Battery maintenance

Trying to get my head around battery maintenance for a 79 van that's not driven a great deal over the winter. I will be getting an intelligent charger but does this need to be used on the leisure battery as well or can that cope better with winter? Also, just about to have a tracker fitted and unclear about which battery to get the fitters to connect it to.

Thanks.

 

The leisure battery should be able to cope with longer idle periods, having the charger on the Main battery means you'll be able to fire up and charge the LB anyway.
My inclination is to go for the main battery as a source....based on the LB connections could be a quick way of disabling if a tracker is suspected whereas disconnecting the main prevents starting unless time is spent finding the relevant cable first...if you see what I mean..

 

your tracker should have an inbuilt battery in it anyway, if it's a decent one...if it hasn't look for one that has

Also....you will be able to rig the charger to charge both batteries simultaneously

 

Yep that makes sense! Thanks

 

If you put it away with a smart charger attached you could simply connect the positive terminals of both batteries together with a fused wire in case you slip.
Connect in the same way a split charge relay links the two batteries.
I have a wire link I connect across the charge splitter so my charger / inverter lives attached to the leisure battery and I link the starter battery in while the van is parked up plugged into the mains.

 

Thanks - I understand some of that! Any chance of a diagram?

 

If you have an intelligent split charger it will stay switched on after you stop the engine, at least mine does until the starter battery drops to 12.5v, if you connect your smart charger to the starter battery before the voltage drops, in my case I have about a day or two before that happens, you will be charging both batteries. As for which battery to connect the tracker to, that depends on which one drains fastest. The LB probably has a higher capacity than the starter battery and depending on where it is located you could get a dumb thief that nicks your van using a low loader and instantly disconnects the starter battery thinking that will disable the tracker, you could even get clever with a relay and use both batteries, if one gets removed or goes flat the tracker switches over to the other one.