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The 12v battery runs the 12v lights and also the electric water pumps. If the caravan has an on board battery charger, when you plug in the grey 12s lead to your car it will charge the leisure battery which in turn runs your fridge while towing. It will not run the fridge when the car engine is switched off.

If you have electric gas ignition on your fridge it also operates that, and possibly the gas fire ignition as well unless these are piezo igniters.

As Michael says, if you have an EHU system (240v mains), this will sometimes run the 12v lights as well via a zig unit (or similar) or the caravan will have a seperate 240v lighting system

If you have 12v sockets in the caravan you could run a 12v TV from the battery or even connect the TV directly to the battery terminals if you wanted to but a TV uses a lot of power so unless the battery is being charged via the EHU you could drain it fairly quickly using a telly. 

One interesting point to note that many people may be unaware of; in (many) modern vans the control panel has a Car position, a Van position and a central, unmarked position which is normally assumed to be Off. However, on reading the documentation and the circuit diagram to my (new) Sterling it seemed to indicate that in the central position (with EHU and the charger On) the charger would drive all the 12v systems (12v lights, CD/Radio, pump etc)

And it does; and the electrician (from the dealer!!) didn't believe me so I disconnected and removed the leisure battery to prove it!

Just shows that on EHU with (many) modern vans you don't even need the battery (unless the EHU goes down, of course....)

T.

Yes, ours is the same, the centre posiyion only isolates the battery, and is intended for use while towing apparently.   Our dealer told us to leave the switch normally in "van" position, and this we have done for 9 years without problems.

This 3-way switch seems to work differently according to which van you have, so it is difficult to advise owners of different vans.

Hi all

Just wanted to ask if anybody had this problem before, Never used a battery in the van always run the pump, fan master , lights straight from the charger, but at the weekend away could only use one light then had to turn off for the pump to work slowly, then  with two lights on one would just glow Does this sound as if the charger is braking down, any advice needed.

all the best Chris

My discussions with the dealer and subsequently the electrician was as a result of a duff charger which, since being changed, is now OK.

The reason I was reading documentation/diagrams and isolating batteries was to prove it was the charger that wasn't working.

The charger is supposed to output a steady 16amps; it would allow the radio (1amp) to play then switch on a light (can't remember what they draw but let's say 1 amp!) and the radio powered down!

I had to work out how things worked for myself 'cos the dealer was claiming it might be a duff battery.

T.

Could someone tell me if it is possible to run a DYSON vacuum cleaner off a caravan battery, as my van is in storage and would love to take vacuum down now and again to give it a proper clean. If the answer is No, which it probably is, anybody got any recommended portable hoovers.

Thanks

SP

Quote: Originally posted by cazzapayney on 16/4/2007

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Could someone tell me if it is possible to run a DYSON vacuum cleaner off a caravan battery, as my van is in storage and would love to take vacuum down now and again to give it a proper clean. If the answer is No, which it probably is, anybody got any recommended portable hoovers.

Thanks

SP

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Hi all

Just to say took the battery charger to peices,and found on the circuit board the solder had come off the back of one of them resisters i think.fixed it and now works a treat .saved me £200. If i had took it to a dealer straight away they would have said you need a new one. just to show, a little bit of investigation pays off

all the best chris