leisure Battery

Dago & Mrs D · Post by **Dago & Mrs D** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:31 pm

After 3 days at the South West Fest & despite being on hookup, we found our fridge had stopped working on Sunday morning. However having set off to drive home, in a short while all was well again and the fridge was getting cold very quickly. Presumably being fed from the bongos main battery?

Is this a sign that our leisure battery is on the blink. It has happen before but only if we were off hookup for more than a couple of days. Agin after a short drive, all was well.

Having put the leisure battery on charge at home, within a few minutes the charger is showing "ready & maintaining". So maybe the battery is fine, but there's a problem with the circuitry.

Any advise most welcome, but keep it simple - electrics aren't my strong point!

Dago

moonshine · Post by **moonshine** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 10:54 pm

Sounds to me like your hook-up is not actually charging the battery. To test it, connect your hook-up to the mains at home and measure the leisure battery voltage with the mains on, and with the mains off. There should be a significant difference. If not, the mains charger is not working.

It would appear that the only time the battery is charging is from the alternator on your engine when you drive off.

white van man · Post by **white van man** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 11:38 pm

does your mains hook up have a 12volt charger incorperated?a lot just have a 240 connection and run mains appliances in bongos,is it a zig unit like used in caravans where you have to switch it over?

Dago & Mrs D · Post by **Dago & Mrs D** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 6:55 am

It's got a zig unit. My diagnosis was that the zig unit isn't working (but everything else on the hook up was OK, and the zig unit itself was warm). However, previously we have managed more than 2 nights without hookup and had no problem so presumably, even if the zig wasn't working, if the battery is OK then it would last for longer than it did at the weekend. Also the battery itself has a green/black/white indicator which is showing black (as a warning) even though it doesn't seem to take any more charge from the charger - we don't know whether this has ever shown green though.

Mrs. D

Dago & Mrs D · Post by **Dago & Mrs D** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 10:16 pm

Traced the problem to the switched link between main battery & leisure battery, located in the wiring loom. It should click in after a few seconds of the fridge being switched on when on electric hook-up, so as to allow charging to the leisure battery. If it doesn't then all that is happening is the fridge is draining the battery.

We will try it out again next weekend when we are off with friends to a CL site, in deepest Sussex.
If it doesn't click in automatically, a wiggle seems to fix it.
Should it persist, then it's off to 321 away to get it replaced!

Dago