Hi all. Newbie here and I bought a t6 campervan new. It came with a sargent ec 160 to deal with the onboard electrics. I fixed a 200w solar kit from photonic universe, thinking it would happily run the fridge without having to always have an electric hook up. However I noticed that the vehicle battery seems to be losing charge. Took it back to the dealer who advised that they have replaced a faulty relay. Fast forward and just got back from a trip . Plugged in with charger on for 3 days, leisure bat selected and starter battery flat when wanting to leave. Seems like the fridge is running down the main starter battery rather than the leisure battery which has full charge. Sargent instructions are scanty to say the least so means another visit to the dealer and I would like some idea of what is happening. Can't find a split charge relay or a dc/ dc charger so don't know how the battery separation is achieved, other than via the ec 160. Do I need to go down the dc dc charger route and reconfigure the Sargent unit just as control fusebox? Thinking of installing a nemo ds 1230 and using the solar input and ditching my photonic solar panel. The 200w solar panel has a 27volt open circuit voltage so think it would match and has the advantage of excess charge going into the main starter battery when it's not being used. Thoughts and ideas from the hive mind please.
Sargent ec160
- Thread starter Andydann
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- sargent sargent ec160
unlikely to be the fridge as that should be connected to the leisure battery
My first thought is that you might have a duff vehicle battery, there is a known issue with a certain battery failing, from memory Moll.
my second thought is that the vehicle battery has not been connected properly, look at the negative terminal there should only be one thing connected to it and nothing else.
if you only have the Sargent unit then yes the split charge is an inbuilt relay and this will never achieve a charge over 80% so you do really need a standalone DC to DC charger although the solar will top up the missing 20%.
please have a look and get back to us.
My first thought is that you might have a duff vehicle battery, there is a known issue with a certain battery failing, from memory Moll.
my second thought is that the vehicle battery has not been connected properly, look at the negative terminal there should only be one thing connected to it and nothing else.
if you only have the Sargent unit then yes the split charge is an inbuilt relay and this will never achieve a charge over 80% so you do really need a standalone DC to DC charger although the solar will top up the missing 20%.
please have a look and get back to us.
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