Leisure battery flattened by fridge!

[el-D]

I'm following this thread with interest because I have a similar situation. When I drive and switch the fridge onto 12v, after I've gone a good few miles I get the low voltage warning light on the Zig panel. I have solar panels on the roof which I know are working ok and if I don't use the fridge on 12v all is well, i.e. I can run interior lights all evening without problem from the charge of the day. I guess the only way is to get the vehicle charging circuit checked out by an auto-electrician. At the moment I've taken to running the fridge on gas when I'm driving to avoid the problem. The fridge consumes 130W when it's running so it's a fairly heavy drain if the battery isn't getting replenished by the alternator.

 

[MartianTom]

At the moment I've taken to running the fridge on gas when I'm driving to avoid the problem.

Is that safe? I've always been told never to have the gas on when I'm driving... or is that just being over-cautious?

 

[rienza]

That's what I've always thought Martian Tom. We'd not do it.

 

[el-D]

That's what I've always thought Martian Tom. We'd not do it.

The RV we had in the states had no 12v, it ran on gas unless you hooked up to 110v. I think the real risk is minimal though clearly it's not an ideal situation and one that I need to get sorted since there is a 12v on this fridge and it's there to be used.

 

[just jane]

The RV we had in the states had no 12v, it ran on gas unless you hooked up to 110v. I think the real risk is minimal though clearly it's not an ideal situation and one that I need to get sorted since there is a 12v on this fridge and it's there to be used.

I think in the case of an accident the risk would be more than minimal

 

[Bigpeetee]

Naked flames in petrol station. Not ideal??

 

[Harbourmaster]

Petrol stations are full of naked flames, each time a car pulls in, in fact!

 

[MartianTom]

I've had my dabble with naked flames in the past...

...but one by one, they ended up marrying someone else...

 

[bodgeitnscarper]

Thanks for all your replies everyone. All info taken on board.

Here's what I did:

Ran the fridge on 12v whilst driving.

Switched to 240v on each electrical hook-up.

Switched to gas only for wild-camping, and for any stop where I was likely to be away for over an hour.

I understood, as has been pointed out, that the 12v in transit supply comes off the vehicle battery, not the leisure battery, which was why I was puzzled. As far as I was concerned, I used the leisure battery very little: the water pump (not a huge amount), and very occasional lighting (I have an AA battery-operated reading lamp, which I mainly used).

I simply can't understand where that charge has all gone. Interestingly, when I checked the charge level on the day before my return journey (150 miles), it still showed full charge. If, for some reason, the wiring is wrong, and the fridge 12v is coming entirely off the leisure battery... then, considering the total miles for the trip, wouldn't it have gone flat before?

Just a quick one on this.
I have an Eldis Autoquest 600 on a 55 plate. I have discovered a couple of things regarding my 12v suppy during our recent 3 week holiday with out any ehu.
We travelled around south England and northern France for our holiday and ran the 3 way fridge on 12v while driving and gas when not. all was well until the last day of our hols when travelling home for 3-4 hours with the fridge on 12v our dashboard stereo started to switch itself off and eventually refused to work full stop. we finished our journey with no tunes. Once back at home I noticed that the hab lights were very dim and things were a bit wacky with the 12v electrics. I got my volt meter out and found the LB to be 10.5v. We have a 100w solar panel and the LB was fully charged before the journey home.

Anyway after recharging the LB via a charger I set about my investigations the following morning.

My findings:-

It would appear that the 12v fridge and the dash stereo run off the LB perminantly ( the fridge only when ignition is on) under the bonnet is a fuse that links the vehicle battery to the LB which when the engine is running keeps the LB topped up and replaces the power drained by the fridge and stereo. What had happened was that the fuse had corroded and made a semi connection across the fuse which had all but failed on the journey home. a fuse change solved the problem. The fuse had not blown just corroded where it would blow in the event of a short etc.

The LB now seems fine after it's traumatic 3 hours where the stereo and fridge were stripping it of power with no backup from the alternator.

I hope this helps someone at some point.

Bodge

 

[bodgeitnscarper]

I'm following this thread with interest because I have a similar situation. When I drive and switch the fridge onto 12v, after I've gone a good few miles I get the low voltage warning light on the Zig panel. I have solar panels on the roof which I know are working ok and if I don't use the fridge on 12v all is well, i.e. I can run interior lights all evening without problem from the charge of the day. I guess the only way is to get the vehicle charging circuit checked out by an auto-electrician. At the moment I've taken to running the fridge on gas when I'm driving to avoid the problem. The fridge consumes 130W when it's running so it's a fairly heavy drain if the battery isn't getting replenished by the alternator.

See my last post on this thread.

 

[Bigpeetee]

I discovered a few years back that I too have several miscellaneous fuses, one in series with the LB, just by the batt, and another in the engine compartment by the charging relay, that's the one that blew for me after some punishment of the LB by using the 2000w inverter, running the batt hard gives a bigger demand from the alternator and constant big loads eventually blew the fuse. Didn't know about it, drove 150 mls expecting the batt to have a good charge only to find that it was as flat as the proverbial pancake. Stayed on a CL that night and put some charge back into the batt, but 2x110 AH batts need more than 12 hrs on the built in charger to fully recover. It was our last night so I looked at the problem when we got home (it was raining after all, in November so couldn't see in the engine bay - that's my excuse!!)

The fuse in the relay circuit meant that my fridge didn't work while driving. (if we're just out for a weekend, we put a couple of those blue freezer packs into the ice compartment to add to the cooling, in my mind it saves a small amount of gas!!)

It's best to try and find out what all the fuses do and where they are situated. One of mine is hidden behind the voltage control panel.

If you just remove the fuses, clean the terminals and replace, it's amazing how this can reduce the number of "Odd" electrical problems. Especially those in the engine compartment. My horn also suffers from poor connections, cause I rarely use it, it came as a surprise when I needed it.

 

[Lumpendoodle]

Just a little note to this. I had a leasure battery die on me due to a corroded connector underneath the motorhome.

It took a bit of searching and testing of umpteen wires, but all it took to fix was a new connector (and, unfortunately a new replacement leasure battery). So don't forget to check the continuity of the wiring system.