Re: Battery charging poser ...

Hi

A number of options come to mind.

1) A piece of cable fed through a hole at the other end of the container. Use the towing vehicle to pull the trailer into the container.

No electrics or winch required. Only cost a bit of cable.

2) Boat winch at end of container. Winding handle through side of container.

No electrics required.

3) Electric winch at end of container. Control and power cable plugs into side of container. Power taken from tow vehicle.

4) Tow hitch on front of tow vehicle. Just drive th sucker in. To take out again just back up to trailer, hook up, drive off.

5) Note that if using winch as in 2 and 3 you could lift end of container so that trailer can be winched out (i.e. gravity)

George

X-posted to 'alt.solar.photovoltaic' as this is their specialist subject :-) > > > Hi - hope someone can help! > > > > We keep equipment in a towavan trailer stored in a standard industrial > 20ft > > container > > > > The container floor is about 6" or so from the deck so we have a 4' ramp > > which we have to get the trailer up when storing. To do this at present, > one > > of us operates a manual winch to take the strain at the front of the > trailer > > while another pushes from the back - it works, but it's a strain! > > > > I'd like to instal an electric winch but mains AC isn't an option. My > > *tentative* thought is to run an electric winch from a car battery (I > > believe this is possible) the problem being keeping the battery charged. > > > > What I'm wondering is if a solar panel could be used to keep the battery > > charged (via a regulator or whatever)? The winch would only be used, at > > most, twice or three times a week, for the short haul above > > > > Anyone any thoughts on feasibility, cost and spec of materials etc? > > > > (Hope this isn't a plain dumbo question!) > > > > TIA > > > > Flynn > > > > > >
Reply to
George Ghio
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Its main purpose is to stop the slave battery flattening the vehicle one - as could easily happen in a caravan etc. It works by only allowing current to flow in one direction.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

The diode might also be used to separate the two batteries. It will stop a faulty battery from draining the other battery.

It also means that if you flatten your reserve battery that you will still have enough power in your starter battery to start the vehicle and charge both batteries.

My parents first narrow boat had an amazing charging system.

The system was split into 3 battery banks. Each bank was separated from the others by a diode. The first bank consisted of a starter battery for the inboard engine.

The second two banks each consisted of 4 massive batteries. Each battery was about 3 times the size of an average car battery.

The alternator on the inboard engine was also very large. It was similar to that used on a double decker bus to provide 12 volt power.

The problem with conventional charging systems is that a near empty battery will rapidly take charge. However, as it starts to charge the charger will start to reduce the input power into the battery.

This means that it can take some time to charge the battery

The system on the boat has temperature sensors fitted to the batteries. The batteries are charged very rapidly and the battery temperature monitored. If the temperature starts to rise in the batteries then the charger reduces the charging rate.

Using this system it is possible to charge the batteries up very quickly.

Graham

Reply to
Graham Wilson

If the diode is biassed to allow charging current to flow from the vehicle system to the slave battery then it will also be biassed to allow current from the vehicle at any time when the slave battery has a lower voltage and will still drain the vehicle battery. I would be interested to see the circuit diagram to do this using a diode.

You need a split charge relay (google for it).

MBQ

Reply to
MBQ

You either need:

(1) Two diodes. One to isolate each battery with loads connected to the battery side of the diode. Otherwise the diode protected slave battery can still drain the main battery.

(2) A split charge relay. The slave battery is connected via a relay which is only energised when the engine (and thus the alternator) is running.

MBQ

Reply to
MBQ

Not one diode - two. But it might all just be one black box. You need to feed the alternator output to both batteries via diodes, and that will prevent one battery discharging the other.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

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