backchannel: Nope, not getting involved with this one
re: this thread in /r/vandwellers
Battery isolator kit on the fly? Urgent!
Uh huh. At some point in the past I’d labeled this poster as doesn't plan in RES. One of my pet beliefs is that the behavior you observe is a pattern and not an anomaly
I’m really in a hurry and don’t have time to compare brands and filter through conflicting guides.
Translation: “tell me what to buy. If it goes wrong I’ll blame you in perpetuity”
I’m looking for direct recommendations
“Srsly, tell me what to buy”.
… on preferably premade kits or just a simple parts guide and diagram.
Is it really faster to waste other people’s time than to google battery isolator kit or battery isolator diagram?
I will be using a deep cycle acid core battery and my main usage will be for running a vent fan and a small evaporative a/c
A couple breadcrumbs about the use case isn’t much, but better than nothing I suppose.
There is info only OP can provide that is required for the decision:
- do they pass-through charging with a combiner or an actual isolator, or staged charging with a DC-DC?
- how they plan to trigger it? Ignition? Voltage?
- how much current do they need to pass?
IMO the cheapest solution would be a constant-duty solenoid, triggered off IGN/D+. The chance that OP would know how to find an IGN signal is… minimal. The simplest would be a VSR; I use a Battery Doctor. The most correct solution, given that they identified no other sources of charging would be a DC-DC charger. In the absence of any information on the alternator or bank size I’d probably go 20A-30A.