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Hi all (again)

You might want to make a cuppa as this could be a long explanation!

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin!

We went to start our Bedford TL motorhome (converted library bus) yesterday after it had been sat up for a month or so. But he wouldn't start. We thought it was because of low fuel so after a visit to the garage with a can we were ready to try again. Still wouldn't start and the battery was going flat. Nothing was working on 12v. The battery indicator didn't move, so we plugged into our house socket and it was all ok. But he still wouldn't start and the battery was still running down.

We left him plugged in hoping this would make a difference. When we tried today the battery indicator points to green when switched to the picture of the front of the van and green when switched to the picture of the back of the van. We thought this meant both the engine battery (front) and leisure battery (back) were ok and fully charged.  He still wouldn't start.

We looked at the batteries under the seating area which are both 12v and they are connected to each other via the negative terminals, they then go to a turny knob thing (sorry for my lack of knowledge!) which says battery 1, battery 2 or both. We have always had it in the both position. Is this right? When would we need to change it? We then googled the subject of how to charge these batteries and read lots of different things about parallel and series batteries, it is 24v it is not 24v and lots of conflicting stuff!

We then remembered that on our first outing in him we turned the fridge onto 12v while we were driving and lost the indicators. The battery light came on, on the dash, which we think was due to the alternator bracket snapping. We have sinced fixed the bracket. We have lost the indicators on another occasion too. We now have the brake light and oil light flickering when we are driving along, however it doesn't light when the engine is just running or when it is rev-ved high and the air system thingy and oil pressure gage are reading fine. Very strange!

Back to the original problem of Barry (thats his name) still won't start. Any advice or info on the batteries would be greatly appreciated before we call out a garage who will sting me for money I haven't got! Funny thing is I declined the homestart service when I took out breakdown cover with the RAC this week! 

Clearly we lack in knowledge of 12v and 24v so any explanations, no matter how obvious it might be, would be welcomed! Lol

As always thank you for taking time out to help (if you can!)

Lucy x

You should also get it checked for an earth fault looking at your other comments .

Make sure you have at least 2 gallons of fuel in the vehicle so the lift pump is not sucking air .

If it is diesle you may have to prime the filter now to remove any excess air.

Also you should check your glow plugs are warming up.

Hope this helps in some way

Delboy

Thanks, we will try your suggestions and let you know what happens.

Lucy x

Just to let you know that after charging both batteries Barry roared back to life! The only thing we nee to sort now is the electrical problem where we sometimes lose the indicators. The voltmeter on the dash moves in time with the indicators and drops to 12 volts, any ideas??

Thanks

Lucy xx