Kingham - Battery and Charging upgrades

Maybe if interest to others, thought I’d share.

Having taken delivery of our new 2022 (72 plate) Kingham we plan on not using many camp sites and going off grid much more than ever before. Driving and negotiating the UK road network is much easier with this van and after only 6 weeks it’s been a great experience so far.

Initial problems with a whale gas heater not working has been swiftly sorted out by our main dealer (Marquis) and have to say I cannot fault their service with a few niggly items also dealt with at the same time. Having got over the first few weeks and now happy everything is working as it should I decided to go for broke after being disappointed in the size of the leisure battery and how it charges. Nothing the dealer can do about this and after reading a lot online and with a little prior knowledge having had narrow boats and other motor homes in the past went for the following changes.

Upgrade leisure battery to 200ah lithium 
Upgrade charging system to 50ah dc-dc charger
3000w inverter.
Shunt and battery meter

Installation went very well with a good location under the step into the cab. Plenty of space where the old battery was located. 

New charging wire from vehicle battery to dc-dc charger, new fuses all round for charger and inverter. Disconnected the sockets from the EC700 and re wired them separately from the inverter. Left the fridge/heater and battery charger connected to the EC700 so these  won’t be inverted and only live when connected to EHU.
The inverter has a built in auto changeover switch which is why I got the 3kw version as the smaller ones from this manufacturer don’t have this feature.

Re-routed the solar to the dc-dc charger and placed a switch on it to turn off when driving, reason being the charger only outputs 50% charge if the solar is active!! Put in a new battery monitor with shunt and can now see in percentage terms what’s charging, charging time, discharging time, rate of charge/discharge.

No problem to stay off grid with this lot.  charging now at up to 50amps whilst driving as opposed to hardly any charging before.
 A few photos.

Off grid in Minehead



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Installation. 




New inverter switch and battery monitor. Temporary holder whilst I make a better one. 

I love the location of the inverter!  Excellent use of that space. 

 I might have to pinch that idea 

Did you consider upgrading the solar panel on the roof too?

RogerThat wrote:I love the location of the inverter!  Excellent use of that space. 

 I might have to pinch that idea 

Did you consider upgrading the solar panel on the roof too?

Thanks, thought it was ok after seeing that the fake heater pipe wasn’t connected but makes for good ventilation. 

I have considered upgrading the solar panel, maybe after the winter. 

Hi Mark, Just a thought as I have been upgrading my Kingham, there are software upgrades to the EC700 that you may not have (mine is a 2021 model) You can tell from the setup advanced menu, if you have the option of switching off the split charger then you have the upgrade, if not you need CP49 for the control panel and 38 for the charger to get the correct charging profile. Good luck if you need this as my dealer (Marquis) had no idea about it and had to get the files from the factory. I have fitted B to B charger and ditched the PWM solar charger for a MPPT and have a 84AH on order to double up my existing 84AH lithium. Not thinking about an inverter at the moment but a clever place to fit it.

Hi Tim.

Thanks for the info. It would seem that I do have the upgraded software as I can see the option to switch off the split charging function. Made no difference that I could see.
What prompted me to go for the B to B charger was that I had installed the shunt first so I could actually see what was going on, it showed that even when I was driving there was no charging on the leisure battery. It would start off ok up to 12-13 amps for the first 10 - 15 mins. Eg. When the battery was @ 60% the charge would initially rise to 62/63 then drop back down below 60% after a 2 hour drive. That was on the installed Lithium battery.
This made no sense to me. 
Now I can see around 45-50 amps being pumped in when driving. Like you I have changed the solar to MPPT which comes as standard with the B to B charger I chose and seems to be more efficient.

Cost me around £1250 all in for the parts but well worth it for me. 

Tidied up the remote switch and display by wrapping in film and looks a lot better.


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This is a really interesting post but I’m nowhere near enough technically minded or able to attempt something like this myself. I’ll probably spend 6 months getting to grips with what I can / can’t get away with off grid then see if I can find a company who could make adjustments.

Horrors I realise how things have moved in a short time since we bought our van in 2019. In our 2019 Kemerton XL I fitted a second 80W solar panel and replaced the A-S Sargent provided simple solar controller with a Votronic MPPT type, but then we were not hobbled by having a "smart alternator",  and therefore haven't needed to fit a B2B unit.

Our leisure battery is lead-acid, now A-S fit as you have a lithium battery, though I wonder what consequences there were when upgrading the meagre lithium battery that A-S supplied with the larger capacity lithium battery you now have. I wonder what has happened to the Sargent PX300 mains 12V supply that A-S were fitting in their vans, it wasn't really designed for a lithium leisure battery setup. What did A-S fit in your van?

We have always camped at recognised camping sites. Apart from visiting Warner's motorhomes shows with ASOC we usually have EHU. Though off-grid now with 160W of solar our lead-acid leisure battery isn't storing all the solar power that's available. Having a lithium leisure battery would address this shortcoming, and reduce my concerns when watching the TV when off-grid.

Presumably you are planning some far away adventures in your new van?

Hi Mark,
Im really impressed with what you have done to your new Kingham,
The upgrade for being off grid is something I would love to do with my Kingham,
Only issue is,I do not have a clue on how to do it,or where to start
Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated

Kev.c wrote:Hi Mark,
Im really impressed with what you have done to your new Kingham,
The upgrade for being off grid is something I would love to do with my Kingham,
Only issue is,I do not have a clue on how to do it,or where to start
Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated

Hi Kev.

It took me longer to find a place that I was happy with installing the new parts than the actual job of fitting it in (just joking). At first I thought it would all fit in next to the battery location and that was ok, then as I worked on getting a battery lead through I found the space under the step.

If you’re at all handy with a bit of wood and don’t mind a bit of diy, plus having to cut into your nice van to run a few wires then it’s fairly simple.

At the moment (I have no affiliation or attachment to them) Renogy have a good Black Friday discount on their equipment, batteries/dc-dc chargers/monitoring kits etc… [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. Whilst not top of the range it’s pretty good value. 

For example (November 2022) I have the following installed: 
3000w inverter = £300
50a dc-dc charger with mppt and Bluetooth dongle @ £199
500ah Shunt with monitor @ £65
Lithium battery 200ah @ £880

There’s loads of wiring diagrams on their site too.

Buy some 4awg gauge battery cable plus battery connecting lugs to match a few circuit breakers, inverter - 300ah, dc charger to battery- 65ah and van starter battery to dc charger - 75ah or as near as possible. I used resetting breakers as per pictures.

There’s literally loads of info online for this stuff. Send me a pm and I’m happy to run you through what I did in more detail if you want.

Hi Mark,
Thanks for your response mate,much appreciated
I dont mind doing a bit of DIY, its more to do with the actual fitting and wiring up,knowing me ill most probably blow my new Kingham up lol
Just another question,after doing all of this,will I be able to go off grid full time?
I will pm you once im ready to do it,getting the parts isnt the issue,its more to do with the fact that i know nothing of electrics,so im a tad weary
I will do it before the spring so yes,i will indeed pm you and thank you

We haven’t plugged into a hook up at all since having this van.  We use several 240v appliances like bean2cup coffee machine and a portable induction hob as well as the microwave. Haven’t gone below 75% on any night so far. However it’s getting colder and the days shorter….

We stay out around 2-3 nights at the moment (working on staying out more) and with the charger setup it takes about an hours driving to get a good boost.

Well worth the upgrade in my opinion. I’ll certainly save on Costa coffee soon enough to have paid for it all as well. 

Thats good to know,
Ive only done EHU so far,but want to spend more time off grid and your set up looks like it does the job
I know i can get by fir about 3 days off grid,but im led to believe you have to then go on EHU fir 24 hours to recharge things,.i dont know if thats how it works,but Im learning