Peaklander

That's just it, it doesn't fully charge. I have checked things out as I said. I have a good working alternator (took it to be tested at a known auto electrical repair place that's been there since year dot). The relay is a Durite voltage sense and of course it just clicks in. All the cabling was new two years ago with proper crimps or soldered lugs. Oh and both batteries are those stupidly expensive Odyssey ones and they were new too. I noticed that the aux battery wasn't holding charge during our first long trip away. To say I was dis-chuffed was an understatement. When we got back I returned it to the supplier and they sent to to Enersys. They recovered its condition through a process of charge / discharge (I have the exact details somewhere) and then I had a conversation with their Engineer. His advice was that it was almost certainly not getting a proper re-charge when on the vehicle. The explanation for this seems to be that the alternator regulator can't correctly handle two batteries, in parallel, when they are at differing state of charge and it will be reducing output to something lower than the aux requires due to the effect of the well charged starter battery that also in circuit. I have some researched details of this somewhere too. I think that my high drain peltier cooler is just making things worse because it wipes out the aux battery very quickly in seriously hot weather - as we've already noted above. This led me to think that I need something to properly split the output at the same time a solar panel would make sense. To find a MPPT controller and the charger in one unit, as per Tobias' and others comments, seems to be a solution. I do share your scepticism though and maybe I can only prove it to myself by measuring the current into the two batteries during mismatched charge states and with the alternator running.

To be fair he said I can figure out how to power it electrically, but I'm not sure how to mechanically connect it to the motor so it reads the correct RPM I read that as "I can get power to it but don't know how to get a signal to it" and it was that that got me wondering about calibrating (assuming it's electrical input of course).

Was just re-reading this as I grab a sandwich and your reply popped-up FF. Yes I know about the duty cycle - in fact it can be very annoying in the middle of the night when it kicks in and out. A constant drone would be better. I think that £500 is a lot too for a fridge, however had I known just how long we would have eeked-out this cooler then maybe I'd have invested in a chest version of a compressor driven unit. When travelling, as we have a 110 CSW we keep our bubble wrap privacy screens in the quarter lights and rear side windows - just leaving the rear door window 'open'. The screen for that is always laid over the top of the cooler and if we park, even for just a few hours, we put up the rest of them - it's amazing how much radiation they reflect. A little more "on topic", I think that I will try a solar panel; I don't have a lot of time to surf the shops right now but I had thought that panels cost more than you say. I might well go for this Ctek dual unit as I know that my split charge and 65A alternator will not fully charge the aux battery. I've checked everything including having the alternator checked out and short of buying a clamp meter to prove what the charging current into the battery really is, there's not much more I can do. I think it's a lot to expect for an alternator regulator to be able to supply differing charge currents to two batteries of completely differing states, connected in parallel. They really do need some intelligent control.

^^^^ that all makes sense! Interesting Thanks

Do they need to be calibrated to the actual engine? I mean, if they pick up a signal on say the alternator (W terminal) doesn't that mean it shows alternator revs? If it's the coil doesn't that mean four impulses per engine rev? I might be being dim ?

Hi guys, thanks for the replies, they are really useful and interesting. Yes I too have a Peltier cooler and my, how it draws current. I think it's about 4A although I'm not at home at the moment to check. We have had it for years, it's a Waeco Tropicool and we bought that one as it's very efficient in that it can pull-down the space temperature close to the 20 deg below ambient that I believe is the theoretical maximum. Over the years I've replaced both fans and also worn out both electrical connector plug/sockets. I do keep gazing at compressor fridge/freezers but SWMBO isn't too keen on the capital outlay. Fridge, I do see that one might well offset some of the costs of the otherwise more expensive supply system of solar panel / controller and battery charger. Certainly I must do something about the poor charging of the aux battery and I know that it's the cooler that pulls down the battery in the first place. We've had trips over both of the last two early summers where the air max temperature has been 35 deg although the nights have been mainly <20 deg so the cooler gets a rest from high duty cycle operation. What's attracted me about the Ctek is that it's an MPPT and intelligent charger wrapped up in one package. I recovered the aux battery from repeated deep discharges using a Ctek 5.0 once back home. All I need to do is select a solar panel and decide on the best way to mount it on the roof then plug in through the Ctek and forget (I hope). it is spendy though, as you say. One point is that this year's early summer trip is a few weeks in Ireland so high ambient temps are not going to be an issue!

Oh I'm ever so slightly disappointed hearing that!

Ha I like that especially the detail in the item description! Curious though Bowie69, which search term did you use? MAN CAVE SHED HIDEAWAY or ESCAPE or indeed combinations of them??

That's an interesting additional feature that I haven't noticed. What sort of loads are you using the second battery for? It's the ability to recharge this battery properly once it has been discharged and the ability of a solar panel to provide the energy to do this that I'm particularly interested in.

Just reviving this thread... I'm starting to look at fitting a solar panel to my vehicle as I have had lots of problems with using a split charge system centred on a Durite voltage sensing relay that doesn't properly charge my aux battery. I think that the weakness in that sort of set-up is that the two batteries, once connected in parallel, do not receive a suitable personalised recharge as they are in different states of discharge. This is especially true of the aux which is fairly deeply cycled once we park-up for a few days. Recovering that to a 100% charge doesn't seem to happen. Reading about solar controllers and also about the weakness of that charging regime I'm currently using, I have come across this thread and I wonder if anyone else has had experience of the Ctek D250S. It really does look as though it is a good solution. What is attracting me is that it is a charger that handles a DC source from two inputs, namely the vehicle (Starter / Alt) and a connected solar panel. It will provide the controlled charge current for the Aux from whichever of those two inputs is most suitable at the time. In addition it acts as an MPPT controller for the solar panel and so nothing else is needed there, just a bare panel connected to the unit. I like that it is intelligent and controls the charge current to the aux battery in the same way that the AC/mains ones do. If I can connect a solar panel to it too with no other wizardry required then I think it's a winner. The one "drawback" is that it won't charge the vehicle battery. In my case that doesn't seem to be a problem as there's very little drain when standing over four or five days and the alternator seems able to maintain the condition of that battery when we set off again. To provide direct charge of the vehicle battery I'd need to connect the Ctek Smartpass conditioning unit in parallel and this looks to be too much of an overkill in this situation. I wonder what experiences others have, particularly of the Ctek unit?

What Roverdrive is saying is that the two flanges on the front prop must not be lined-up with each other as they are on the rear one. There are sixteen splines and the two sections should be out of phase by two splines (that's 45 degrees coming from (360 x 2 /16)). So if the phasing is wrong, split the prop at the splines and rotate as necessary to give you the two spline difference.

Thank you for sharing this. I'll be following it up.

It not some much that you are protecting the conductor from shorting somewhere, it's more that you should try to prevent ingress of moisture to any connection. In this case the crimp itself.

Happy New Year and thanks for all the help and advice on this great forum.

Oh dear. Mine's hopefully going to be better than cardboard most of the time though

I got a plastic creeper board. I've never had one before and I'm hoping it will transform working underneath!

As the nut is off can you drift the bolt out from the nut end?

They also do the CSW part this one which is what I used on my 110 CSW. It's a bit of a job to release the old at the B and C pillar bottoms but worked well for me. I replaced both sides and the cross member under the 2nd row floor

Hi I think you are referring to this Sill channel its connected by a nut/bolt plate to the bottom of the A pillar and is spot welded to B and C.

I don't know exactly how the gauge responds to the volts across it from the sender; I can guess but I don't know. So if it were me I would eliminate everything and connect the gauge direct to the sender ( if it isn't already) and apply a connection directly to earth from the appropriate terminal on the gauge. Then I'd hopefully know what's really happening Also I'd try to borrow a little IR temperature gauge and point it at a very hot area that's water cooled to check that the real temperature isn't more than about 90 degrees

Sorry for a novice question but what differences make it a 'stumpy' box?

I have read that if the wastegate actuating arm is too long then there isn't enough load on the wastegate spring and this can cause pressure fluctuations. As you've shortened it then perhaps this isn't the source of your woes but it's a starter for ten. Someone with proper experience will hopefully come along and help

Pouring oil onto choppy waters and all that - If you are interested, you can get instant results that are focused on this forum. Try goooooogling this: modulars forums.lr4x4

When I finally got around to folding up my rear step which I hadn't tried to do in 18 months of ownership, I discovered that the flat metal under the rubber had all but disappeared. The replacement step doesn't feel half as good quality as that one and I doubt it will last twenty years.

Go on then, tell us where You can add your location to your profile.