Harrers
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Hi to all and I apologise that I don't post often on this forum but I do read threads whenever I have time and I seem to be posting now because I have a problem!
A little background info first. I live in France and own a French registered 2002 Eriba Car T596 which I bought in January 2019 having sold my UK motorhome in December 2018. I normally work seasonally in France but in the current pandemic there is no work available so I am living at home and doing what I can to my house with limited resources. As the house is in total disorder, we are living in the camping car (sorry I use the French term) and it is therefore on permanent electric hook-up. It is also easier to stay warm in the camping car.
On Monday night, my girlfriend summoned me from the house to tell me the satellite dish was struggling to settle on the satellite. I switched it off and on (that well-known trick) only for it to say it was jammed. I looked around and saw that the hot water was in alarm and I knew we had plenty of gas and then noticed the battery alarm was flashing. So we didn't have any 12volt power. The battery indicator was showing about 8 volts. I had to do some investigating!
The Schaudt LA110E battery charger was dead. There is a fuse inside but that was still good. Next to look at the batteries. I didn't get to do this immediately as I was in the middle of replacing the water heater in the house. We do still use the bathroom in the house and the ancient water heater had failed. Last night I disconnected everything and both batteries tested around 8.8volts. I put my smart charger on one and left it in slow mode overnight. This morning it was showing as full and 13.4 volts. I moved the charger to the other battery. It was now indicating 6.7 volts and my smart charger deciding it was a 6 volt battery said it was full. I tried again a bit later and saw that it had gone down to 4.5 volts. This battery appears to be useless now.
So I don't know what happened first but I think it is possible that a battery failed and then took out the charger but it could have been vici versa! The batteries are a matched pair of lead acid 105Ah mounted under the front seats. I need to replace both and will look for some AGM batteries around the 100Ah mark that will fit. Now for the charger, I am thinking of looking for a 20amp smart charger. I believe you need 10% of your total Ah. I have been thinking about getting a Victron Bluesmart IP22
as seen on Amazon https://www.amazon.fr/Chargeur-blue...argeur+camping+car+20a&qid=1614772272&sr=8-26
I honestly don't know if I can just do a straight swap by using the existing charger connections to the new charger. We have a solar panel (size unknown) and this is connected via an Antarion controller. It appears to be working although the negative connection to the battery was a bit iffy! I was thinking of upgrading the controller to the Victron MPPT at a later date.
In the battery compartment there is a split charger (?) - Scheiber Coupleur Separateur de Batteries - I have attached a photo of this by way of explanation.
So, I am asking for any thoughts or help the more experienced of you can offer especially any of you with Eriba/Hymer vehicles of a similar age. We are managing in the camping car at the moment using mains voltage lights and I have connected a 10amp power supply to give us some temporary 12v.
A little background info first. I live in France and own a French registered 2002 Eriba Car T596 which I bought in January 2019 having sold my UK motorhome in December 2018. I normally work seasonally in France but in the current pandemic there is no work available so I am living at home and doing what I can to my house with limited resources. As the house is in total disorder, we are living in the camping car (sorry I use the French term) and it is therefore on permanent electric hook-up. It is also easier to stay warm in the camping car.
On Monday night, my girlfriend summoned me from the house to tell me the satellite dish was struggling to settle on the satellite. I switched it off and on (that well-known trick) only for it to say it was jammed. I looked around and saw that the hot water was in alarm and I knew we had plenty of gas and then noticed the battery alarm was flashing. So we didn't have any 12volt power. The battery indicator was showing about 8 volts. I had to do some investigating!
The Schaudt LA110E battery charger was dead. There is a fuse inside but that was still good. Next to look at the batteries. I didn't get to do this immediately as I was in the middle of replacing the water heater in the house. We do still use the bathroom in the house and the ancient water heater had failed. Last night I disconnected everything and both batteries tested around 8.8volts. I put my smart charger on one and left it in slow mode overnight. This morning it was showing as full and 13.4 volts. I moved the charger to the other battery. It was now indicating 6.7 volts and my smart charger deciding it was a 6 volt battery said it was full. I tried again a bit later and saw that it had gone down to 4.5 volts. This battery appears to be useless now.
So I don't know what happened first but I think it is possible that a battery failed and then took out the charger but it could have been vici versa! The batteries are a matched pair of lead acid 105Ah mounted under the front seats. I need to replace both and will look for some AGM batteries around the 100Ah mark that will fit. Now for the charger, I am thinking of looking for a 20amp smart charger. I believe you need 10% of your total Ah. I have been thinking about getting a Victron Bluesmart IP22
as seen on Amazon https://www.amazon.fr/Chargeur-blue...argeur+camping+car+20a&qid=1614772272&sr=8-26
I honestly don't know if I can just do a straight swap by using the existing charger connections to the new charger. We have a solar panel (size unknown) and this is connected via an Antarion controller. It appears to be working although the negative connection to the battery was a bit iffy! I was thinking of upgrading the controller to the Victron MPPT at a later date.
In the battery compartment there is a split charger (?) - Scheiber Coupleur Separateur de Batteries - I have attached a photo of this by way of explanation.
So, I am asking for any thoughts or help the more experienced of you can offer especially any of you with Eriba/Hymer vehicles of a similar age. We are managing in the camping car at the moment using mains voltage lights and I have connected a 10amp power supply to give us some temporary 12v.
