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Equipping the Overland Vehicle Vehicle accessories - Making your home away from home comfortable, safe and reliable.
Photo by George Guille, It's going to be a long 300km... Bolivian Amazon

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by George Guille
It's going to be a long 300km...
Bolivian Amazon



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  #1  
Old 15 Sep 2009
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24v split charge system

Can anyone shed some light on 24v split charging ie what system to go for
the IBS SYSTEM or NATIONAL LUNAR...etc

There has got to be a number of hubb user's who have split charging on a 24v system have spoken to one guy who was dropping down to one
battery in the rear ie leisure battery and had trouble.

I have a TOYOTA HJ60 and would like to just run a ENGEL 40L FRIDGE &
a water filtration system also a work light and spot's THAT'S IT.

It looks like four batteries is the option as i have seen a few webb page's of
people who have used four battery system.

Any advice on a particular system of split charging would be greatly appreciated...Many Thank's...
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  #2  
Old 15 Sep 2009
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Hi
There are loads of different ways of doing it and everyone has their own opinions. IMHO, for what it's worth, the all singing all dancing setups seem unnecessarily complex. The more 'blackbox' electronics there are, the more there is to go wrong and the harder it is to fault find.
In my HJ60 i run with two aux batteries in the back charged from a simple diode block. There are no moving parts, so it isn't affected by dust, vibrations etc etc. You simply wire the alternator output to the middle terminal on ther diode block and each 24v battery bank connect, via a fuse, to the outer two terminals on the diode...thats it.
I'm guessing, like me, you bought a 60 because they are durable and simple to work on. I've tried to carry that philosophy on with any mods i make.
Some will say that diode blocks give you a large voltage drop, i've measured it on mine and each battery bank is receiving 0.6v less than the alternator is kicking out, on a 24v system this hardly seems like the end of the world and certainly hasn't caused me any problems.
But, as i said, everyone has their prefered way. What ever you do, i would stick with a 24v aux bank though. It keeps it simple and you could jump start yourself if need be.
All the best
Sam
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  #3  
Old 18 Sep 2009
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Try Andy at the towbar centre, he is a friend of mine and will give you no nonsense advice, he fits them. I have spoken to him and he is happy for you to give him a ring for advice.

Welcome to the Towbar Centre

Graeme
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  #4  
Old 18 Sep 2009
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We have the same set-up as Niva say Never.

4 batteries with a simple diode setup. Seems to work fine.
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  #5  
Old 19 Sep 2009
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There are many ways of doing this. As cost rises, so does benefit.
The ideal system is a battery charger like a Sterling BB2450, if you want to charge 24V off a 24V system. The cable to the charger comes directly off the + pole of of the "high" battery in the engine compartment, or the alternator stud. It is programmed to stay OFF unless the voltage rises to 27.2V, which is not possible unless the engine is running and alternator working correctly. There is a 2 min delay to apply some unimpeded charge to the starting batteries.
The charger "soups up" the voltage a bit, like to 14.0-14.5V depending on what type of "leisure battery" you have (conventional Pb-acid, AGM, etc.). That allows faster charging. When the engine goes off, the charger shuts down.
The system comes with temperature sensors for the alternator and leisure batteries, for protection.
I think the 2424 does a maximum of 25A; my two 1212s each do ~45A; I have 4 X 4D AGM batteries, totalling 840 A-hr.
Most other systems are basically "dumb" or "smart" relays, but none bump up the voltage to allow faster recovery of the leisure batteries to my knowledge.
As far as what to do in the boonies if the system fails: just hook the charging cables from alt-charger and charger-leisure battery together with a bolt after engine starts, disconnect and carefully insulate from grounding when stopped. There's usually a fix when complicated stuff breaks down, which is unlikely to begin with.

Charlie
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  #6  
Old 21 Sep 2009
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I used a "smart" relay and it did the job perfectly reliable on our 2 year trip. I will transfer it to the newly rebuild car too.

It's this one: Victron Cyrix Battery Combiner - Kuranda

I had the 80amp 24volt version in 24volt landcruiser. We had 2 "living" batteries in the back of +- 100a.
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  #7  
Old 10 Oct 2013
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picking up on an old thread here, how did you get on with a solution?

I am rebuilding my hj60 at the moment and was trying to avoid introducing a split charge system due to complexity/cost but it looks like I will need one for block heater, winch, fridge etc etc.
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  #8  
Old 25 Oct 2013
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Hi all,
I've just got back from a year in my HJ60 with the setup mentioned above and pictured here (12v version)
Diode Split Charge | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
It performed almost perfectly and i'd definitely do it the same way again.

The only issue we had was when the fuse block between the diode and the aux batteries corroded and one of it's terminals became detached.
Very easy to diagnose and fix.

Happy travels
Sam
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