Mistyscamp Posted May 14, 2013 Share Posted May 14, 2013 Hello, hope someone can help me, I am trying to charge the vehicle battery on my auto trail and have switch the PSU on and then the power on at the control panel and then pressed the switch next to the power button, with the battery symbol on but this button does not light up. What does this mean? Is the battery charging and therefore the bulb gone in the switch or is something else going on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithl Posted May 14, 2013 Share Posted May 14, 2013 Does the voltage reading for the Vehicle Battery rise when you press the second button or not? (it should!). Assuming of course you have a voltage reading on your control panel. What year is your Tracker and what model number are your PSU and control panel? And welcome to the forum Keith. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliffy Posted May 14, 2013 Share Posted May 14, 2013 We have a 2004 Tracker, switching to charge battery process is as you described but the LED should light up. We have a battery master from VanBitz which automatically charges the vehicle battery when required so I have never used the facility. As said previously you should see a rise in voltage of the vehicle battery as you switch over from Leisure to Vehicle battery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistyscamp Posted May 15, 2013 Author Share Posted May 15, 2013 Hi, the battery has now gone so low so I am not sure if this is masking the real problem. The volts do not change when you press the switch and the van is June 2003. PSU is EC200 and then it says PSU 2007. So it looks like the PSU has been changed in 2007 , I bought the van in February 2011. I can't find a model number for the control panel. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithl Posted May 15, 2013 Share Posted May 15, 2013 Hi Janet, First the PSU2007 is correct. The 2007 is the model number and not the year it was fitted. You can get instructions for it from the Sargent electrical website if you don't already have them... Link to Sargent. Finally how old is your vehicle battery? If it is the original then it sounds like it may well be past its best and due for replacement. Even if younger then discharging it to such a low level will seriously harm it unless you can quickly recharge it, preferably with a proper multi stage charger rather than the MH PSU. I use a CTEK 8 stage charger with 5 Amp output for maintenance charging. Hope this helps, Keith. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistyscamp Posted May 16, 2013 Author Share Posted May 16, 2013 Hi Keith, Thanks for that, shows how much I know about motor homing. I think I will get a new battery for the van, I can fit a at terry to a car but am not sure about the van because if all the wires. Is it easy to fit or is it better to get an expert to do it. Thanks once again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithl Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 Easy. But before you touch anything take a photo of the battery then you will always have a reference to where the wires all go. First remove the negative terminal and hold it out of the way before finally removing the positive. The biggest problem you may have is physically lifting the battery out, after removing the clamp of course, as they are fairly heavy. Once the new battery is back in place connect the positive first and the negative last. And don't forget if you have a coded radio you will need to enter the code before it will work again. Keith. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistyscamp Posted May 16, 2013 Author Share Posted May 16, 2013 Hi Keith Thanks for that I will give it a go, I'll get my 20 year old grandson to do the lifting. Lets hope the discharging problem will then be solved. I'll let you know how it goes. Regards Janet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted May 17, 2013 Share Posted May 17, 2013 Mistyscamp - 2013-05-15 6:09 PM Hi, the battery has now gone so low so I am not sure if this is masking the real problem... The inability to charge a heavily discharged vehicle-battery is mentioned in the "Can I charge my vehicle battery from the EC200 system?" question in this Sargent advice file http://www.sargentltd.co.uk/SES080_Top_10_Technical_Questions__2.pdf The vehicle-battery's voltage needs to be above 10.9V for charging to take place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistyscamp Posted May 17, 2013 Author Share Posted May 17, 2013 Hi all I am now in the process of sourcing a new van battery , so,will let you all know what happens next. Many thanks for all the help,so far. Regards Janet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistyscamp Posted May 17, 2013 Author Share Posted May 17, 2013 Hello again, I had a good look at the battery on the van today and it is a numax premium silver, and that is all the detail that is on it, it does'nt say the AH, which I find most unusual. So I measured the battery and then looked on the net for similar sized batteries but could find none that fitted these dimensions. L340mm W170mm H200mm. My van is an Auto trail tracker EKS 2003 2.3 deisel, can anyone help with advice as to which battery I need. Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted May 18, 2013 Share Posted May 18, 2013 Mistyscamp - 2013-05-17 7:49 PM Hello again, I had a good look at the battery on the van today and it is a numax premium silver, and that is all the detail that is on it, it does'nt say the AH, which I find most unusual. So I measured the battery and then looked on the net for similar sized batteries but could find none that fitted these dimensions. L340mm W170mm H200mm. My van is an Auto trail tracker EKS 2003 2.3 deisel, can anyone help with advice as to which battery I need. Thank you Janet It's essential when measuring battery dimensions to be scrupulously accurate. Starter-batteries come in a relatively limited range of sizes and (as much as anything because it's a common size) your battery's dimensions are likely to be a nominal 354mm(Length) x 175mm(Width) x 190mm (height). This is a Numax Premium Silver battery with those dimensions: http://www.battery2u.co.uk/Numax--019.aspx If you visit this webpage http://www.tayna.co.uk/Numax-Car-Batteries-S219-1.html and enter your L340mm W170mm H200mm figures, you'll find that 3 Numax batteries are shown, all with 354mm(Length) x 175mm(Width) x 190mm (Height) dimensions. In fact, I believe the dimensions given for the 2nd battery ("017 Numax Car Battery 12V 88AH") are wrong and should be 354mm(Length) x 175mm(Width) x 175mm (Height) - which proves that even specialist retailers don't always get it right! As I said earlier, vehicle battery dimensions are relatively standardised (They have to be as, if they were all different, it would be a nightmare) and all "019" or "018" batteries will have 354mm(Length) x 175mm(Width) x 190mm (Height) dimensions, while "017" batteries will have 354mm(Length) x 175mm(Width) x 175mm (Height) dimensions. (You can easily prove this by GOOGLE-searching using "battery 019", "battery 018" or "battery 017" (omitting the quotation marks) as the search terms.) It seems that a "019" battery - 354mm(Length) x 175mm(Width) x 190mm (Height) and 100Ah - is what's normally fitted to diesel-fuelled Ducatos http://www.advancedbatterysupplies.co.uk/fiatducatopetroldieselbatteries.html http://www.carbatteries-online.co.uk/fiatcarbatteries.html#ducato There's plenty of choice regarding 019 batteries and the price, specification and warranty duration vary. I suggest you do three things: 1. Remeasure your present battery to confirm its exact dimensions. 2. Check on-line prices and those asked by battery specialists local to you. 3. Choose a battery from a well-established manufacturer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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