Help wanted with Leisure Battery/Hookup Setup

[CPBerry2011]

If your looking at this, thank you, I appreciate your input.

My situation:

I have a US bus which has a 110v hookup and sockets.

I have purchased a 115ah Leisure Battery.

I want to have a system in place whereby if I go camping in Europe and there are no hookup facilities then I want to run off a leisure battery. If there are hookup facilities at my campsite then I want to option of using them as the plan is to have a tv in the bus plus may need to use other high drain items such as laptops, fridge, hairdryers etc

Is this feasible and or recommended?
If so, what steps do I need to take to achieve this?
Is it costly to get an autospark to sort it?
How do I go about the US to UK conversion?

Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated. I have read through numerous threads but wanted to ask you all given my particular needs of use.

Thanks in advance.

Chris

 

[aogrady]

Hi,

Not too sure about 110 to UK volts, but as Europe is generally sunny, what about solar and a good split charge system? I have a 80W solar panel on the rear luggage section on my westy, and a T Max digital split charge system.

I have done all this to my bus, works fine in the UK, would be great with more sun - like europe!

Have a look on my thread, think it's pg 10 onwards...you could probably go off grid with no problems, do your sums, projected power draw versus aH on battery and run time etc, plus loadings from tv, and then the solar etc, should be lots of links on my thread

Cheers,

Alistair

 

[71Westy]

I did exactly that. I used the 110V inlet, but renewed all the wiring behind it (in trunking), off to a consumer unit with RCD. I then fed that to a socket in the engine bay for a 12V charger for the leisure battery. I took a second feed to a pair of sockets installed in the furniture.

I have a 12V distribution system via a new fuse panel at the front of the bus (easier to route from than the back) which powers the 12V only fridge, the radio and the interior lights. And an intelligent split charge relay for charging on the go from the dynamo (which does appear to cope).

You can see my build on my thread in the gallery.

I suspect you really need a Part P qualified installer for the mains by the way - mind you I had a recall on my consumer unit and engineers came out to test it - they were a little perplexed at how to deal with a campervan installation!

Cheers,
Nick

 

[CPBerry2011]

Hi,

Not too sure about 110 to UK volts, but as Europe is generally sunny, what about solar and a good split charge system? I have a 80W solar panel on the rear luggage section on my westy, and a T Max digital split charge system.

I have done all this to my bus, works fine in the UK, would be great with more sun - like europe!

Have a look on my thread, think it's pg 10 onwards...you could probably go off grid with no problems, do your sums, projected power draw versus aH on battery and run time etc, plus loadings from tv, and then the solar etc, should be lots of links on my thread

Cheers,

Alistair

Thanks Alistair, will definitely check that out.

 

[NellyM]

I have the same US set up and I also wanted to keep the existing hook up and a very nice member of this forum - Creationblue - supplied me the correct lead which works a treat . As I was having the interior refitted at the time I fitted a consumer unit (PMS3) with split charge and 240v breakers built in. Very pleased with how it all works and it has never let me down!

 

[rallye dale]

Try this

Plug and play

http://sargentshop.co.uk/epages/eshop328964.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/eshop328964/Products/WB6001" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.wirraway.com.au/10_Download_pdf_Docs/Technology_Downloads/EC155_Operating_User_Manual.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


http://www.justkampers.com/sargent-ec155-power-supply-unit-charger.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;