Anderson plug problems with new Prado?

[D4D Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close D4D]

Where do you source the amps from ie what are you connecting the 2 cable runs to in the engine bay?

To the aux battery if you have one or the cranking battery if you don't.

[dbbyrne Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close dbbyrne]

Thanks very much Jasen

[mumstruk Member Find all posts View Profile Close mumstruk]

This is the set up that I had on my 120. I am in the process of wiring my 150 the same. We tow a Jayco Off road Swan with a 3 way fridge, 2 x 80 watt solar panels on the roof and two 6 volt 220 amp hour deep cycle batteries. We run a 60 litre evacool in the Prado boot running of an auxilary battery. It works extremely well and we have not had a problem.

Use the large round 7 pin. These outlets I think are good for 20 amps. Run a decent earth from your battery to this plug. Your electric brakes will work correctly. These plugs are heavy duty, the sockets in metal clad can take a beating. Ignore the auxiliary pin as you cannot get a big enough wire into it.

Use a redarc smart start solenoid to handle all of your auxiliary loads. This will only connect these loads to your alternator when the voltage rises to around 13.7 volts, basically when your start battery is fully charged. From the redarc I ran a 10mm cable to the Anderson at the towbar. Also ran same sized wire from negative battery post to the anderson. Picked up a chassis connection at the tow bar as well. Auto electricians will tell you that this is overkill but in my experience many vehicle electrical faults are caused by poor earthing. I dont know what 10mm is in AWG or BS, I am not an auto electrician, just a sparky.

The 50 amp Anderson supplies power to the fridge and a Ctek D250s battery charger. The Ctek sorts out any voltage drop problems and is also a solar regulator. It can combine both solar and alternator power at the same time. I also use a Ctek D250 to look after the auxiliary battery under the bonnet. I disconnected the Jayco battery charger, it is next to useless.

When we are touring and both the auxiliary battery and the van batteries get low it can take quite some time to completely charge these batteries off the alternator alone. The solar panels make a big difference here as the van batteries can suck up a heap of juice, at the expense of the auxiliary battery. I plug a single 80 watt solar panel into the Anderson at the back of the Prado when we are stopped for any length of time to charge the auxiliary and sometimes use a generator if I really need to.

I haven't tried the voltage boosting diode, to my mind they are a risky solution to a poorly performing install. Pm if you like, I can send a line drawing and a list of components Hope this helps..

[mumstruk Member Find all posts View Profile Close mumstruk]

This is the set up that I had on my 120. I am in the process of wiring my 150 the same. We tow a Jayco Off road Swan with a 3 way fridge, 2 x 80 watt solar panels on the roof and two 6 volt 220 amp hour deep cycle batteries. We run a 60 litre evacool in the Prado boot running of an auxilary battery. It works extremely well and we have not had a problem.

I use the large round 7 pin. These outlets I think are good for 20 amps. Run a decent earth from your battery to this plug. Your electric brakes will work correctly. These plugs are heavy duty, the sockets in metal clad can take a beating. Ignore the auxiliary pin as you cannot get a big enough wire into it.

I also use a redarc smart start solenoid to handle all of your auxiliary loads. This will only connect these loads to your alternator when the voltage rises to around 13.7 volts, basically when your start battery is fully charged. From the redarc I ran a 10mm cable to the Anderson at the towbar. Also ran same sized wire from negative battery post to the anderson. Picked up a chassis connection at the tow bar as well. Auto electricians will tell you that this is overkill but in my experience many vehicle electrical faults are caused by poor earthing. I dont know what 10mm is in AWG or BS, I am not an auto electrician, just a sparky.

The 50 amp Anderson supplies power to the fridge and a Ctek D250s battery charger. The Ctek sorts out any voltage drop problems and is also a solar regulator. It manages both solar and alternator power. I also use a Ctek D250 to look after the auxiliary battery under the bonnet. I disconnected the Jayco battery charger, it is next to useless.

When we are touring and both the auxiliary battery and the van batteries get low it can take quite some time to completely charge these batteries off the alternator alone. The solar panels make a big difference here as the van batteries can suck up a heap of juice, at the expense of the auxiliary battery. I plug a single 80 watt solar panel into the Anderson at the back of the Prado when we are stopped for any length of time to charge the auxiliary and sometimes use a generator if I really need to.

I haven't tried the voltage boosting diode, to my mind they are a risky solution to a poorly performing install. Pm if you like, I can send a line drawing and a list of components .

Hope this helps..

[D4D Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close D4D]

I haven't tried the voltage boosting diode, to my mind they are a risky solution to a poorly performing install.

What risk do you see?

[craigm Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigm]

Poorly performing install?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mumstruk Member Find all posts View Profile Close mumstruk]

Without getting off the topic and I am likely wrong but I am worried about frying the thousand little printed circuit boards and ecus that these new cars are full of.

Blues by 10!!!

[mumstruk Member Find all posts View Profile Close mumstruk]

A really handy reference guide is Collyn Rivers 'Motorhome Electrics and Caravans too!' There are chapters on how to calculate volt drop, how to size auxiliary batteries to the proposed load, solar, 12 and 24 volt wiring etc. This is the almost definitive reference on how to set your fourby and van up with out the bullsh!t. It is easy to read and is designed for the layman with little experience.

[dbbyrne Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close dbbyrne]

Thanks very much Mumstruck - that sounds like a great setup

[winniliss Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close winniliss]

The Redarc smart solenoid (SBI12) connects when the voltage from the starting battery side exceeds 13.2vdc. After your vehicle has been running for a little bit this voltage will be achieved and exceeded to about 13.5-13.7vdc depending on ambient temps. This means your alternator is charging both batteries at once and not after the starter battery is fully charged as many people may think (me included until I conducted some testing). The solenoid will disconnect when the starter battery drops down to about 12.6vdc.

I run an Optima AGM battery for both starting and Aux (under the bonnet) and a Fullriver in the camper trailer via a 50amp anderson plug and 16mm2 cable with a 60amp circuit breaker. I also run a voltage booster diode.

I went camping last weekend and ran a 60lt engel in my vehicle for about 16hrs and LED lighting and the water pump on my camper. The next morning when I started to drive home the voltage reading on my scan gauge was 13.5vdc (normally around 14.0vdc that time of morning) as the alternator was charging three batteries and I had my headlights on. It went back up to 13.9-14.0vdc after about an 1hr 1/2. Now if I didn't have the voltage booster diode my battery solenoid would have been turning on and off until 13.2vdc was exceeded.

Now if I was running a DC to DC charger on my camper the voltage drop might have been more or stayed at a low level longer due to the amperage draw these units have on the supply side. These units exceed 20amps on the supply (battery starter side) to supply 20amps to charge your Aux battery. The 40amp version would be more. I will do a video write up on this subject a bit later to explain it better.

Winston.

[cmilton54 Find all posts View Profile Close cmilton54]

Hi
On my other vehicle`s I run 6b&s cable to anderson plug.
(I have second battery in car)
Connect same to caravan battery and rerun 8b&s to fridge connection.
Batteries at front of van and fridge at rear 5.5mts
In the 120 I had a 12volt to 12vold battery charger charging second battery.
Over kill I know but I installed a second 12 to12 charger in caravan to help charge the calcium batterys. (Need a higher charge rate)
Will set our new 150 up the same.
Our older 120 had the same with out the two 12 12 chargers and worked well, we get to a caravan park unhook van and on board charger would go into float mode after about 20 minutes on 240volts.
The 3 way fridges draw about 14.5 amps when on twelve volts. They run constantly on 12v no thermostat.

[D4D Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close D4D]

Without getting off the topic and I am likely wrong but I am worried about frying the thousand little printed circuit boards and ecus that these new cars are full of.

Yup you're wrong, the diode boosts the alternator but still within vehicle spec so there is no chance of 'frying' anything.

[Matty80 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Matty80]

Running two 6B&S supplies from the battery to the RV is the same as having 1 run from the battery to the RV.

paralleling cables is still paralleling cables regardless of where the connection points are. Either way, it's the same alternator doing all the work all the time, two cable runs or one run doesn't change this.

if you are worried about insufficient current carrying capacity, the run 1 4B&S supply.

dont know where active and passive loads come from. There are reactive and capacitive loads, there is also resistance (dc loads) and impedance (ac loads).

at the end of it, total resistance is the sum of all resistances for series connections (increase total resistance) or the inverse of the sum of the inverse of each load in parallel (reduce total resistance). Lower the resistance increase the current for a given potential difference (voltage).

that being, your loads only draw what they need, not what is available. Until you reach 80A (max for alternator) at that point your voltage drops to allow further increases to current as max power (watts) is a constant.

If you cannot operate your equipment on one cable then increase its size, as you haven't allowed for volt drop and/or your maximum demand exceeds current carrying capacity.

remember, your battery in most cases needs a minimum of 13.6 to charge effectively to full capacity of 12.8. If your supply voltage is below that then the battery won't charge. 12.4 is considered a flat battery, so 12.4 due to volt drop in the supply to the RV, and you won't event use the alternator until the RV battery is flat and it will never charge!!!

simple.

[chester ver 2.0 Member Find all posts View Profile Close chester ver 2.0]

I have the same goldstream van that D4D used to own
A couple of tips i can give after taking it on a half lap around OZ
1. If you have a duel battery in the car already when you add the camper you then have 3 batteries to charge (car cranking, car aux and camper) i found it very handy to get a switch installed to the anderson plug going to the camper battery as some days i wanted to give priority charging to the vehicle aux battery (or just dont connect that anderson plug on the days you want to priority charge the car battery)
2. Running the camper fridge on 12V uses a hell of a lot of power and after a while we just left it off and the fridge would only raise about 3 degrees during a 5 hour drive and this was even in darwin temps
3. At the back of the fridge their should be a fan, it runs of a heat sensor to turn on and off. Have the sensor removed and put in a manual switch that you can control. If you are doing what i mentioned in point 2 when you stop running the fridge back up with the fan on pulls the temp back down a lot quicker
4. You get what you paid for in terms of work to tow my goldstream i have
A P3 brake controller
An Anderson plug with 6bbs wiring to the rear to charge the camper battery
A "hot wire to the number 2 pin on the trailer plug to power the fridge when travelling (you can do this through a seperate anderson plug if you wish)
An ignition sensing relay so the van fridge does not flatten my car battery when i am parked
A in cab switch to turn anderson plug and van fridge power off if i choose
Fuses etc
This all came out to the tune of $1800 dollars but should last the life of the vehicle the only thing i would change is that it is all done with inline fuses i would next time get a fuse block so they are all in the one place and i dont have to go hunting around the engine bay to find the blown one.
You can go the way of a 12 pin plug if you wish all that you are doing is putting the anderson plug wiring on the bottom 5 pins and the top 7 are just your standard trailer light connections. I personally like the seperate anderson plug as i have cut my compressor aligator clips off and fitted and anderson plug to the cord and now just plug this into the anderson plug at the towbar it is good cause the compressor hose now reaches all 6 wheels. There is more than 1 way to skin a cat when it comes to camper trailer wiring but 2 constants seem to be
Bigger wiring is better
You will get what you paid for

Pm me if you want to know anything else

[Sean Parky Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Sean Parky]

Hi guys just seen a post about two anderson plugs one for battery and the other for fridge. first you need to work out your current draw. 6b&s is plenty. Most three way fridges draw about 15amps hense the need for and anderson plug. The other battery will only take in what it needs. As long as your voltage is above 13 volts to the rear you will be fine. (14volts is better) Remember you cannot exceed the output of your alternator.
Think of it this way, in your car you only have one main supply line to you fusebox and relays. Not indvidual wires coming of your battery. The trick is to reduce voltage drop. The amps will flow where required.
Hope this makes sense