Help needed: Understanding my electrics! 1989 Hymer B544

Thanks all for some great suggested things to look at.

Don't worry, I won't be applying for a Darwin award.. I might find electrics annoying but I won't let them kill me, I know enough to keep myself safe! :)

I've got some time today to do some fault testing. I can't say if the RCD was tripping straight away, but i'll do some looking today with the MH by the front door with some daylight. Will report back. Ta.
 
Well that was enlightening!

Just had a really good root around the hab electrics.

The unplugged English 3 pin plug was a complete red herring! It was not the power inlet for the charger but a random two plug extension that had been run from the back cupboard to the leisure battery compartment. I think it must be to allow a 12 volt to 240 volt converter to be but onto the battery and then this plugs into it to give so 240 volt in the rear when on battery. A complete red herring. (I was only able to see this after removing all the electrical ducting)

The tripping RCD is also a false led. My fridge trips the mains when on 240 volt, an already known issue, somehow it was switch on hence causing the trip. (* looks at wife, she must be to blame!)

Bottom line is, the battery charger is wired in... and i think it's charging... but very slowly. I'm the middle of testing it. It seems odd as 2 months ago the leisure battery was dead and after 24 hours on mains was still dead, so I concluded it was not charging.

I did find and fix a loose earth connection on the 240 volt circuit, not sure if this has any bearing. But good to find none the less.

Sorry for wasting people's time.

I do have a question: Is this leisure battery charging just a trickle charger? The output seems very low.
 
Hello Watoh,

yes, I would expect that it only gives a few amps, so takes some time to fully charge a battery especially if allowed to become really discharged. (To be avoided if possible as it's detrimental to battery life) It's not good to force charge a battery, again, it knocks some of the life out of it.

Alec
 
The output Amps is often written on the dataplate or the body of the charger somewhere, and normally refers to the output rating.

Lots of trickle chargers are rated at 5A which is sufficient to maintain a battery of up to 100AH that hasn't been pounded, but a really and ideally a charger rated at 10% of the total battery capacity to be charged is a good thing to have.

I have a 5A in my van (happened to have it lying around off a scrapped emergency generator control panel so it made sense to hard wire it in). I also have a portable Numax 10A Intelligent Charger with a bit more spuds in it.

I am not familiar with your type of charger so have no idea what its output is, but you can probably google it easily enough.
 
The charger is rated at 7A, I've never had a flat battery on mine so not sure how it would cope with a flat battery.
I have noticed that when mine is on and the battery is fully charged the meter above the kitchen will flicker from 0 to slightly above as if the charger is pulsing.
Does your meter show charge going into the battery, what voltage does the leisure battery read OFF charge and then ON charge ?
 
If you have let the LB battery go flat you will have difficulty charging from the on board charger take it of and try a garage to give you a booster charge.
You may find you need , a new battery

Alf
 
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