Advice Please

oddjob

Guest
We only ever wild camp for one night ,but this weekend tried it for 3 nights
I know there's already a couple of threads at the moment regarding battery's,
But can you help me with this one.
When i collected the motorhome from the seller ,he explained how things work etc ,and bearing in mind he never wiidcamped always went on sites ,the leisure battery was useless so i bought new 110 ah which is fine get around 6 to 8 hours tv etc
He's procedure for moving off site .

1, control panel set at veh,fridge on red switch

So this is the way i have done it ,but am i correct in saying to recharge the leisure battery between stops ,the settings should be ,

Control panel set at aux and the fridge on gas or will this flatten the engine battery

The problem being the leisure battery didn't charge between stops
so which way should i have the control panel to recharge the the battery on the move

Not forgetting the guy i bought it of didn't wildcamp
oddjob
 
It really does all depend on what unit you have fitted and how old your system is. When on the move you need to be selecting something like 'touring' or 'vehicle' This should then charge the leisure battery from the vehicle alternator. As far as the fridge is concerned it should be connected via a relay to the 12v system so that it will not receive any 12v power unless the engine is running. DO NOT run the fridge on gas while moving and remember that if you only travel a short distance between stops that it does take a while to charge the leisure battery. It can take 10-20 mins to put back the power back into the starting battery that was used to start the vehicle, then while moving the power is being shared between starting battery, leisure battery and fridge.

You don't say what or how old your vehicle is but another common problem with older vehicles is that the alternator is just not up to the job of providing power to everything. An old 30-40 amp output alternator will struggle to provide the power required to charge 2 batteries, power a fridge and anything else such as wipers, heater motor etc that is needed.
 
Don't run the fridge on gas while driving it's a safety hazard. Run the fridge off 12v if available and the alternator should provide enough current to power the fridge and charge the batteries. This is the only time you should run a fridge off 12V. Actually I run my fridge off the 240v from an inverter when on the move, but it comes to the same thing, the alternator is doing the work.

Personally I would get a multimeter and check the voltage across your aux battery terminals when the engine is running. You should be able to see it at about 14v if the alternator is running. This will enable you to check out the correct position of any manual switches. It will also confirm that the battery is being charged. It maybe that a relay or a fuse is gone and you will not get charge regardless of how you set switches. This way you will know for certain.

You can pick up a multimeter for £10-12 at Maplins... well worth it :)
 
Sorry for being vague
Its an autoquest 400rl 2003
oddjob
 

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I think that should be set to Veh when moving as Sparxy says but do check the voltage as it could be your alternators is not up to it or there is another problem.
 
I had an Elldis with that set up in the photo.

The aux is the setting to run off your leisure battery when stationary. You can switch it to VEH when your leisure battery is low. You need to remember not to run your engine battery down too much as it may not start the engine.

It does not matter which way the switch is set when on the move. Remember that when you are on hook up, only the leisure battery is being charged and not the engine battery.

On some Elddis models, it is possible to run the fridge on 12 volts when stationary. I think that you have forgotten to set the fridge to gas and have drained your battery. You can check the state of both batteries on the panel in your photo as well.

You need to check that your battery is being charged while on hook up and also with the engine running. You cannot do this without a multimeter.

If both charging circuits are OK, check the voltage at intervals to see if it is dropping quickly. There may be an underlying fault elsewhere.
 
On mine the control panel doesn't do anything while the engine is running.
Power from the alternator works the fridge, controlled be the 3 way switches actually on the fridge, and the leisure battery is on charge whenever the engine is running. There is a fuse under the bonnet for the split charging unit.
Try testing for a charge at the leisure battery with and without the engine running.
 
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Thanks for all your replies much appreciated.
So how far or how long would the engine have to be running to recharge a battery from being low to being near fully charged?
oddjob
 
A lot of people don't realise but if you have to jump start a car with a flat battery (a reading of anything between 11-12v) , depending on the state of your alternator, it can take up to an hours driving (not just ticking over) to fully re-charge the battery.

This is also true for your leisure battery but remember the vehicle battery will always take presidence over the leisure battery & fridge if the system is set up correctly.

The other alternative is to look at uprating your alternator. Higher output = faster charge time.
 
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Battery charging

oddjob said:
Sorry for being vague
Its an autoquest 400rl 2003
oddjob
Click to expand...

I would check your fuses, a common problem occurs when the rig is on mains hookup (240v) which charges both batteries but then without removing the hookup the engine is started allowing an overcurrent situation.
 
update
Tried a couple of nights away again this weekend
I
would check your fuses, a common problem occurs when the rig is on mains hookup (240v) which charges both batteries but then without removing the hookup the engine is started allowing an overcurrent situation.
Click to expand...
Changed the 25 amp fuse under the bonnet
On hook up at home for say 15 hours battery fully charged reading 14 volts on the indicator.
1st night no lights, water pump a couple of times for washing etc + 3 hours tv
2nd night 1 light ,water pump a couple of times + 2hours tv,
2nd night the dial starts to drop below 12 volts ,nearing the end of 2 hours of tv down to nine volts tv starts to break up,switch the tv off ,dial starts to rise back up to 12 volts,lights ok, water pump ok,put the tv on again drops down to 9 volts ,switch off tv back to 12 volts,
does this sound about right ,?
2nd night we moved to a different location about 10 to 15 miles apart should this put a little back into the leisure battery?
The battery is about 5 months old 110ah acid filled type
The tv is Akura 19 inch + DVD spec 12 volt DC 4.8 amp 56 w
Hope this all makes sense
Oddjob
 
battery or gas

hi oddjob i think its just easier to buy a bag of ice costs about a pound fifty and forget running fridge
 
A little exra is needed

A little extra is needed, you need to provide extra charging capacity, perhaps with solar panel or generator. You could use your engine by running it for a few hours or so over 2000 rpm. It takes about 7 miles to replace the power used from a standard start of your engine so work it out on your battery, a long time is needed.

Even a generator will need many hours of running to charge either from auxilary charging or through a simple battery charger. A solar panel will provide constant changing in daylight hours, get the biggest you can afford but the output on average is 25% of the stated rating!

You may opt for a larger alternator for the van that will better assist your charging issues but will still require long periods of engine running, might not be popular with those around you!
 
Calculating 12v battery requirement:
3 x 8w lights 24w 10 hours 240 watt
1 x 10w spotlight 10w 12 hours 120 watt
Water pump 50w 30 mins 25 watts
Colour TV 50w 10 hours 500 watts
If you add up the total watts used e.g. 240 + 120 + 25 + 500 = 885 watts
To work out the total number of amp hours you divide by the voltage (12v) 885 watts /12 volts = 74 amp hours. ​

Using this as a rough guide your usage against battery life seems about right to me.​
 
Thanks for that sparxy and robjmckinney
Being new to this game i am just glad to hear that you think things are about right, any improvements solar panels etc will have to wait ,i have been thinking down that road to make it more self sufficient ,possibly 2 nights or 3 nights wild camping will be about the limit for us ( her indoors likes her home comforts ) Do you think another battery would be any better 2 to 3 nights off site then hookup on site for a night, to help with the recharging
oddjob
 
Extra Batterys

Extra battery gives you of course extra capacity but you will have to increase the time taken to recharge. An ordinary car battery you leave on a small battery charger overnight and will be fully charged. A 110 amp needs twice as long on the same charger, same with van, unless you have a heavy duty alternator extra batterys require much longer time.

If money is tight. as it always is, try a cheap generator to offset your lack of power, bewarned it won't make you popular with anyone close. You should pick up a 2 stroke for around £40-60 and a much better 4 stroke for a little bit more, B&Q do cheap one normally, online the postage the killer. Or like I said run your engine above 2000rpm for a good few hours but won't make you popular!
 
hi. even a 110amp battery can be too big for a cheap end of the market charger, ideally you need a 11 amp charger for that size battery. put two together and now you are into commercial size chargers. you have to learn to not use so much leccy. use candle lights or like i do use caravan gas lights ,these give some heat and help keep midges away. be carefull with some of the cheap gennies they soon burn out as there is no overload cut out onthe 12v side of them, if using them direct to charge a battery. better to charge through a charger plugged into the genny.
 
It would take roughly 11 hours with a 10A charger to charge from flat on EHU.
 
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