Flat battery for newbie

[Bob]

I've got the Noco Genius GB70 booster pack and it's bloomin' brilliant.

Didn't pay anything like the current ( ) price, though.

[mitchelln]

The ones to avoid are the ones offered by multiple Chinese vendors. They are often poor quality generics that the different vendors just badge up with their logo. Those are fairly easy to spot repeatedly cropping up in the listings.

Unfortunately, Amazon is awash with cheap import products from vendors who are willing to refund if the buyer agrees to retract their honest review. Makes a mockery of the whole review system. I always stick to my guns and leave the review and return the item via Amazon.
Unfortunately a lot of people also take advantage of this sales tactic to get free stuff.

The good products are getting crowded out by the average or mediocre. I've become rather adept at judging whether to bother buying an item. Look out for dodgy reviews written in poor or overly flowery English or ones that say "I received this free/discounted in exchange for a honest review". The number of reviews is often not an accurate measure.

Bah! You've got me onto one of my hobby horses!

[Bob]

Don't need a booster pack for a hobby horse.

OK, Getting my coat.

[mitchelln]

Haha!

[BingaBonga]

these little jump packs can in my opinion be dangerous so be careful. the leads on these kits are way to short, particularly the negative lead, you do NOT want to connect both the leads to the battery to be started, unless there is something in the design of the internals of these jump packs that prevents sparks .
the battery in a bongo is up front and finding a good ground round the engine is not really possible as the cables are too short.
they work really well but are they safe. discuss.

heres how to do it right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI1o2hNy2hE

Bit worried now. So I shouldn't connect the battery pack in the way the instructions state? Is this because of a potential short? So connect the pack to longer jump leads?

[BingaBonga]

Sorry to hear of your woes. Have you tried contacting the person you bought the Bongo from to see if they can shed any light? I wouldnt expect alarm etc to be running from the leisure battery. You need to do some tests (after charging the starter battery). For example, disconnect the starter battery and see what then does and doesnt work/light up. Personally (for now and until i knew what was going on) i would fit a terminal clamp to the starter battery that allowed me to disable it when parked up. Something like this, for example:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331668860262

I'd buy a multimeter also, so i could test voltages across both batteries with engine on and off and with appliances on and off, so i could begin to understand if the starter battery is being isolated from the starter battery when engine is off, as should be happening if the voltage sensing relay is doing its job properly.

And yes, i'd try and understand what the various switches on the camper conversion are doing (not looked at your pics so am guessing here!)

Good luck, and keep us posted.

If the engine is off and I switch on the fridge etc, I wouldn't expect to see a voltage drop on the starter battery?

[BingaBonga]

So... the stater battery has 12.15v

So I hooked it up to my car and tried to jump (ran for 10 mins).
I revved the balls out of my car too. Never went up over 12.15/12.16

Tried to start the van. Nothing happened!

Going to take the battery out and get it tested under load at Halfords.

The leisure battery was running at 2.5v

Additionally the coil light is flashing and sediment light is on

[billymansell]

Starter battery appears okay but I'd have expected the voltage to be 14+ volts when charging. Have you checked that the ground/earth contact to the side of the van for any rust/corrosion? It doesn't take much to cause poor contact that can prevent starting but will still light up the dash.

Leisure battery doesn't look so good. Could be a goner but until you can get the van running and see if the alternator is charging both batteries and that they're both holding charge you won't know. The priority though is getting it started.

[BingaBonga]

I connected the black jump lead to the chassis of the camper and while hooked up used my multimeter to check from the red terminal to the chasis. Read at 12.15


Later, with the battery disconnected, I turned the key to enable dashboard etc this dropped to about 11.38

If I do end up getting a new battery the current one is 740 amps and 95ah.

How close do I need to keep to this. For example 95ah with 830 amps ok?

[g8dhe]

A common replacement for all the engine types os a Bosch S3 335 or 028 style, the CCA needs to be in excess of 500Amps for easy starting.

[BingaBonga]

Charging the starter battery now.
Hoping there will be enough juice in 4/5 hours.
Do leisure batteries trickle charge off the hookup? Or is it off The alternator?

Going to do a parasite test next week to find the cause of my woes

[g8dhe]

Possibly both, but they are charged in parallel with the SB from the Alternator if you have Split Charge Relay, and if you have a charger/power supply on the EHU then charging from that on EHU and/or Solar panels if fitted.

[mikeonb4c]

Additionally the coil light is flashing and sediment light is on

Can't quite remember but could one or other of those flashinglights be indicating alternator trouble?

[g8dhe]

Yes if the Charge light comes on then you have an alternator which is not charging for some reason (the sediment light comes as well but it doesn't mean anything its only the self test circuit).

[BingaBonga]

Charged it. It's now at 12.9

Does this mean it is overcharged or is this just surface charge?