[NWH]

Spoke to an electrician today and asked him about split charging vans for WFP,after having a look he told me that theres a unit that you can buy more or less the same as the units British Gas use in there vans for there laptops etc,he reckoned that they come with a cigarette lighter adapter which you would just plug in and connect to the leisure battery.I was curious because it seemed a lot easier than having to drill through the dashboard and chase the wires through the door shuts etc,has anyone heard of these or does anyone use one.

[ScrimShady]

i dont rekon that will work because a ciggy lighter puts out 12 volts and my split relay puts outs 13/14 volts that is good for charging

[Spruce]

IMO I don't see why this is not possible. The cig lighter will register the same voltage as the terminal at the battery - this will be higher anyway when the engine is running and the alternator charging. It would be the same as charging a 2nd battery directly from the vehicle battery via some jump leads or charging your mobile phone from the lighter. The power supply is just taking a different route.

The reason why most of us use the alternator to operate the split charge relay is so the second battery will only charged when the vehicle's engine is running. (this is the only time when the 2 batteries (car & leisure) are connected.) Your cig lighter will operate with the ignition off so it may not be the ideal solution as this combination could inadvertantly flatten your vehicle battery.

The reason for me saying this is that my leisure battery packed up last Friday. I ran the van as the van's alternator will supply enough power to drive the pump. Unfortunately as it was ambient temperature was hot, the van's cooling fan kept kicking in and this totally flatten the little power that was left in the leisure battery.

The split Relay charger to 'alternator' is not a 100% solution but nothing is. Most caravans are connected this way as it is the best solution.

Spruce

[peternathan]

hi
not sure if this will help!!!
you can buy a power inverter which is a small box. one end plugs into ciggarett lighter and on the box you have a normal house hold plug socket. you could plug a standard battery charger into.
a lot of valeters are using these to run hovers of as a petrol generator is bulky and noisy.
depends how much you want to spend they can produce power from 300w to 4000w
have a look at

www.caravantechnoloy.com
under inverters
i dont know how wfp systems work!! you might be able to plug straight into the inverter a do away with the battery.
my brother uses one to charge all his power tools in his van and to run a big compresor.