My wife and I decided we would fit out a VAN for some weekend trips up the coast camping. I thought I would take the opportunity to fit it out to charge my LIPOs and also run our fridge.
Here is the parts required and pictures of the installation if you are wanting to do a similar setup.
First of, the components I used.
- CTEK D250S
- Deep Cycle Battery AGM 130AH
- ROADWARRIOR DEEP CYCLE BATTERY BOX
- MAXRAY 12V 140W MONO SOLAR PANEL
- Power Outlet 3 socket Merit Socket+ USB Charger+Cigare
tte Lighter+Volt Meter - 6 WAY MINI WEDGE FUSE HOLDER WITH LED WARNING
- ABS Waterproof Solar Cable Entry Gland
- 10M Anderson Style Plug Extension Lead 50Amp 6mm2
The beauty of this system is mainly the CTEK D250S
It takes input from your main car battery and the solar and will take up to 15 amps or so from both sources as well as keeping your battery in top condition through a 5 stage charge process.
I ran one cable from positive on Car starter battery through to Ctek charger, this means once you start the engine it will start charging the deep cycle.
I then ran leads from solar panel through a waterproof hole in the roof to enable the solar charge.
Here is some extra wiring I did in the deepcycle box so I had more outputs
This is a second deep cycle I have put in for temp use when needing to charge a LOT of lipos. I usually only have one permanently in.
This is the Ctek Charger all wired in place
Cable Entry from the roof runs along the cage down to CTEK
The waterproof housing from the top of roof
The solar panel itself.