Hi There,

I was wondering if anybody could help me out in setting up my '93 Hiace Super GL Camper Van. I just purchased it a month or so ago. I took it out on my first trip and camped overnight with my fridge on (I know, I know, bad idea). I awoke to an almost dead battery but was lucky that it seemed to start on the final crank.

Here's the story. I know most of you will say take this to an electrician. I dont mind doing that and it's not the money, I just want to have an understanding of the system and how it works and how not to get messed up again.

From what I see I have two batteries under/behind the passenger seat hooked up in parallel. Everything seems to run of this. I was messing around and I found another deep cycle battery when I unscrewed a wooden plate on the side of the van. I also have an Japanese invertor which I believe is of no use. I also have five toggle switches for all the devices, fridge, water pump, lights etc... which can all be controlled on or off by the fog light switch. Above the five toggle switches is some choke looknig device which has about four stages that it can be pulled out or back in.

I guess my question is the following. Does anybody know where I could find a place in Vancouver, Canada (preferrebly in the lower mainland) where I could take my van to have it looked at and get the best advice on a good configuration?

Also, if somebody could point me to a placeon the net that may explain all these hookups that would be great. I know from previous reading that I want to get a battery isolator so that when the igition is swtiched off, everything runs from my "home" battery (as some people call it).

Thanks in advance for any help,

Chris

if it was me i would start to see if any of the vancouver importers, ie japanoid, outback etc has ever brought one in and ask them. second i would check out a westie specialist as i'm sure there aren't that many differences between the basic german camper and japanese counterpart. hope that helps.
paul

My HiAce "cruising cabin" has a separate "house battery" located under the rear seat with a battery charger installed right beside it. It is isolated from the starting batteries and will not drain them if I leave the fridge on. I have also bought a flexible solar panel to recharge the battery when I go camping for a few days and have no access to "shore" power. Probably not sufficient to run the fridge all day but it helps. I have been investigating getting a three way fridge to replace the existing unit but they are pretty expensive not counting the mods required to get a propane tank installed. I wish someone would come up with a diesel fridge ;-)

So far the best solution I have found is to carry a good quality ice box when I go out camping and not use the fridge at all except for storage.

Thank you both for your answers. I dont think my deep cycle battery is used for anything right now. I guess I should start with the obvious and setup an automatic battery isolator between the parallel battery setup and the deep cycle battery. I'll do a little bit of reading and then go for it. The isolator's dont seem to be that much, under $100 bucks anyways. I heard that your not supposed to use car battery chargers on deep cycle batteries. Do you know if that's true? Do you just use the alternator to charge the deep cycle?

Thanks again,

Chris

you'l be needing something like this intelligent relay

and this leisure battery charger

The battery charger located beside the deep cycle battery in the van appears to be a normal charger with a "float mode" but I am not 100% sure... I can check what type it is when I get home but since it came with the van I am not sure if this would be of any help. All I know is that it works! Canadian Tire has deep cycle batteries and I am sure they can tell you what to use. My "house battery" is also being recharged by the alternator when I drive. If you want to check the flexible solar panel charger system go to this website http://www.modernoutpost.com/gear/details/...werfilm_600.php the store is located in Courtnay BC. I bought a model 600 with a charge controller to avoid over charging the battery. I simply put the panel inside one of the window with a few suction cups so this way it is safe to leave it working even if I am not around.

That solar panal option is a great idea Laliberte. I would love to set something like this up, possibly putting the longer panel on the roof of my Hiace. I will be playing a lot with the electrical system over the winter to try to figure out the best setup. I would rather have everything run automatically not having to worry about manual switches when I'm parked. I'm still trying to find the best batteries to put in my Hiace as they are fairly old and ready for new ones.