Just spent the last 2 weeks repairing/resealing the front of the van and had the lights on quite a lot (left the shower light on for a couple of days). Tried the water today after replacing the filter and the pump was hardly putting anything through.
Turned out I'd not had the charger on and flattened the battery. Turned it on and still had no lights. Checked and found the 15 amp fuse on top of the charger had blown. Changed it and it and the 20 amp alongside it are getting hot (as is the charger). Still not getting any 12 volt electrics apart from the little red lights on the pump, awning and sink light switches.
Take the battery out and charge it, then put back with the charger off.If the lights come on then its the charger,
Turn the charger on to see if anything blows if so its faulty and needing changed.
Also,if you have not got a sealed battery check the water levels and top up with distilled water only.
I must admit it sounds like a faulty onboard charger to me. A blown fuse is a sure indication that something is wrong, although they do sometimes give up through ageing. Neither the fuses or the charger should get hot, just mildly warm maybe. I would be concerned if they are getting significantly hot.
The 15 amp fuse has alway been hot since we've had the van, sometimes to the point of nearly melting but not blowing.
I suppose we can still go away with it and use my battery charger to charge the battery during the day.
Just a thought. Having read the owner's manual, I should be able to run the lights using the charger as a transformer if the battery's disconnected. Will have a look in the morning
If your using the charger in the van and its suspected of being faulty and you have fuses that are over heating then,i would say you are running the risk of a fire.
Disconnect the vans charger before you use another charger. its not advisable to run lights etc while charging the battery by an outside charger as they are not built to charge and work the things like lights etc at the same time.
I would say there is definitely something wrong with the charger. Get it checked out.
I agree with Jeff, disconnect the van's charger before you use another one, but if you use one that can give a charge of 10 amps or more, you should have no problem using the van's electrics while charging the battery. You may have problems though if you try to do this with one of these small chargers that only produce a couple of amps or less. Running lights etc would over-load it.
The battery is charging in the shed. The indicator still wasn't showing green when I came to work this morning. Hopefully it will be fully charged when I get in tonight.
Been reading some of the posts on here and elsewhere. Is it right that the onboard charger won't charge a completely flat battery?
Just found an old ABI wiring diagram on line and it looks as if both fuses on the charger should be 20 amp. Not the 15 and 20 amp that are on mine. This could explain why the 15 amp one (red wires) is getting hot
That wouldn't be the reason. If it's got a 15A fuse when it should be 20A, then it just means the fuse will blow at a lower current than need be. If it was the other way round i.e. 20A fuse when it should be a 15A then that would/could result in warm/hot wires as the max current being allowed (20A) is more than it should be (15A).
Totally agree with the above comments. Hoping to go away this weekend in it so will get it done on our return. The battery isn't taking a charge off the charger in the shed so it looks as though it's shot. Will nip it down to the local motor factors this am and get it checked