Guest JudgeMental Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 Van has been standing for about 2 weeks. Went out today and central locking would not work and had to open door with key. completely flat battery. Had a radio fitted before holiday and electrician carried out a test and said there was no draw..maybe its the alarm. Anyway my son is starting Uni this week so need to get it going! Just about to connect up camper side to mains, will this also charge the vehicle battery? I dont understand this, as my euramobil used to stand for months and no problem even at 4 years old and this is a new van :-S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homenaway Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 Hi,If your Twin has the same Schaudt electroblock charger as ours it will only supply a trickle charge to the vehicle battery. We don't have our radio connected to the vehicle battery and haven't had problems with starting after leaving the van unused for three weeks so it could have been the alarm. Perhaps one of those small solar panels would keep it topped up Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris p abacon Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 Hope no one minds me piggybacking this onto the original question I parked up on site with hook up for three weeks when it came time to leave the battery was totally dead (even the lcd clock was dead!) I thought that on hookup the vehicle battery was trickle charged, should it be? In the "control panel" there is a switch marked "veh - aux" both settings showed the battery to be fully charged! It was definately a flat vehicle battery as it started first time on jump leads (on site which position should the veh - aux switch be in?) edit to add its a 2002 compass avantgarde 200 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 when I pluged van into mains camper batteries about 3/4 full vehicle battery in the red. It is charging as green lights started to rise but not enough to start van as yet.... Have called Fiat camper assist and RAC coming out. I hope they can ID the drain or if battery faulty *-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 If the battery is really flat there is the chance that it might be damaged but only time will tell. However being new it has a much better chance of a full recovery than an old battery so should be OK with luck. You might be able to jump start it from a car but you will need heavy duty jump leads with very strong clamps - and keep the car engine running. Stable doors etc. - but it's always worth carrying a battery charger - something like one of the CTek range then at least you only need a power point (and maybe an extension lead) to overcome a flat battery. Hope that helps? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cattwg Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 I can’t offer a definitive answer as to the cause of the flat starter battery. However from actual measurements taken on our 2007 Adria Twin I can confirm that the electric hook-up, via the Schaudt Electroblock, does only trickle charge the vehicle starter battery. I had reason to take these measurements when contemplating upgrading the leisure battery a few months ago. Cattwg :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 Thanks Rich & Cattwg. Well at least I know the Fiat camper assist works! RAC man turned up in about 1.5 hrs. I at last learnt how to get to vehicle battery under floor..You dont have to! there is a socket for battery under the bonnet? He jump started it and told me to leave running for 30 mins. It looks as if its my fault :-S when chap fitted alarm and radio he said best to not put radio on permanent feed *-) Being a camper I found this annoying and when other auto electrician fitted fitted socket for trailer board (for bike rack) I got him to change to permanent feed. I will get radio fed from leisure batteries next week Yes, on mains and up to 12v on panel but climb is very slow. We dont need to take son to UNI until tomorrow night, but would I be better of using a battery charger to boost battery? or leave well alone and let it on trickle. I have an old battery charger in garage..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 Overnight it has recovered from 12v to 12.5v so the trickle charger is working. As I have 24 hrs before I have to use it I will probably leave well alone...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankkia Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 When I fitted my radio I put it on permanent feed but via an illuminated switch. That way, when you are not using the radio, turn off the power to it. This is sometimes better than connecting to your leisure battery if it is some distance from the radio. The switch should be only on the "ignition" live to the radio leaving the other live(s) attached normally. The other lives are 1) permanent feed to keep the memory going. 2) feed from lighting circuit for radio lights. Although we have solar panels connected to both the habitation and starter batteries I don't like wasting the power generated so put the switch in. Many modern car radios are worse than older ones for drawing from the batteries when not in use as they are more like computers and if they have all the gizmos on like bluetooth they will be constantly in "standby" mode not "powered off" mode and so continue to waste your battery power. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 Thanks Bernie...makes sense! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tp002c784tp002c784tp Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 Hi Judge There is a lot to be said for my charging system, I have a 80watt solar panel that charges the leisure Batteries and a Battery master fitted. when the leisure batteries are charged it clicks over to the main Battery, I checked my system today whilst preparing for the Lincoln show and both vehicle and leisure batteries stood at 13.8 and it has been wet and windy all day here. Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 Thanks! But I nearly bought a battery master until I was informed by James(in France:-D) that the Adria has its own trickle charger. like yours, when leisure battery's charged it trickle charges the vehicle battery... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGD Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 Had a similar problem a while ago with ours - went to start it after about 5 weeks of lay-up, and although there was still some power in the vehicle battery, it was way short of what was needed to do anything more than just make the starter motor "click". I was NOT happy, as we'd spent a lot of money on a big roof-mounted solar panel, and two charge controller thingies to automatically charge/keep topped up both the vehicle battery and leisure batteries. Turns out that the Sparkle had simply left the dashboard radio set to "Aux" (we use it in that setting to play stuff from our ipods through a cable into it); instead of actually turning it off when we'd got home from our previous tour. Because it was still "armed" in Aux mode, the amplifier in the radio was drawing just a little more electricity from the engine battery in each 24 hour period than our solar panel could replenish in the daylight hours...........so over the 5 week period the battery had dropped to almost flat (particularly as I tried to start the engine first thing in the morning before that days worth of solar panel recharging had happened). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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