Bongo Fury

Hi,

Saw an auto-electrician last week who advised we might have a drain on the LB (it died over Xmas but could have been the cold weather apparently).

He fitted a split charge last Monday and by yesterday the 20A fuse on it had already blown which I thought was a bit unusual.

It's not happened before and all appliances are off except the central locking (which is wired to the LB) as far as I'm aware.

I have one of these which having disconnected the earth from the LB (is that correct?) and set to 10A briefly showed 0.2 then 0.0

What is an acceptable drain considering the central locking is wired to the LB and am I testing it correctly with the multimeter?

Any other ideas/tips greatly received as each visit to the auto-electrician is costing me a packet

If your LB is flat, the 20A fuse will blow as soon as the alternator tries to charge it. Fully charge the LB with a battery charger first. 20A fuse seems quite a bit too low

Hi John,

The battery was definitely fully charged when he fitted the split charge which is why I was surprised it blew so quickly.
It was the auto electrician that fitted the fuse with the relay - what you ampage recommend?

No idea about the fuse, as I don't have a split-charging system, but I seem to remember people saying at least 30A and, I believe, the Willinton kit is a lot higher than that.
Somebody with one should be along soon

clummzie wrote:Hi John,

The battery was definitely fully charged when he fitted the split charge which is why I was surprised it blew so quickly.
It was the auto electrician that fitted the fuse with the relay - what you ampage recommend?

Hi,
I use 20AMP fuses on the split charge system,a flat battery can cause the rectifier to blow(its cheaper replacing a fuse than an alternator),always charge FLAT battery with battery charger.

Cheers Mal..

The battery was under warranty so I took it back to Bristol Batteries and they charged/conditioned it for me.
To the best of my knowledge, it OK before the relay was fitted and I was able to run the fridge/stereo lights etc off it.

Did the auto electrician fit a Willinton Kit for you or fashion a split charging system of his own for you? Some auto electricians get split charging systems all wrong, my original one was rubbish and had to be binned. On my Bongo the Alarm and Central locking work via the Starter battery. Radio, blinds and internal lights etc work via the leasure battery which I disconnect via a screw in battery terminal when my Bongo is laid up for a few weeks.

We have had some realy cold weather up here in the Scottish Borders over the past two months and I have had no problems at all with the electrics on my Bongo.

Tony

MountainGoat wrote:Did the auto electrician fit a Willinton Kit for you or fashion a split charging system of his own for you? Some auto electricians get split charging systems all wrong, my original one was rubbish and had to be binned. On my Bongo the Alarm and Central locking work via the Starter battery. Radio, blinds and internal lights etc work via the leasure battery which I disconnect via a screw in battery terminal when my Bongo is laid up for a few weeks.

We have had some realy cold weather up here in the Scottish Borders over the past two months and I have had no problems at all with the electrics on my Bongo.

Tony

Hi Tony,

Not sure if it's the same kit as Willinton but it was something they carried in stock.
Here's a pic...damn can't embed it!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/61521647@N00/5380810456

I would tell them to take their charging system out and fit a Willinton Kit myself ( well I did) Willinton Intelligent split charging systems come with full illustrated instructions so it took me only 15mins to fit one and I know practically nothing about Car Electrics. Willinton kits have been proven to be the best available for the Bongo.

Just a thought, did you ask the garage if the split charging kit they fitted was an INTELLIGENT one like the Willinton kit? Electrical experts on the forum should be along soon to shoot me down soon but I think that the problem with my original Split Charging kit was that it was not an intelligent one. On my first holiday in my Bongo the fuse blew practically every day.

Tony

MountainGoat wrote:I would tell them to take their charging system out and fit a Willinton Kit myself ( well I did) Willinton Intelligent split charging systems come with full illustrated instructions so it took me only 15mins to fit one and I know practically nothing about Car Electrics. Willinton kits have been proven to be the best available for the Bongo.

Just a thought, did you ask the garage if the split charging kit they fitted was an INTELLIGENT one like the Willinton kit? Electrical experts on the forum should be along soon to shoot me down soon but I think that the problem with my original Split Charging kit was that it was not an intelligent one. On my first holiday in my Bongo the fuse blew practically every day.

Tony

No, didn't think to ask if it was 'intelligent'.
They explained that it only connects to the alternator when the engine is started (ie it detects enough volts) and I've been able to verify that with the multimeter - about 12 A engine off/13.5 engine on

Not sure if that is what is meant by 'intelligent' though.

Several things here;
1. There should be two fuses one either side of the relay (unless the relay is mounted very close to one of the battery terminals) one connecting to the S/B the other to the L/B.
2. The fuse is there to protect the CABLE(s), not the battery / relay or anything else, hence the need for two fuses as either battery can supply the power. The rating of the fuse however must also take into account the charging current of the L/B and yes 20Amp is a bit on the low side given that the relay is adequately rated at 70 Amps, 30 Amps is the normal sort of size but the wiring between the relay and both batteries needs to be able to handle 30 Amps as well !
3. Batteries can be a problem at this time of year as first of all most journeys are shorter than during summer and holidays, and there is usually more power being consumed from the alternator for things like Lights etc and hence you may find that the L/B doesn't get charged as much.
4. regarding the measurement of current yes you do expect a small surge of current when you first connect a battery, however did you make sure that the meter was set to at least 10 Amps and that you were using the right sockets for the leads? If so then an initial 0.2 Amp reading dropping to 0 looks correct, but its a good idea to switch on something like an internal lamp that is connected to the L/B just to make sure that you are reading the expected values, try connecting as you did before then turn on an internal lamp you would expect something like 1 Amp to be indicated, if so then when it is switched off again and the meter reads 0 then that indicates that you DON't have an unexpected load on the battery, NOW (your sure no other lights could have been left on before the battery went flat?).
5. Charging the L/B from a mains charger once it has gone flat is highly recommended as otherwise even if you do uprate the fuse to 30 Amps even that can blow if your revving the engine when the charge relay first comes in and the battery is flat.

g8dhe wrote:Several things here;
1. There should be two fuses one either side of the relay (unless the relay is mounted very close to one of the battery terminals) one connecting to the S/B the other to the L/B.
2. The fuse is there to protect the CABLE(s), not the battery / relay or anything else, hence the need for two fuses as either battery can supply the power. The rating of the fuse however must also take into account the charging current of the L/B and yes 20Amp is a bit on the low side given that the relay is adequately rated at 70 Amps, 30 Amps is the normal sort of size but the wiring between the relay and both batteries needs to be able to handle 30 Amps as well !
3. Batteries can be a problem at this time of year as first of all most journeys are shorter than during summer and holidays, and there is usually more power being consumed from the alternator for things like Lights etc and hence you may find that the L/B doesn't get charged as much.
4. regarding the measurement of current yes you do expect a small surge of current when you first connect a battery, however did you make sure that the meter was set to at least 10 Amps and that you were using the right sockets for the leads? If so then an initial 0.2 Amp reading dropping to 0 looks correct, but its a good idea to switch on something like an internal lamp that is connected to the L/B just to make sure that you are reading the expected values, try connecting as you did before then turn on an internal lamp you would expect something like 1 Amp to be indicated, if so then when it is switched off again and the meter reads 0 then that indicates that you DON't have an unexpected load on the battery, NOW (your sure no other lights could have been left on before the battery went flat?).
5. Charging the L/B from a mains charger once it has gone flat is highly recommended as otherwise even if you do uprate the fuse to 30 Amps even that can blow if your revving the engine when the charge relay first comes in and the battery is flat.

1. Only 1 fuse (will double check later) between relay and LB. But, relay is right next to SB
2. Great, will change to 30A
3. Makes perfect sense, we have the heating right up and the lights are always on at this time of year.
4. Yes, was connected to the 10A (it's max) and red lead was connected to the 10A socket. Will test with appliances on later. It's possible there was a light on over Xmas.
5. Bought a Durite battery charger a few years ago and now ALWAYS charge it before a weekend away without hookup. Learnt the hard way at a festival with no fridge and water pump after 1 day!!

Thanks guys, I really do appreciate all your comments and advice.
Off out for lunch now but will no doubt be back posting later as I want to do as g8dhe suggested in point 4

Sounds like normal, we had problems with our L/B after New Year - Had popped out just after midnight to release some Chinese lanterns, fumbling in the dark in the garage for the lanterns I managed to switch off the power before finding the light switch - but didn't notice that - until this weekend, since New year we have been plugging in the Van most nights and hadn't spotted that the Zig charger didn't have power going to it hence the L/B was dropping out several times making me think that the L/B was knackered rather than simply not getting power!

One suspect could be the fridge. They are usualy connected direct to the leisure battery rather than via the power management unit/zig unit. Since the dial switch for the fridge is inside the fridge at the back it is easy to leave it on a little bit. Flattened my leisure battery once until I cottoned on to the cause.

Tony

Damn, the multimeter is showing 0A even with the fridge and all the lights on.
So I tested the volts across both batteries and they're showing about 2.5V.....tested using another multimeter (can't use if for amps as its way too low) and they show just over 12 so it looks like the multimeter is a bit flaky.

I only had 1 pint at lunchtime!!