making contact. Also check if the cable has been inserted into the right side of the Anderson ie positive not on the negative side.

Even a brand new battery can drop a cell.

There are only a couple of battery monitor reviews by members on the tech tips page. The NASA BM1 compact seems to be compatible with all battery chargers. I did have trouble with the full sized NASA BM1 reading backwards with the Redarc BCDC1225. The Enerdrive is similar to other battery monitors with the same shape, layout etc. I think most are just rebadged.

My Enerdrive article shows there is more user setup input over the NASA.