Installing a 2nd leisure battery

Think I would rather stick to a single battery with a good solar charge and monitor system than faff around with a multi meter and swapping batteries.

peedee

I think I'd agree, may just keep my second battery to use whilst in winter storage and just keep the other 'topped' up at home. As we visit our van in storage and occasionally use during the cold dark months we could swap them over then. 

As for placing and using them side by side but as individual & independant units as described, it's not so much as swapping batteries, just swapping the + terminal clip from one to the other. 

Who knows, depends what I decide on re MH and what I can barter for.

if your storage facility is not enclosed, the solar panel will do the job for you..

I guess I just need to make that leap of faiths then and trust the solar panel, the charger, the battery and enough sun!  And to cap it all I now am told that deisel vehicles are 'soon' to be banned! 😱

employing a solar panel to keep leisure and cab batteries fully charged is such a common place installation these days, especially if done as part of the original spec or by the dealer as part of a sales deal.

my own system is very straight forward....100w panel feeds simple twin channel regulator to split the charge to each set of batteries in line with a user programmable setting.

no passing through any third party PSU as our Swift did and some other brands do.

to me, the simpler the better.

along with the obvious advantage of keeping batteries up while in storage (or on the drive) it also opens up options for easily using sites that don't have EHU, for example the excellent C&CC THS network which get you close into many UK towns at a really good price.

We have managed very well with our AS Merc 100w solar roof panel (space limited us to this size) and one battery. Charging up the engine and leisure battery is useful and we haven't found any need for extra equipment. We found some good LEDs recently so the lighting is much better than previously. I'd say look at the latest possibilities, don't look back! 

Cheers brue, will do, just need that faith, hope the AS technologies are up to it!  I am looking forward but what will that future look like or bring? Heaven knows!

Well, just enjoy the present, hope you find what you like. We've been pleased with our AS, our second one. The wiring etc was there for the solar panel and OH fitted it himself, found one on ebay and it's been good. 

in some circumstances, the specific Sargent PSU fited by AS has caused issues with the success (or not....) of the SP installation. the Sargent PSU is being used as a regulator....and to split the charge.

I think it's the Sargent 500 (from reading their forum, worth a read Micky) that is so power hungry that it takes more solar power to support itself than its able to pass on to the batteries....ie often no charging despite favourable conditions...

this is a known (frustrating) issue, and on any after market install, I would definitely keep,the system simple as I posted earlier and avoid using the Sargent unit. 

We've not had any problems BB, it could be caused by a low powered SP,  that's all I can I can think of, ours has been fine.