[Captain Scarlet]

On some days I only travel 5 miles to my jobs and another 5 there and 5 back, will this allow enough driving tme to charge the batter to run my wfp system. The people who are going to fit my system ( delayed, caus brake disks gone on van and sensor on back drum broke!!! ) say they can fit the charger, but I'm also worried if it will be safe after reading another thread on a similar topic. thanks for your help, Luke

[StevePB]

Luke, I have not read other thread you mention but I have a split charge relay and I at this present time do not travel that far to jobs. The auto electrician who fit it said it would be fine running it between jobs but if I were parked for a considerable length of time, a few hours, just turn on engine just to kick up charge.
I have an 80 amp battery in my Expert van and sometimes go 3 to 4 hours using pump before driving off again. This is solely my experience with my setup so would advise you to speak to an auto electrician as I would not even know how to install a relay let alone fully understand its safety/technical data. Oh I do know I have to periodically check levels in battery regularly, that I can manage

Regards Steve.

[matt]

most will say that 5 mins to a job and back hom IS NOT enough to charge a battery

[Captain Scarlet]

can you divulge matt, not too sure what you mean , so short journeys won't be enough?, so whatshould I do, get it out and charge it ? so is there any point charging from the alternator? Luke

[jeff1]

Luke if your work consists of mainly short jorneys, then a split charge relay won't fully recharge your pump battery, it may however give it a small charge, but I don't think enough, for a days work, you will therefore have to remove the battery to top it up.

[Alex Gardiner]

If you have a problem then you can just start the engine which will charge across. As a precaution we put the vehicles that use this system on to charge about once a fortnight.

[matt]

can you divulge matt, not too sure what you mean , so short journeys won't be enough?, so whatshould I do, get it out and charge it ? so is there any point charging from the alternator? Luke

it will charge a little,but not enough for a days work every day of the working weekm  personally i would buy a battery charger and charge it evey other night from the mains

[Pj]

I have an 85amp leisure battery connected to a split relay.  It's useful but I charge it from a charger for leisure batteries once a week, otherwise it goes flat.

[pjulk]

All my work is within 3 miles of my home i use a split charge relay and i have never charged my battery since using the split charge relay.

Some say they won't charge enough when you do not travel far but in my experience they do.

Maybe it depends on how good your alternator is
I did get quite a powerful split charge relay so maybe that also helps.

Paul

[StevePB]

Same as you Paul, I have had no probs. But then I do not confine travel to short distances all the time, maybe quality of alternator etc is the key.

Regards Steve.

[Paul Coleman]

I did have a problem with the battery running down a few months ago - especially if I was doing a lot of cleaning and low mileage.  For some reason that eludes me, I'm back to the situation where everything works fine again and the charge is sufficient even on low mileage.  Electrics eh?
The improvement may be due to me changing the fuse by the van battery.  I'm wondering if a fuse can pop without showing visible signs of having popped.