nellie69 Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 Hi All, Any help would be appreciated greatly... I have just bought an 1996 Fort transit Herald Aragon and don't fully understand the charging circuit. It has a leisure battery which runs the 12v circuit and from what I have gathered this is charged when the vehicle is started or being driven. But I guess it should also charge, once the van is plugged into the mains, there's a switch labelled Charger under the bench seat, is this for charging the leisure battery ?So do I need to switch this on once hooked up, to recharge the leisure battery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Hi and welcome. Probably yes. Do you have a control panel that displays the battery voltage, if so when the battery is being charged the voltage should slowly increase up to about 14.2 -14.6 volts then drop back to 13.6-13.8 volts. If it is one of the older type chargers it may only get up to 13.8 volts. If you do not have a panel displaying the voltage you can measure it at the battery with a multimeter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Didn't Derek(Uzzell) own Herald of that vintage? ... If he did, then he'd certainly be able to tell you the ins and outs of what everything should and shouldn't do... ;-) (hopefully, this'll bump the thread up the page and maybe catch his eye..) Oh!..and Hi! Nellie'.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 lennyhb - 2014-10-23 12:17 AM Hi and welcome. Probably yes. Do you have a control panel that displays the battery voltage, if so when the battery is being charged the voltage should slowly increase up to about 14.2 -14.6 volts then drop back to 13.6-13.8 volts. If it is one of the older type chargers it may only get up to 13.8 volts. If you do not have a panel displaying the voltage you can measure it at the battery with a multimeter. I’ll go along with that. My 1996-built Templar did not have a “Charger” switch and the battery-charger was hidden behind a removable high-level panel. The battery-charger itself had an On/Off switch and the option (which I took) of adding an LED tell-tale to it to indicate remotely when the charger was operating. It’s near certain that an Aragon’s battery-charger would only charge the leisure-battery originally and not the ’starter’ battery. It’s possible that, since 1996, someone has modified the electrical system to allow the starter battery to be charged via the onboard chager (eg. fitting a “Battery Master”). This could be checked with a multimeter as lennyhb suggests. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 On reflection, my Herald may also have had a switch with “Charger” on it. UK-norm domestic-style switches/sockets were used for 230V functions and, besides there being a switch for the Atwood boiler’s 230V water-heating operation, I’m pretty sure there must have been another switch for the battery-charger. I have (most of) a 1998 MMM review of a secondhand 1995 Aragon that had its ZIG-branded main control-panel, the Atwood heater’s control-panel and 3 socket-boxes (230V, 12V and aerial) immediately below the glass-fronted drinks cabinet and above a 3-drawer furniture-unit at the right end off the offside settee. I don’t know where the onboard battery-charger is on an Aragon though, if there’s a switch for it under the seat, there’s a fair chance that’s where the charger will be too. This 2005 forum thread may be of interest http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Zig-battery-charger-and-Power-unit/2453/ The original Herald factory (based in Poole) went into liquidation around 1995 and Herald-branded motorhomes were then built by Explorer Group in County Durham until about 2000. There was often individual variation in the motorhomes made at Poole and Aragon/Templar/Valencia models constructed in Co.Durham differed in certain respects from their Poole-built predecessors. Herald’s were generally well-made and the only thing to beware of nowadays perhaps (with Aragon and Templar models) would be the Atwood Confort 3 combination air/water heater as spare-parts will be difficult to source. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nellie69 Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 Hi thanks for the help, I've checked with the previous owners is definitely for charging the leisure battery, once hooked up. Cheers Neil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 There’s no doubt whatsoever that the onboard battery-charger fitted to your Herald SHOULD charge the leisure-battery when the motorhome is connected to a 230V hook-up. It may also have been the case that this has happened reliably during the 18-year period since the vehicle was built. However, being a pessimist by nature (particularly where motorhomes are concerned) as a new owner I’d want to check that charging actually does take place as this is simple to test (lennyhb described the procedure earlier) and I’d then know that the charger was doing its job. Are you new to motorhomes? If so, this book should be useful to provide basic technical guidance: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Motorcaravan-Manual-Choosing-Using-Maintaining/dp/0857331248/ref=dp_ob_title_bk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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