Message Forums

Hi

New to us caravan ( but actually a 1994) .  The leisure battery does not appear to be charging from the car when we are travelling.  Does anybody know what this might be or can suggest anything we could be missing?

I presume you have the white and the black connectors on your car? as the van power goes through the white connector to keep the fridge / battery etc.. ticking over.

Otherwise if you have then clean up the contacts. You could also hook up the van, remove the van battery, run the car and see what works in your van i.e. lights etc... at least then you know power is getting to the van. If all else fails you may need a new on board battery charger, but try everything else first.

Have you checked with the supplier? to see if all was working previously.

You could also take your battery to a van dealers or garage and they now have some brill battery checkers to see if there is any battery damage. As an example i had a new battery fitted in February this year but found out in June that it had a defective cell and the suppliers replaced it free of charge as it had a 5 year guarantee.

Hope this helps as a start

Andy 

The van battery is being charged in parallel with the car battery. However they will not share the charging current equally, because the very much longer cable run to the van battery could reduce charging to a trickle, especially if you are running the fridge off 12V, which will add to the voltage drop. The fridge could even be draining the battery if wiring voltage drops are high!

And even if you are charging at say 2Amps, a 3 hour journey will only put in 6AH, not much for a 80AH battery

You will need some other means of charging the battery, as it is important to keep the battery topped up. Unlike NiCads, lead acid batteries should not be run flat and should be kept topped up. Otherwise the battery will deteriorate.

I should check to see that the battery charges satisfactorily from a separate charger. When charged, test it by running the lights off it and see how long they run for. A 12W flourescent will draw 1A, and should run for 80 hours off a 80AH battery. If the battery is anything like 5 years old or has not been regularly charged it is probably shot

Check for damaged connections especially in the hook up cables, which may have been grazed or pulled out

If no joy, I would contact a caravan electrical specialist.

I may be wrong here, but is there not a rocker switch in the 'van that says

 CARAVAN-OFF-CAR

and should this not be on CAR when you are travelling in order for the car to power the bits in the 'van eg. lights fridge charger. I would check this before anything else.

Can anyone out there confirm this or am I wrong.