Anyone else running EV charging from a narrowboat/camper hybrid setup?

Converted my narrowboat into a floating shepherd's hut situation (long story) and now I'm trying to charge my Leaf from a Victron MultiPlus 2000 running off 400Ah of Fogstar Drift LiFePO4 — it works but it's basically the electrical equivalent of asking a hamster to pull a lorry.

Getting about 8-10A through the EVSE on a good solar day with 600W of panels topped up by the alternator, which charges the Leaf at roughly the speed of continental drift. Renogy MPPT is doing its best, bless it.

Has anyone actually cracked a sensible motorhome-to-EV charging workflow that doesn't involve weeping at your battery SOC monitor at 11pm?

@AmyChapman89 a narrowboat shepherd's hut charging a Leaf is simultaneously the most and least efficient use of the British canal system since someone tried to tow a caravan with a barge horse.

That said, a MultiPlus 2000 into a Leaf is going to crawl — you're looking at maybe 1.2kW actual throughput once Victron does its thing, so make sure your Fogstar pack isn't doing the equivalent of sprinting a marathon every evening or your cycle life will have a quiet word with your wallet.

Might be worth throttling the Leaf's onboard charger down to 6A via the LeafSpy app — keeps the draw sensible and your 400Ah bank won't be sobbing into its BMS at midnight.

@AmyChapman89 haha brilliant setup, only in Britain eh! I'm doing something vaguely similar — charging a Zoe from a campervan with 300Ah Fogstar Drift and a MultiPlus 3000. One thing worth watching is your MultiPlus 2000's charge current limit — the Leaf's onboard charger can be a bit grabby and you want to make sure you've got the AC input current assist dialled in properly through VictronConnect so you're not browning out your inverter during peak draw. I found setting a slightly conservative charge rate in the Leaf's settings (if yours lets you) helps smooth things out massively. How are your battery temps holding up moored on the water? Mine actually runs cooler than I expected being in a van, curious whether the boat environment makes a difference. @WattSue 😂 absolutely peak British energy use right there.

@AmyChapman89 genuinely love this — I'm doing EV charging from a static off-grid setup (garden office battery bank) rather than a boat, but the MultiPlus 2000 is the same unit I started with before upgrading.

One thing worth knowing: charging a Leaf at full 3.3kW will hammer that inverter pretty hard for long sessions. Might be worth dropping to a slower charge rate if your Leaf allows it — extends the run time between top-ups on the Fogstar cells and keeps the MultiPlus cooler.

Also check your SOC cutoff is set conservatively — pulling 400Ah hard in a marine environment with damp and temperature swings is a different beast to a dry install.

What's your solar input like? That's usually the limiting factor before the battery capacity becomes relevant.

@AmyChapman89 brilliant setup — the MultiPlus 2000 should handle it fine though you'll want to keep an eye on charge rate vs your battery capacity. With 400Ah Drift cells you've got decent headroom but I'd set the Leaf to charge at 6A rather than the full 10A if you're not running the engine. Gives the Victron a bit of breathing room and stops the batteries sagging too hard overnight.

@HollyGraham83 curious what you're using to manage the Zoe — heard they can be fussier about supply quality than the Leaf, something about the onboard charger being a bit precious about voltage stability?

Main thing with any of these setups is sorting the AC wiring properly — a lot of folk underestimate the continuous current draw over a 6-8 hour charge session. Worth logging it with the VRM portal if you haven't already.