Spare battery?

[Okesy2001uk]

I have a whyte e-160s, the 625wh is plenty for the amount of riding I’d want to do in a day so thats great!
Does anyone bother with a spare battery? Its a big cost for occasional use.
I often go away for a night in my van and ride on consecutive days. Would be nice to be able to charge when off-grid but I think it would completely drain my leisure battery! I don’t even have an inverter at the minute but that would be an easy fix, don’t fancy running the engine for 3hrs to charge it though!

Does anyone do similar? I could stay at camp sites with hookup instead but that takes away loads of flexibility.

 

[Jamze]

Are any places in the UK doing battery hire? Might make more sense financially, but only really heard of people hiring batteries abroad.

 

[Trig]

Ive just received my spare 625 today.

I considered a leisure battery/inverter setup, and also a inverter generator, for when im away in the van.
Generator would let me charge as many times as i want, if got fuel, but noisy etc.

Unless spending quite a bit on the leisure battery, im only likely to get 1-2 charges from it without having to charge the leisure battery itself.So a spare battery is almost as good.

I also wanted a spare battery for doing longer overnight trips anyway, so decided to get just spare battery, that gives me enough for overnight trips, and for 2 seperate days at the weekend, 1 battery per day is enough for me anyway.

Not often i get away for longer than that, and then i might look at getting a recharging setup.Think it might be the generator route though, despite its downsides.

 

[Andrie]

I’m on 3 weeks road trip and charge my battery using inverter. It is inefficient but works great. It’s also important to say that I’m on Tesla model 3. I wish there is a way to do dc to dc charging instead of converting it to ac and back to dc. This will only work on a regular car if the engine is running, otherwise it will drain your 12v battery in no time

 

[Okesy2001uk]

I’ve nust got 1000w inverter and a spare leisure battery. Was the cheapest solution really. May even get a couple of chRges out of it aince its the only thing it’ll be ised for.

 

[jimbob]

I’m on 3 weeks road trip and charge my battery using inverter. It is inefficient but works great. It’s also important to say that I’m on Tesla model 3. I wish there is a way to do dc to dc charging instead of converting it to ac and back to dc. This will only work on a regular car if the engine is running, otherwise it will drain your 12v battery in no time

View attachment 41131

How do you wire that into the car? Is there already a high current 12V output on a Tesla?

Verh clever if so, and an advantage of an electric car I hadn't thought of!

 

[Andrie]

I’ve nust got 1000w inverter and a spare leisure battery. Was the cheapest solution really. May even get a couple of chRges out of it aince its the only thing it’ll be ised for.

For one battery a 500w inverter is more than enough. I’m charging 2 batteries so I have to use 1000w. Using 500w will simplify wiring as it won’t require such big cable. Depending on the length of the cable you might get away with 10 gauge cable

 

[Andrie]

How do you wire that into the car? Is there already a high current 12V output on a Tesla?

Verh clever if so, and an advantage of an electric car I hadn't thought of!

The Tesla has a 12v battery to run the lights, audio etc just like regular car. And it gets supplied 14v to it from the main battery. I’m not sure how many amps it supplied but I tested it at home before the trip and it works. I figure it should work since there are few people running monster audio system that sucks more amp than my charger

 

[thebarber]

I have a whyte e-160s, the 625wh is plenty for the amount of riding I’d want to do in a day so thats great!
Does anyone bother with a spare battery? Its a big cost for occasional use.
I often go away for a night in my van and ride on consecutive days. Would be nice to be able to charge when off-grid but I think it would completely drain my leisure battery! I don’t even have an inverter at the minute but that would be an easy fix, don’t fancy running the engine for 3hrs to charge it though!

Does anyone do similar? I could stay at camp sites with hookup instead but that takes away loads of flexibility.

Depends on what else ur using on leisure battery but a decent one should give you at least a couple of charges.
You could look at solar to recharge the battery but Dc-Dc charger is the way to go, that'll charge the leisure battery in around half an hour.
I'd start here...

Product not found!

www.bimblesolar.com

Then mabe here...

Battery to Battery Chargers

Battery to Battery Chargers

www.simplysplitcharge.co.uk

I went with the Abso dmt 1250dc-dc charging 2x 130ah batts and 12/1200 victron inverter powering 240ac fridge 24/7 & running a couple of 240v sockets, but that's for a camper van.
I also have a spare bike battery now aswell so all bases covered.

 

[Okesy2001uk]

For one battery a 500w inverter is more than enough. I’m charging 2 batteries so I have to use 1000w. Using 500w will simplify wiring as it won’t require such big cable. Depending on the length of the cable you might get away with 10 gauge cable

It’ll be a 2nd leisure battery that i’ll not take all the time, so thinking of turning it into a bit of a mobile power station. Just need to figure out a neat way of earthing it.

 

[jimbob]

It’ll be a 2nd leisure battery that i’ll not take all the time, so thinking of turning it into a bit of a mobile power station. Just need to figure out a neat way of earthing it.

I dont think you need to earth it as; no need for 12V and the invertor 230V output earth will be connected to neutral.

 

[Okesy2001uk]

I dont think you need to earth it as; no need for 12V and the invertor 230V output earth will be connected to neutral.

Just hook inverter up to battery pos and neg not grounded to the van? Makes it easier if safe

 

[jimbob]

Just hook inverter up to battery pos and neg not grounded to the van? Makes it easier if safe

Yes, just hook up directly to the battery. If the battery is wired into the vans electrics, the negative terminal should also be connected to the vans chasis (which it will be if its connected to any kf the vans negative wires anyway), but if its a stand alone battery it doesnt need to be.

 

[Okesy2001uk]

Yes, just hook up directly to the battery. If the battery is wired into the vans electrics, the negative terminal should also be connected to the vans chasis (which it will be if its connected to any kf the vans negative wires anyway), but if its a stand alone battery it doesnt need to be.

 

[Andrie]

It’ll be a 2nd leisure battery that i’ll not take all the time, so thinking of turning it into a bit of a mobile power station. Just need to figure out a neat way of earthing it.

What I mean if you only need to charge one battery at a time, depending on which charger you have a 500w inverter is more than enough. In fact a 300w inverter is enough but you don’t leave any margin. The smaller the inverter, the easier wiring and storage will be. I had a 300w (10 ga wiring) inverter before but changed it to 1000w (2 ga wiring) for this 3 weeks road trip because I’m charging 2 batteries at the same time.

the fact I’m using electric vehicle (Tesla) makes it easier as I can charge anytime, assuming there are enough main Tesla battery. For petrol vehicle, you will need to have the engine running or you’ll battery will die fast. a 20 amp solar charger will probably be enough as long as it is a true 20 amp all the time and not affected by only 2 hours when the sun hit it right

 

[Andrie]

Here is the final setup. As I mentioned earlier I had to replace my 300w 220v inverter with 1000w and 110v. The reason is 220v is really hard to find in this side of the world. So I could only get 110v. Then I use a step up of 110v-220v. I could run 110v on the Giant charger and won’t be any different. The Bosch however, the fast charger require 220v. With the fast charger I only need 3.5 hours to full compare to 7.5 hours with compact charger.

 

[Okesy2001uk]

Thanks for the info. A good 130ah Leisure battery and 1000w pure sine inverter came to £145. That should charge my 625 twice if its not empty and leave the leisure battery in my van for lights, fridge etc.... i’ll make a standalone power pack out of it somehow and it will be an e-bike charging station - I can then just charge it at home and go on multi-ride trips without needing proper campsites

 

[Trig]

Hopefully someone will correct me if ive got this wrong, still trying to understand it all myself.

Your 130ah battery if 12 volts gives 1560wh, and i believe you lose some through the inverter,so if its 20% losses = 1248wh.

So even draining the battery completely, you get 2 full charges of your 625wh batteries, but nothing left over for your fridge/lights etc?

 

[Okesy2001uk]

This is standalone, i have another battery wired into my van for fridge and lights

 

[Trig]

This is standalone, i have another battery wired into my van for fridge and lights

Ah,ok. I misunderstood you, thought it was all the same one.
Certainly a cheap setup for the battery and inverter. Might look at getting the same eventually. Generator provides more charges, but with 2 power packs charged at home, and then almost a charge for each of them out of the leisure battery, thats a few good days worth. And no noisy genny to put up with

 

[Nickolp1974]

Shouldn't really drain leisure batteries past 50% as it will reduce lifespan considerably. My charger runs at 180w at max, if it ran at this for the the full 4 hrs taking into account the inverter inefficiency(80%) and depth of discharge rate (50%) I'd need a 150ah battery to charge once
180x4÷80%÷50%÷12 = 150

 

[Okesy2001uk]

Shouldn't really drain leisure batteries past 50% as it will reduce lifespan considerably. My charger runs at 180w at max, if it ran at this for the the full 4 hrs taking into account the inverter inefficiency(80%) and depth of discharge rate (50%) I'd need a 150ah battery to charge once
180x4÷80%÷50%÷12 = 150

It doesnt run at max current for the 4 hours though.... i think once will be comfortable, twice would rely on both charges being from not fully drained. Any longer and I’ll book a campsite and charge both batteries and the bike on hook up.

 

[Nickolp1974]

It doesnt run at max current for the 4 hours though.... i think once will be comfortable, twice would rely on both charges being from not fully drained. Any longer and I’ll book a campsite and charge both batteries and the bike on hook up.

Yeah your right was just going on max as i'm not sure on overall max charger usage unless it's just a case of size of bike battery, so in my case for shimano

504÷80%÷50%÷12 and that would equal 105ah leisure battery??

 

[RazorBlade]

Just hook inverter up to battery pos and neg not grounded to the van? Makes it easier if safe

personally i wouldn't, what your say WILL work but the negative is normally tied to the van to prevent a potential difference between that battery and the vans floating ground "0Volts"