This is our first season in our campervan. We have been away a few times now for long weekends plus a week at half term and have always had EHU.
Have noticed on our last trip that the leisure battery does not seem to be charging while driving. It will charge fine when on EHU - when we change the fridge over to 12v when we leave the site the battery drains fairly quickly - even when driving on the motorway for 4 hours it still drains the leisure battery.
Can anyone recommend somewhere we can take the van to have a look into this in the Merseyside area?
"Alan" posts on another forum(Outandaboutlive)and seems to know his stuff when it comes to all things battery/charger/controller related...and he is still posting in-depth, to help diagnose peoples' electrical problems (it may be worth signing up and asking on there?)
Having said that, I should imagine that his colleague("Martin") is going to be equally as capable(that is,if rudimentary fault finding is the sort of work they will continue to undertake?)
I suppose the first thing to ascertain is, whether it's a "fault" as such or just the way it has(wrongly?) been wired..(both "faults" I know, but you know what I mean )
when on site I assume you use your fridge on gas or electric hook up? my first suggestion would be to get the leisure battery tested as it might not be holding charge as opposed to the charging system not working
you can get your battery tested free of charge at most garages
have you considered that it is possible that its your car at fault? have you checked that the wiring is supplying power to the battery? please explain why you are having to unplug something to then power your fridge on 12v, most caravans you simply just flick a switch on the fridge and it changes over that way, if the fridge isn't get any direct power from the car while travelling and only using the leisure battery then you would be lucky to get more than a couple of hrs at best esp if what you are calling a fridge is in fact a coolbox
First test. Put a voltmeter on the leisure battery and measure the voltage. Assuming it has some charge then it will read 12 to 13v. Now start the engine, the voltage should rise to 14v + when you hold the revs at 1200rpm. If the voltage does not rise from 12 to 14v then you have either:
No connection to the vehicle alternator.
Split charge relay issue.
Without knowing how the habitation electrics were wired it is difficult to give any other help without having the van.
I do my own electrics but locally can recommend http://www.aintreecaravanservices.co.uk/