Caravan battery

[Grumpy Grandad]

Hi Everyone.

My daughter has a 2010 Swift caravan with an 80 watt Solar panel and a 110 amp leisure battery. We were all away at the weekend and found that during the day the solar panel was charging the battery adequately, but as soon as darkness fell the battery quickly lost power. Down to 10.4 volts one evening, this was before any lights were used! Next morning though, after about 2 hours of daylight the battery was back to full charge. The general feeling is that the diode in the Solar panel is u/s. Does anyone know if you can replace the diode please.

All help gratefully recieved

Stuart :-D

[Keithl]

Sorry but I'd check the battery first. Take it off the caravan, fully charge it with a proper battery charger then leave it to stand for 24 hours and check the voltage. If it is 12.4 volts or higher then it is OK, any lower and possibly suspect.

 

If it passes this test then start suspecting the solar panel or look for any other load on it when connected, eg fridge light, locker light or similar.

 

And when you say the following morning it was fully charged after only 2 hours all you where measuring was the charging voltage from the solar panel, not the charge level of the battery. The battery has to be disconnected and 'rest' for a minimum of an hour before measuring the voltage to check it's charge.

 

Keith.