leisure battery confusion

[Simon Jones]

The little wire is the one that disables the interior light, so dont even worry about reconnecting it. On the LB there should be another fuse holder, I think this one is the the feed from the conversion. Worth checking anyway.

Whatever voltage you are getting going into the big red wire, should be making it to the positive terminal on the LB, so you may find there's a break there somewhere. On mine there was a yellow inline crimp on one wire and this was loose when I wiggled it, so check if you have that too.

How does it behave when connected to the mains? If the LB is not getting any charge on hook up, then either the fuse on the front of conversion has blown or the LB could actually have a short on one of the cells which would explain why you can't get the voltage up

[Poohbear]

On mine there was a yellow inline crimp on one wire and this was loose when I wiggled it, so check if you have that too.

That's weird, one of the yellow connectors on mine was loose too. I wiggled it and it fell apart. I ended up soldering it to make a good connection. it would appear that they didn't have the correct crimper for these terminals at Autovan when they did the conversion.

Yes, as Simon says (put your hands on your head!) there is another fuse near to the leisure battery. Strange thing is that the fuses on mine are both 20A so it would appear that someone has replaced one of yours with a bigger fuse for some reason

[g8dhe]

The two fuses linking the batteries to the relay would normally be rated at least 30 Amps or above depending on the wire gauge used for the connection. 20 Amps is pretty close to the likely charging current especially when the L/B is well discharged, it won't stay at above 20 Amps for long but long enough to blow one of the two fuses and damage the second one, its always best to replace both fuses in this situation as both will have heated up and then one will go allowing the second one to cool again but it is likely to have changed its rating! Typically with a reasonably charged L/B you will see a charge current peaking at 10-12 Amps just after the relay closes it will then fall quite rapidly depending on the alternator speed a the time.

[buddyh42]

Right just been at the guts again the input to the relay is reading 10.91 and that is what is being read on the leisure battery the 2 fuses have been checked and are okay though the one at the LB is only a 15 so dunno where to go from here. Think the easiest way would be to buy a willington and get billibongo to fit it while he is doing my sliding door, that reminds me need to get back in touch as he has not contacted me yet. Thanks again for help but think i am now stuck completly.

[Poohbear]

Right just been at the guts again the input to the relay is reading 10.91 and that is what is being read on the leisure battery the 2 fuses have been checked and are okay though the one at the LB is only a 15 so dunno where to go from here. Think the easiest way would be to buy a willington and get billibongo to fit it while he is doing my sliding door, that reminds me need to get back in touch as he has not contacted me yet. Thanks again for help but think i am now stuck completly.

Buying a Willington kit when you already have a split charging system is really a waste of money but that, of course is up to you. Since i replaced the relay on mine the system has worked faultlessly and with 2 x 20A fuses fitted. I would rather stick with 20A fuses because I would prefer the fuse to blow if the battery is seriously discharged rather than damage anything else. I believe that the Ryder relay is rated at 30A which is plenty big enough so 20A fuses would seem to be the correct size to protect the relay and the wiring. The input to the relay is straight off the SB so with the engine running it should be around 14V. This would suggest that you have a really bad connection that is drawing current, perhaps one of the connectors as stated above?

[buddyh42]

I think your right and its the relay as it has 12.4 going in and only 10.8 coming out. Do you think that ishould just buy a relay and how easy are they to fit
thanks greatly for the help

[Poohbear]

I think your right and its the relay as it has 12.4 going in and only 10.8 coming out. Do you think that ishould just buy a relay and how easy are they to fit
thanks greatly for the help

It's just a simple matter of taking the old one out by unscrewing a few terminals and then putting the new one in exactly the same as the old one. The wires are all fixed with screw terminals. I would waggle a few wires first though because I'm still thinking you may have a loose connection. If the relay was faulty you shouldn't have any output at all which is how mine failed.

[Northern Bongolow]

chell has this for of split charge unit on her bongo. if you take the splitter/box apart you may find that water has bridged the circuit board on the back, look for corrosion, as its mounted low in the box, replace the splitter and make it waterproof and you should be ok.
check the gauge of the earth wire also. we spoke to the company that made them at length after several unit failures.

[Simon Jones]

I think what's confusing things is the bit: "12.4 going in and only 10.8 coming out". The 10.8 on the output is what's in the LB rather than coming out the split charge unit. Check if the other output is working & then swap the LB connection to that. If both are knackered, get another one of the same type for about £15 to get you going again & then consider the long term plan of a Willinton kit. Mine's been running fine with just one working output, but ripping it out & starting again is on the bit to-do list

[buddyh42]

Hurrah we have it fixed i took the output from the relay from the middle to one of the outside connections and what do you know i get the same reading from both sides, started the engine tested the LB and woweee it is reading 14.6. Thanks one and all for your help i could never had done it without you.
Now just to work out whats up with side door not working from keyfob
Big Thanks again

[Simon Jones]

Good news, as long as it's Switched Output A (2) rather than the unswitched output which bypasses the relay .

[buddyh42]

Maybe a premature celebration. Just went and checked and sure enough it was the unswitched terminal i used, just put it onto the switched one and well it is better than the middle one as i am getting 11.8 from the relay out and getting 11.8 at the LB, so i checked the lights on the check thingy at the fridge and it is now showing first amber light while car was running, so does that mean my harrahs can now start or is there still a problem? What does the unswitched one do compared to the switched, im a bit confused about that?

[Simon Jones]

I believe the unswitched output is a straight feed from the main battery, so it will effectively connects both batteries together in parallel such that they will both charge and drain together regardless of whether the engine is running or not. To check this, remove the fuse, connect multimeter to unswitched output and measure the voltage when the engine is running. Switch engine off and if the voltage drops to zero in less than 30 seconds, thens it's fine. If it remains at the same voltage as the main battery for more than 30 secs, then it's just a straight thru' connection which is not suitable.

The instructions are here: http://www.rydertowing.co.uk/downloads/ ... 1170-3.pdf. It says the following which does not really clarify it:

"Unswitched output The green 12S wire to socket Pin 4 supplies the interior lights of the caravan; on new caravans this is automatically switched within the caravan when towing, to charge the caravan (auxiliary) battery. The switching is controlled by a relay in the fridge circuit. The fridge circuit is controlled by the Smart combi."

As I think is mentioned above, the fuse should be 20A and not higher. This is referred to in the instructions:

"The correct fuse rating for the TF1170-4 is 20amps and for the TF1170-3, 30 amp.
[We recommend blade or good quality ceramic fuses. Traditional glass fuses have different operating characteristics and are not recommended.]"

[Poohbear]

Sounds like exactly the same problem that I had. A new relay fixed it and it's worked perfectly ever since.

[buddyh42]

Thanks Poohbear I have used your link and orderd one already as thought it was faulty so just waiting on it arriving, again many thanks and I will continue on this thread with updates once it arrives.