Split Relay Charge System

After many months of deliberating on how I was going to get Phase Two of my Leisure Battery plan to work out, and after many helpful suggestions from EnergySolutions and Digs on the BrickYard forum, I finally decided to buy a Split Relay Charge (SRC) system. This neat system from Tidy Transporters is a real all-in-one, DIY system and the fact that I, Mr Impractical, have been convinced to buy it and fit it myself is a sure sign its idiot proof. Although I have still to actually fit it so that may be proved wrong yet!

The idea with this system (thanks to EnergySolutions and the nice chap on the phone at Tidy Transporters for explaining this in simple terms) is this: You simply attach one wire to your starter battery in the engine compartment, you then run the wire into the back of the van where your leisure battery is housed. This wire is already attached into the "consumer unit" (a simple silver box where all the electrical magic is housed). Out of the other end of the consumer unit comes another wire which you attach to your leisure battery. Simple. Once this is done your leisure battery will automatically charge when you drive the van and when you stop anything connected to the leisure battery or consumer unit will drain the leisure battery only, not the starter battery. Perfect.

The extra nice thing about this is the consumer unit. This has a built in fuse box and attachments for 10 connections to be made to it. Each of these connections is individually fused and they will all draw power from the leisure battery only. You can plug any 12v equipment into these connections. To start with that would be my double 12v socket so I can plug my cooler in to it. But in future as I buy them this can mean some nice powerful LED lights, and then other kit like WiFi networks, TVs, DVD players, PS3s and so on. Great for future expansion.

The other good thing about this is that the SRC can be permanently hooked up to the leisure battery, as can the mains charger, but these do not need regular access so they can be stored away and will not need fiddling with. The consumer unit can be stored separately but nearby as this is the thing you'll be plugging all the 12v units into.

One thing that this set up does not achieve, which was part of my original Phase Two plan, is being able to run the vans internal lights and the car stereo off the leisure battery. However I plan to replace the internal lights with a better set of LED lights, which will run off the leisure battery system, as the internal lights on a T5 are actually pretty rubbish anyway. And I can always buy a plug in radio for the back of the van - although I might still investigate how difficult it would be to move the car stereo over to the leisure battery anyway.

I also have to actually run a cable from the back of the van through the bulkhead to the engine compartment. Having taken the side panels off to insulate the van I know there is a channel which runs down the side of the van which I can run this cable down. The wires going to the rear lights follow that channel. The man from Tidy Transporters reckons from there it is "easy" to run the wires under the passenger seat and through a grommet to the outside, then under the van to the engine bay. We shall see quite how "easy" this actually pans out to be! Anyway, he reckons the T5 is one of the easiest vans to do this with, so hopefully it won't turn out to be a nightmare.

So, with this SRC system ordered and on the way, the next thing I really need to do with the van is to build something for the battery, charger and SRC system to live in.