Upgrade Van from 12v to 48 help

[Jasondrumguy]

My 12v 3000w inverter went out. I decided to upgrade to two EG4 LL 48v 100ah batteries with the EG4 3000 charge Inverter and plan on charging my Leaf from it. (That’s why I went so big). A few issues I’m having and any suggestions greatly appreciated.
The charge inverter requires 45v to activate charging. My 4-100 watt solar panels went from parallel to series to get the higher volts no problem.

But my renogy 50amp dc to dc charger has a max of 14volts. That’s my issue.

Currently thinking of leaving my 12v battery bank in charge it from the alternator. Use the 48volt batteries for all AC items. So two battery banks. 48 volt charged from Solar for AC side. 12volt for the DC side.

I would like however to use the DC to DC charger to charge the 48 volt batteries also.

I was looking at a step up. 12 volt to 48 volt. Only 6amp. Not sure if the amps are enough? Probably run from 12volt side into the EG4 3000 watt charge inverter. Not really sure?

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.
Thank you

 

[Reed Cole]

6A sounds slow. 100/6=16.666 hours to fully charge your 48v battery bank. 400w of solar is also anemic, especially since the panels will likely be mounted horizontally.

Your best bets would be to either add a second alternator that outputs 48v, or a 12v to 48v DC-dc charger that is powered from the alternator rather than your 12v battery bank. Then you can use some type of step down converter or charger to keep the 12v battery charged from the 48v system.

A third option would be to power an inverter from the alternator fed into the 48v inverter/charger, but this seems more complicated to setup and less automatic when driving.

 

[Jasondrumguy]

Definitely expect to take a bit to charge the 48 volt battery bank. Probably looking to add a panel or two message depending on my roof space. I’ll look into your suggestions. Thank you