Quote:
Originally Posted by Tannaton
Sorry but I disagree on your view of split charge relays - there's no system that disconnects the cars' main battery in favor if the caravan battery which is connected by maybe a 1.5mm conductor through the socket... that's a fire waiting to happen.
This explains the systems well:
https://www.12voltplanet.co.uk/split-charging.html |
And if I agreed with you, then we’d both be wrong!
What is being described on the page you linked to is in effect the use of a voltage sensitive relay to avoid drawing on the auxiliary battery when starting. That is often referred to erroneously as split charging but the term originally derived from the need to split the relatively modest output of a dynamo between two batteries - a main and an auxiliary. If the load on the main battery increases, say, because the headlights are switched on, then the charging switches back to it. But this doesn’t mean that current is also drawn from the auxiliary battery along the light gauge charging circuit. The circuits are ‘split’. Split charging is more usually found in motor homes with two or more batteries rather than in caravan/trailer combinations.