ronsealdeath
Sagging Member
Hi there, after getting hold of a couple of Optima batteries (a red and a blue top) I decided to put together a split charge setup based on madhatmans thread in the 'common faults and questions' section. I figured it was so easy to put together and pretty cheap (and satisfying) I'd post up some pics and a shopping list.
I went for it being pretty over the top in terms of capacity so you could scale that down quite a bit;
1 x 200amp relay £7.99
1 x bag of terminal connectors with heat shrink £2.99
3m of 16mm2 copper cable £9
2 x midi fuse holders with 4 100amp fuses and connectors £7
1 x pack of 1N4001 diodes £0.99
You will also need a small fuse holder and some thin wire with end terminals. I had all this lying around in my electricals box.
So about £28 all in. Cheaper than that T-maxx jobbie but without the fancy flashing panel to show off in the cab with!
You need some pliers, a knife, a soldering iron and some solder. That's about it.
Put it all together and you end up with this
Relay
Fuse holder
You can just see the diode in-between 85 and 86
Basically the red thin wire goes to the alternator B+ and the thin black wire to earth. There is a diode in-between these terminals to quench any back current. The big terminals of the relay have thicker cable running to each + on the house and starter batteries. They have a fuse at the end closest to each battery with the fuse being the wekaest link; wire takes 120A, relay 200A and fuses 100A. See MHM's thread for the details.
I'll take some photo's when it's hooked up. I used a similar system on my RRC and it worked a treat.
The final stage to this setup is to use a 25mm2 wire from each + on the two batteries with a cut-off witch in the middle of it. This is used for jump starting and yes I used it on my RRC to great effect!
:crutch:
I went for it being pretty over the top in terms of capacity so you could scale that down quite a bit;
1 x 200amp relay £7.99
1 x bag of terminal connectors with heat shrink £2.99
3m of 16mm2 copper cable £9
2 x midi fuse holders with 4 100amp fuses and connectors £7
1 x pack of 1N4001 diodes £0.99
You will also need a small fuse holder and some thin wire with end terminals. I had all this lying around in my electricals box.
So about £28 all in. Cheaper than that T-maxx jobbie but without the fancy flashing panel to show off in the cab with!
You need some pliers, a knife, a soldering iron and some solder. That's about it.
Put it all together and you end up with this
Relay
Fuse holder
You can just see the diode in-between 85 and 86
Basically the red thin wire goes to the alternator B+ and the thin black wire to earth. There is a diode in-between these terminals to quench any back current. The big terminals of the relay have thicker cable running to each + on the house and starter batteries. They have a fuse at the end closest to each battery with the fuse being the wekaest link; wire takes 120A, relay 200A and fuses 100A. See MHM's thread for the details.
I'll take some photo's when it's hooked up. I used a similar system on my RRC and it worked a treat.
The final stage to this setup is to use a 25mm2 wire from each + on the two batteries with a cut-off witch in the middle of it. This is used for jump starting and yes I used it on my RRC to great effect!
:crutch:
