How are you keeping your starter batteries charged?

[kevman]

Here's one for those of you that don't daily drive your van.

We've got a simple solenoid system switched off the ignition 12v that has treated us well for charging house batteries when driving. Solar takes care of things when we're camping and an inverter/charger keeps the house battery topped up when it's in the garage.

Before kids a dead starter battery was never an issue but with our trips becoming more infrequent our starter battery is often dead when we want to use it.

A switch for the solenoid off a constant 12v that we turn on when parked seems like a simple enough solution to link the starter battery while parked. As a bonus, I'll be able to jump the van without using a sketchy piece of wire like I've been doing. A Blue Sea ACR also seems like a great solution with a fancy switch that I'd proudly mount on the dash so we don't forget to unlink the batteries when camping. But both of those are based on the idea that we keep using an AGM for the house battery and with lithium prices coming down I don't see how we won't make that move when the house AGM needs to be replaced.

So with all that said, what are people doing to keep their starter batteries fresh, particularly those with lithium batteries, when parked for long periods of time? A separate trickle charger? A second smaller dc-dc charger? Bidirectional dc-dc with jump start? (Sterling makes one)

On that note, do you still jump your van off lithium when required even if the batteries are "not rated" for it?

[boywonder]

When I had an AGM house battery, I used a Blue Sea ACR.....bi-directional with solar.

With a Lithium house battery, I'm using a Victron Orion Smart DC-DC converter, bypassed with a large red Blue Sea battery combiner switch.

When the van sits in the driveway between camping trips I use my phone to disable the Victron via the Bluetooth app, then I combine the batteries with the big red switch so that solar can charge both. The charge profiles of AGM and lithium are quite similar.

Member 1der here is running two Victron DC-DC converters one starter-to-house, and the other house-to-starter. I imagine he'll be along here to discuss details but I think he disables the starter-to-house DC-DC converter when parked between trips.

[larrie]

My mechanic recommends starting the van once a month and let it run for a half hour. That charges the both the starting and lithium house battery. It also allows the engine to warm up and circulate fluids.

[JWA]

Originally Posted by larrie

My mechanic recommends starting the van once a month and let it run for a half hour. That charges the both the starting and lithium house battery. It also allows the engine to warm up and circulate fluids.

Depending on the climate and season I'd recommend simply driving the vehicle at least once a week up to 100 miles if possible. I'd also suggest a stand along battery CC tester, something like this but not as sophisticated or "professional": https://www.amazon.com/Midtronics-MP...2-63e904010ad0. Additionally if the starting batteries would be prone to under use and loss of charge keeping a "jump pack" close at hand or on-board while out traveling.

Just my thoughts, might be be 100% applicable to all or even a few.

[86Scotty]

I'm with JWA and Larrie on this. Give the van a little exercise. More than anything else TIRES need to be rolled and used a little now and then to preserve their life. Rubber is fascinating stuff.

But, what do I do? Since recently switching to lithium I also now have a DC to DC. I added a Noco Genius 2a trickle charger under the hood so I can just charge the house battery at home if needed. Or, I can connect two cords to the van (one to chassis trickle charger and the main shore power which charges house bank) if needed.



It's on sale right now:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[BUFFALO]

My shore power charger is 3 stage so once I run a circuit to the starter battery I will leave it plugged in to shore power all of the time. Until then, I also use a noco charger. I just move it around to all my vehicles/batteries periodically.
I also make an effort to drive the van every few weeks or so too. For reasons like the previously mentioned tires, keeping brakes from rusting, make sure the mice haven’t taken over etc

Here is a long thread with similar questions and information.
https://forum.expeditionportal.com/t...set-up.238114/

[Charliesmom]

With all the issues re: Ford Transits and “parasitic” discharge, if our van is sitting for longer than 2 weeks I use a Gooloo trickle charger plugged into the “jump” attachments under the hood. If I am going to have the van in storage where a 110V source is not available (I had this situation when the van was stored in NY for 2 months a few years ago), I use a dedicated portable Goal Zero 50w solar panel and an GZ charge controller attached to the under hood posts. Our van is covered when it’s stored in our driveway and I turn the house battery solar panels off. This system has worked well with no “surprise” dead batteries. Our house LiFePO4 battery sits at about 13.55V without supplemental charging. Prior to a trip I plug the van into a dedicated 30A shore power source to top off the house bank. We do not have a connection between the house and the starter battery in our van. We also carry a charged Audew jump starter with us when we travel.

[kevman]

Originally Posted by boywonder

When I had an AGM house battery, I used a Blue Sea ACR.....bi-directional with solar.

With a Lithium house battery, I'm using a Victron Orion Smart DC-DC converter, bypassed with a large red Blue Sea battery combiner switch.

When the van sits in the driveway between camping trips I use my phone to disable the Victron via the Bluetooth app, then I combine the batteries with the big red switch so that solar can charge both. The charge profiles of AGM and lithium are quite similar.

Member 1der here is running two Victron DC-DC converters one starter-to-house, and the other house-to-starter. I imagine he'll be along here to discuss details but I think he disables the starter-to-house DC-DC converter when parked between trips.

I didn't think about the fact that the float values were so close - good point! Are you disabling the DC-DC when on solar and combined to make sure it doesn't try to turn on when it senses power on the starter side? If you wire your DC-DC to only activate when a 12V source (ignition) is available then you wouldn't need this manual disable, no? (I'm not sure if the Victron has an ignition source option but some of them do I believe.)

Originally Posted by JWA

Depending on the climate and season I'd recommend simply driving the vehicle at least once a week up to 100 miles if possible.

We don't even manage 100 miles on our primary vehicle some weeks so that's going to be a tough one for us.

Originally Posted by 86Scotty

I'm with JWA and Larrie on this. Give the van a little exercise. More than anything else TIRES need to be rolled and used a little now and then to preserve their life. Rubber is fascinating stuff.

But, what do I do? Since recently switching to lithium I also now have a DC to DC. I added a Noco Genius 2a trickle charger under the hood so I can just charge the house battery at home if needed. Or, I can connect two cords to the van (one to chassis trickle charger and the main shore power which charges house bank) if needed.



It's on sale right now:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

What DC-DC do you use? Does it have a 12v ignition input to ensure the trickle from the starter side isn't being converted to the house side when the engine isn't running?

[N147JK]

Originally Posted by BUFFALO

I will leave it plugged in to shore power all of the time.

I could do this, but just can't get comfortable from a safety perspective. Our van is stored 50 miles for us along with many other vehicles all total worth $millions. What if my charger malfunctioned and started a fire? OMG..!

[kbeefy]

I just disconnect the battery.
This is not ideal on newer vehicles, but I've seen enough trickle chargers fail that I won't risk using them. Also I don't have any vehicles new enough that they care.