NorCalSteve
Senior Member
Since my old 94 Chevy Silverado (Hawk camper stays in it through the winter) spends much of the winter not getting used, my truck battery sometimes goes dead because of lack of use. Since I have solar panels on my camper, it seems like I should be able to keep my truck battery charged using my camper batteries and my camper solar panels.
So, my current experiment is a Schottky diode in series with three 10 ohm (3.33 ohm), 5 watt resistors in parallel, which I have connected across the the Sure Power relay. So, when the camper battery gets about a half of a volt above the truck battery, a small amount of charge goes into the truck battery. And the greater the voltage on the camper batteries, the more current will go to the truck battery. Because of the Schottky diode, no power goes from the truck to the camper. I just set this up two days ago so I am still not sure how well it is going to work. My first night of testing shows the truck battery fully charged.
While coming up with this plan, I also looked into the Sure Power 1315A Battery Separator. This seems like it might also be a good solution to keeping the truck battery charged because the 1314 (which came with my camper) will not connect the camper to the truck battery unless the truck is running. And, in this case, the relay closes to allow the truck to charge the camper batteries. It seems like the Sure Power 1315A will charge the truck battery using the solar panels.
I don't remember any conversation on this site about the 1315A Battery Separator. It seems like a better choice than what came with my Hawk camper in 2012. So, should I consider buying the 1315A Separator?
Steve
So, my current experiment is a Schottky diode in series with three 10 ohm (3.33 ohm), 5 watt resistors in parallel, which I have connected across the the Sure Power relay. So, when the camper battery gets about a half of a volt above the truck battery, a small amount of charge goes into the truck battery. And the greater the voltage on the camper batteries, the more current will go to the truck battery. Because of the Schottky diode, no power goes from the truck to the camper. I just set this up two days ago so I am still not sure how well it is going to work. My first night of testing shows the truck battery fully charged.
While coming up with this plan, I also looked into the Sure Power 1315A Battery Separator. This seems like it might also be a good solution to keeping the truck battery charged because the 1314 (which came with my camper) will not connect the camper to the truck battery unless the truck is running. And, in this case, the relay closes to allow the truck to charge the camper batteries. It seems like the Sure Power 1315A will charge the truck battery using the solar panels.
I don't remember any conversation on this site about the 1315A Battery Separator. It seems like a better choice than what came with my Hawk camper in 2012. So, should I consider buying the 1315A Separator?
Steve