Aux. battery & split charge.

[Jabbawocky]

HI all

I looked into the difference between machine sensing and battery sensing alternators and if your leisure battery is in the back of the vehicle (like mine) it can make a big difference to the time required to charge the battery and the amps held by the battery and the life of battery. Loads of information on the boat forums where it can really matter.

The ACR17 was made in both machine and battery sensing and a lot of cars with rear batteries used the battery sensing version. It went out of fashion when the manufacturers realised it was cheaper just to fit a bigger battery than fit the additional wiring. Fitting a battery sensing Alti is still on my to do list. Not a priority as the 100amp carbon fibre battery we have will run the fridge for about a week and charge a lot fast than a lead acid battery.

As for split charge, I fitted a smartcom unit. I have used these for years and never had a problem with them. Barney just has a length of 6mm from the main battery to the split charge unit and it does the rest.

I was going fit one of these to the FC when it was going to be a camper http://www.shop.sterling-power.com/acatalog/proreg.pdf. Lot of boats have these fitted.

Cheers Mick