Coachman Amara battery charger

[Crichmax]

Hello,
I have a 2008 Coachman Amara and I would like to upgrade the battery charger to something newer/smarter to prevent over charging and also with level of charge indicators.
For a permanent fix can I just wire in a new charger into the Mcb from the distribution board and remove the old charger wires? I ask because the charger is built into the consumer unit and I’m not sure if my proposal will by pass some important relays. It’s difficult to tell if the charger is just a charger or not.


Thanks

 

[Crichmax]

In the manual the system is called a PDU. Power distribution unit. Charger, MCb’s and fuses all built into one unit.

 

[Damian]

The charger in your caravan is a BCA stand alone item located in the top of the PDU, and is known to be a weak point as they get overheated and fail.

When I have to replace failed units I use the Sargent PX300 as it is an easy change with minimum interference with the rest of the PDU, and mount it on the outside of the PDU, usually on the floor where it gets plenty of air flow.
Sargent have an excellent name in caravan electrics and is one that I trust.

 

[Crichmax]

The charger in your caravan is a BCA stand alone item located in the top of the PDU, and is known to be a weak point as they get overheated and fail.

When I have to replace failed units I use the Sargent PX300 as it is an easy change with minimum interference with the rest of the PDU, and mount it on the outside of the PDU, usually on the floor where it gets plenty of air flow.
Sargent have an excellent name in caravan electrics and is one that I trust.

Thanks Damian.
My ‘BCA’ unit hasn’t actually failed but I leave the caravan on charge all year when not in use so believe it is over charging the battery.
I shall remove the power cord from my existing and wire in a new one.
I was looking at a Ctex one. Do leisure battery’s require specific chargers over car batteries?

 

[Damian]

Ctex is a simple smart battery charger. It is not a power supply.

The Sargent unit is a power supply and smart charger and is designed especially for caravan batteries and comes with the necessary adaptors to simply replace the BCA unit.

There is no need to remove any power cord as the PX 300 uses that .

Dont make it more complicated than it needs to be.

 

[Dustydog]

My BCA failed last year. I replaced it with this http://shop.apuljackengineering.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=53
The one Damian mentioned is considerably cheaper. Never thought of using the Sargent. 😥That said the Apuljack one is a straight slot in swap using all the same wiring.