Newbie Hillside Starter battery charging question

[Dave2]

Hi I am new to the Campervan world have recently brought a Hillside Birchover and now have it in storage for the winter. The starter battery voltage has now dropped to 12.2V so I am planning to charge the starter battery. The VW manual is useless in its advice for charging the battery stating it should be undertaken by a qualified workshop as requires voltage limited charging. Having looked on the forum it appears many are using CTEK chargers , having just brought a CTEK MXS 5.0 charger for this purpose I have noticed that the first step in the charging cycle is 15.8V which is I think is higher than a typical alternator output. Am I safe in assumption that the higher voltage will not damage the vehicles electronics - I will connect the charger to battery and chassis so as not to bypass the monitoring electronics.
Any advice appreciated as I don’t want to make an expensive mistake.

 

[roadtripper]

CTEK is a good brand, I use that model myself.

Make sure you set the mode to the car (5amp charging) and to the AGM setting (assuming you have a recent 6.1 or 6 with start stop) and leave the reconditioning setting alone. If you are an AGM start stop that voltage is not unusual, but it might not be what you are used to from a traditional system.

The only important thing is to never charge directly to the battery terminals or you will bypass the van's battery monitoring and could disrupt things. Connect the positive to the battery and the negative to some other good metal contact on the engine.

You will generally find that some of the 12v sockets are connected to the starter battery, traditionally it is the one by the gear lever/selector. In which case you can use one of these adaptors to plug the charger in to a mains socket in the van and then to the 12v socket and not have any leads outside the van (assuming you connect EHU)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/CTEK-CTE-56263-Cigarette-Lighter-Connector/dp/B0016LA5O8/

 

[CAB]

Wot he said.

CTEK MXS 5 plugged in to van , turn it on for a day every couple of weeks.

 

[EAN]

What age is your Hillside Birchover? If it a T6.1, 2019 onwards then the cab 12V sockets are going to both be connected to the leisure battery and not the starter battery so you won’t be able to charge the starter battery via either of the cab 12v sockets.
That has been mine and others experience. Hillside themselves have even given wrong information regarding this.

 

[roadtripper]

What age is your Hillside Birchover? If it a T6.1, 2019 onwards then the cab 12V sockets are going to both be connected to the leisure battery and not the starter battery so you won’t be able to charge the starter battery via either of the cab 12v sockets.
That has been mine and others experience. Hillside themselves have even given wrong information regarding this.

Yes your van is the reason I now add "traditionally" to that advice I seem to recall. Have we figured out if it's a Hillside only thing or a generic change in the 6.1 platform - mines a single battery so I can't really add to the evidence.

 

[Dave2]

I picked it up from Hillside mid 2023 so it looks like the socket option is out for me. Thanks for all the speedy advice provided By all.

 

[roadtripper]

You'll have enough in the standard CTEK kit to get going and you can always figure out what works for you longer term in a bit.

Some mount a quick connect under the bonnet to make hook up easy, others fit something like the Ablemail AMT 12-2 trickle charger as a more fit and forget (so long as you have your leisure battery maintained from EHU/Solar)

If you do mount a quick connect you should have the handy plate fuse auxiliary fusebox on the top of your battery as a 6.1 so it's usually easy to add one via that for positive and use the bolt on the inside wing just by the battery for the negative.

Personally I'd use a fused quick connect - using the fusebox is safe but if you burst the plate fuse you have to replace the whole lot so best to regard that as a last ditch fuse.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/CTEK-Indicator-eyelet-practical-indication/dp/B002MT8S7E/

Negative bolt location (point at by multimeter probe)

Inside the battery top fuse box

 

[EAN]

Yes your van is the reason I now add "traditionally" to that advice I seem to recall. Have we figured out if it's a Hillside only thing or a generic change in the 6.1 platform - mines a single battery so I can't really add to the evidence.

When I stripped back my Hillside wiring, they had not touched or done anything to the 12V cab socket wiring. It was definitely as it came from the factory. From reading other posts some of the sales people at Hillside themselves were also unaware as they were giving the same info regarding the cab sockets being powered by one of each.
It’s the same for a Beach or a California too; cab sockets are connected to the leisure battery.
I can’t be definitive, but I’m pretty sure it’s the case for all T6.1s with a factory second battery install.
Might actually be worth doing a Poll on the forum to get a more definitive answer

 

[Ric1962]

Hi all, just reading through this thread as I too have recently acquired a Hillside Birchover camper. Mines first registered May 2019 and is a T6 T30 so im guessing its one of the last T6`s before the T6.1 came in. Thanks roadtripper for the Amazon link to the ctek indicator / adaptor. After reading about them on here I was going to get a ctek MXS 500 charger to keep on top of things and that looks like a definite "need to get" item.

With regard to the black bracket on the side of the vehicle by the battery as pointed out by roadtripper in the photo, if I understand it right, you just unscrew one of the bolts, any one will do, and then rub off the paint on the bracket where the underside of the head of the bolt would contact the bracket when it is back in position? Then after rubbing the bracket area back to bare metal, attach the negative lead eyelet through and on to the bolt and screw it back down again, pinching the eyelet between the bolt and rubbed down bracket? And there is no nut inside the wing / panel section for the bolt to bite and screw back in to.... which would drop down inside the panel when I took the bolt out and drive me nuts rattling around forever because I couldnt find it again!!

Also, as mine is a late model T6, are the two dashboard power points, one on top of the dash and one just next to and below the gearstick, are they connected live and direct to the Starter Battery (SB). They dont seem to "time out" after a period of time from when the van is locked so I guess they are permanently live. It would not have come out of the factory with a Leisure Battery (LB) fitted so they must be connected direct to the SB.

I was intrigued by being able to charge the SB direct from an internal cigarette lighter / power socket as I had never heard of that before. One thing about this site is that you certainly learn some news tricks from it!

Just a thought but If I can charge the SB via the cigarette lighter socket then in theory I could plug the van into the external hook up thus charging the LB, that would also put power to the internal three pin (mains) plug sockets. Then I could plug in the ctek to one of the three pin (mains) sockets inside the van and then connect the ctek cigarette charging lead to the dashboard power point thus charging the SB at the same time!! Then lock up and leave with both batteries being charged at the same time!! Have I missed something here? That seems far to easy and straight forward!!

Any thoughts or opinions by those who know would be most welcome. Has anyone else tried this? Did it work?

Cheers all,
Rick.

 

[Jamesie]

Ric1962, I've got a Hillside Birchover, albeit mine is a T6.1.

Picking up on your point about it not coming from the factory with a leisure battery, I'm pretty sure Hillside have actually always sourced new vans with the VW factory auxiliary battery option, (installed under the front passenger seat) and they leave the ignition live switched relay in place, which connects engine to auxiliary battery when the engine is running.

I don't see why your idea of plugging the battery charger to the internal mains power point while on hook up then connecting it to the dash power point wouldn't work.

I try to minimise draw on my engine battery while camping by turning off everything that draws on the engine battery, eg door courtesy lights etc. I've not had any issues yet in 2 and a half years of ownership, although we tend to do trips that involve driving at least every other day so both batteries are being regularly topped up by the alternator.

 

[roadtripper]

I've not yet wired to my bracket but it was extremely low resistance between that bolt and a known ground point so I wouldn't mess with the paint and introduce corrosion potential if yours is the same.

If you are concerned about the bolt dropping then use a spade type terminal (or trim a slot into a moulded ring terminal)

Your dash sockets sound most likely to be connected to the starter from your description, be aware that if it's factory battery wired traditionally the starter one is by the gear lever and the top dash is leisure, you can sometimes check better by getting a plug in voltage display as each battery will tend to have different voltage levels when idle.

And yes plugging your charger in inside is a common technique, it's only not viable on very recent T6.1 (as sockets seem to be always on the leisure if factory wired)

 

[Greenmachine]

T6.1 Birchover here. I removed the bolt described by @roadtripper and cleaned the thread up with a wire brush, along with the back of the flange and inside the captive nut. I got a 3” piece of 16 amp cable, crimped a ring terminal on one end, and put that behind the bolt. The other end has a spade connector that the charger crocodile clip goes to. I have a Noco charger, with a 3 metre extension. EHU to van, charger in 3 pin socket, cable through drivers window, crocodile clips to positive terminal and home made earth point.

 

[roadtripper]

Do NoCo do a quick connect, that would be an easier way of doing that @Greenmachine - croc clips are fine for temporary use but can move (and maybe short the charger) if used regularly out of sight.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/NOCO-GC002-X-Connect-Eyelet-Terminal/dp/B004LWQ35Y/

If you do want to use croc clips you can just use the side of the shunt fitting where the cable is crimped if yours is the same as mine pictured above. So long as you are the vehicle side of the shunt it's fine, even if only by an inch

 

[Greenmachine]

Yes, the charger came with a quick connector, but I wanted to use it on more than the one vehicle so didn’t swap the clips over. Clips seem to have a very positive connection so far.
My shunt is the same, I just adapted the earth to bolt method slightly, but will bear that in mind.