Blog 5.2 - More Power!

January 2024

Not engine power - that'll have to wait until the warranty expires. No, this is all about adding more charging power for the lithium leisure battery.

We're perfectly happy with the performance of the (400 watt) roof-mounted Perlight solar panel, and the associated Victron mppt charger, which, given reasonable doses of sunlight, keeps the Ecotree lithium 230ah battery topped-up quite efficiently.

The kicker, though, is that you just can't rely on having sun at all times. That's not as much a problem as it might be. After all, we carry a tiny, but mighty powerful Soto camping stove, and gas ganisters, for emergencies, and to be honest, we've only resorted to using the gas hob on a few occasions just to ensure we don't flatten the battery too much (and to be fair, I don't think we've ever dropped it below about 20% full, which for a LiFePo4 battery is very, very safe).

However as noted following our last day or two of Blog 4, we did drop it quite low due to typically wet, dull English weather for too long. I had naively expected the charger to top-up the battery to a fairly full condition during our near-200 mile run back from our beachside parkup in Seaford, to Hinckley, but I totally overestimated the capabilities of the OEM Schaudt DC-DC charger.

It took the battery to about 65% full (from memory, but I'm not far out).

Now, that's not good enough. Given a week of grey, wet weather, and being off grid, as we quite often are, things could get fairly critical.

Yes, we now have the diesel heater, so we'd be warm, and the fridge runs happily on lpg, so the near-beer and grub would survive, but I really don't see cooking on a single-burner backpacking stove as ideal except in the odd emergency sutuation... so something had to be done.

And that something was the installation of a just-released Victron 50A Orion XS 'Buck Boost' DC-DC charger.

In situ, installed under the passenger seat and in front of the battery. Yes, it's upside down, but it made sense for the installation and is designed to be installed in any orientation.

On the face of it, that would increase our charge-rate while driving (or even just with the engine running) by a factor of up to two and a half, more than enough to fully charge the battery during an average day's drive (we probably do 40 to 100 miles on most driving days) even on dull days. However, as it turned out, we were able to leave the Schaudt in circuit too, resulting in a whopping 70A charge potential.

To use a hackneyed phrase - that's a game-changer and will definitely give us more freedom to use the 12v system and inverter on duller days.

March travel down to Portsmouth and in northern Spain may well prove that one way or the other.

The Orion XS, which was a brand new product, and almost 'unobtanium' at the time, was sourced and installed for us by Bruce Lauderdale, on our front drive and with no drama.

Bruce comes highly recommended for van electrical installation work. Contact him at www.brucelauderdale.com