Leisure Battery relocation - move B2B as well?

[Peter Davies]

Hi All.

I am considering moving my leisure battery from underneath my drivers seat and moving it into the back, possibly under my newly installed rib seat/bed or maybe into the conversion furniture to free up space under my drivers seat.

do I need to move the ctek250 as well? Or am I ok leaving that under the seat and just running a positive cable to the leisure battery and picking up a local earth?

As a side note, would I be ok possibly fitting two batteries? And if yes am I correct in thinking best to be both of the same age, capacity and same battery and same chemistry?

or as a final option could I fit a smaller battery under the seat and also another battery in the rear of the van? Both being charged from the same ctek unit?

my head hurts now lol.
Thanks all.

 

[VanDamMan]

Hi All.

I am considering moving my leisure battery from underneath my drivers seat and moving it into the back, possibly under my newly installed rib seat/bed or maybe into the conversion furniture to free up space under my drivers seat.

do I need to move the ctek250 as well? Or am I ok leaving that under the seat and just running a positive cable to the leisure battery and picking up a local earth?

As a side note, would I be ok possibly fitting two batteries? And if yes am I correct in thinking best to be both of the same age, capacity and same battery and same chemistry?

or as a final option could I fit a smaller battery under the seat and also another battery in the rear of the van? Both being charged from the same ctek unit?

my head hurts now lol.
Thanks all.

That’s a question for @Dellmassive or @Deaky .... but from my limited brain ...the further the battery is from the charger the bigger the leads need to be..

 

[Peter Davies]

Thanks @VanDamMan. I appreciate volt drop could be an issue. I’m really torn about the best way forward to extend the usage time on battery alone.

 

[VanDamMan]

Try this link. Ctek dual battery

 

[Peter Davies]

Thanks again @VanDamMan. Just a matter of whether it’s ok to have the ctek unit approx 3m from the battery using 10mm cable.

 

[VanDamMan]

Thanks again @VanDamMan. Just a matter of whether it’s ok to have the ctek unit approx 3m from the battery using 10mm cable.

I’ve read the manual...but thats a question for an expert

 

[The Bear78]

You can fit two batteries under the floor with one of these.. It's what I plan to do so I can keep everything near the front and leave space under at least one seat.

 

[Peter Davies]

That’s a great idea but suspect I’d need a ramp to get that fitted.

 

[Dellmassive]

Hi All.

I am considering moving my leisure battery from underneath my drivers seat and moving it into the back, possibly under my newly installed rib seat/bed or maybe into the conversion furniture to free up space under my drivers seat.

do I need to move the ctek250 as well? Or am I ok leaving that under the seat and just running a positive cable to the leisure battery and picking up a local earth?

As a side note, would I be ok possibly fitting two batteries? And if yes am I correct in thinking best to be both of the same age, capacity and same battery and same chemistry?

or as a final option could I fit a smaller battery under the seat and also another battery in the rear of the van? Both being charged from the same ctek unit?

my head hurts now lol.
Thanks all.

Yes, you can move the battery and leave the charger under the seat.

Yes you can pick up a local Ground point to the new battery location.

Yes you can fit twin battery's, as you say make both the same.

small & large . . ? - yes you could, but that's not advised as they will run out of balance very quickly and end up with a knackered smaller battery.

so all you have mentioned is possible.

BUT . . . . .

as @VanDamMan mentioned you need to look carefully at the cabling and the fusing of the new setup.

all cables connected to the battery needs to be fused,

the feed cables from the charger to the battery need to be large enough to overcome the volt drop across the cable length at the max given current.

the Cteck is 20A charge rate . . . at say 13.8v . . . if the cable is not fat enough you will loose a couple of volts across the link to the remote battery may only see 11.8v causing a poor charge.

another option to over come this is to move the CTEK closer to the remote battery . . . . . but the same applies for the starter feed cable. it needs to be twice as fat as you are doubling the distance (basic size assumption)

 

[Peter Davies]

Thanks @Dellmassive. I’m leaning towards leaving the ctek under the drivers seat as I ran a 10mm cable from the drivers seat to the rear of the van but didn’t think about running anything for an ignition feed so I’d have to try and fish it behind the panelling.

so in your opinion, do you think a 10mm2 will suffice? The volt drop calculator I found online seems to work out fine. Would just like to be sure I’m going down the right road!