AndyLou Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 My BESSACAR e745 starter battery became low on charge 11.2v so I plugged it in to the mains but it still did not charge. Should it charge when plugged in? PS I have connected to an external charger and it is back up to 12.5v now. Thanks Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 I believe your E745 is a 2005 model and (if that’s the case) I‘m guessing that it will have the Sargent electrical system shown here https://sargentltd.co.uk/tech-support/article/22/download/218 The suggestion SEEMS to be that only the leisure-battery is charged by this system, although either the leisure-battery or the vehicle-battery can provide a 12V supply source by pressing the Battery Select button on the control-panel. I would have thought that, if there is the capability to charge the vehicle-battery when the motorhome is connected to a 230v hook-up, you’d need to use the Battery Select button to get that to happen. Presumably you’ve confirmed that the leisure-battery is being charged when the motorhome is connected to a 230v hook-up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Duck Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 If you switch the battery selector to cab it will charge the vehicle battery. Switched to habitation it will charge the leisure battery. If the battery selector switch is in the 'middle' position, it charges neither! That's how ours works. Charged the vehicle battery this way last weekend and it's currently charging the leisure battery. FD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 Fred Duck There certainly are 3-position battery selector-switches that operate as you’ve described, but that’s not the arrangement with the Sargent system that (I assume) is fitted to Andy’s Bessacarr E745. (What make/model of motorhome do you own, and what make/model of electrical system is fitted to it, please?) The Sargent system is described in the link in my previous posting and the information is repeated in this Swift Owner’s Manual that should apply to Andy’s motorhome. https://orbit.brightbox.com/v1/acc-jqzwj/Swift-Group/handbooks/pdfs/000/000/037/original/1058514_MH_Owners_Hbook_2005.pdf?1472743486 These earlier forum discussions indicate that a Sargent EC200/PSU2007 system SHOULD have the capability to charge the vehicle-battery or the leisure-battery by operating the control-panel’s Battery Select button appropriately. http://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/EC200-Control-Panel/27674/ http://forums.motorhomefacts.com/49-tech-mech-chat/108718-leisure-battery-condition-ec200-control-panel.html There seems to be nothing in the basic Sargent or Swift documentation to say that this is possible with the EC200/PSU2007 system. However, within the earlier forum threads are links to Sargent informational files that evidently confirmed that vehicle-battery or leisure-battery ‘on-hook-up’ charging was possible. Sadly, those links are no longer accessible. In principle, testing whether the batteries are being charged should be straightforward by using the control-panel to check each battery’s voltage when the motorhome is not on electric hook-up (EHU) and repeating the process when the motorhome is on EHU. If a battery is being charged, the off-EHU voltage reading should increase significantly after connection to an EHU has taken place. If the Battery Select button needs pressing to swap the charging process from the leisure-battery to the vehicle-battery, experimenting by pressing the button should make this apparent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Duck Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 Derek Uzzell - 2017-01-25 8:44 AM Fred Duck There certainly are 3-position battery selector-switches that operate as you’ve described, but that’s not the arrangement with the Sargent system that (I assume) is fitted to Andy’s Bessacarr E745. (What make/model of motorhome do you own, and what make/model of electrical system is fitted to it, please?) The Sargent system is described in the link in my previous posting and the information is repeated in this Swift Owner’s Manual that should apply to Andy’s motorhome. Our motorhome is a 2004 Bessacar E410 (as noted at the bottom of my above post). The supplied handbook covers all the 2004 Bessacar range of vans and does, indeed, show an image of the control panel you point to in the Swift Owners manual you link to. The page in the link and in my hard copy are identical. Notwithstanding that, the actual panel on our van is not that panel. I know a number of people with similar age Bessacar/Swift/Ace vans and some have the panel in the illustration, some, like ours, do not. As to the make/model of the electrical system, I've no idea. All I know is that it has a simple panel that has a three way selector switch for the cab/habitation battery, and an analogue battery charge meter, together with a further panel that relates to the water tank and a switch that turns on the external awning light. Whatever, I've just checked and the habitation battery is fully charged this morning so either the system works as I've said or some sort of miracle has occurred overnight :-D FD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Duck Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 Sorry, slight error in above post and the site won't let me edit it. The analogue battery charge meter doubles up as a fresh water level meter and the second panel contains the switches for the water pump and the awning light. FD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 Fred Duck - 2017-01-25 11:04 AM Our motorhome is a 2004 Bessacar E410 (as noted at the bottom of my above post)... FD This forum allows a member to specify a ‘signature’ within their Profile via the Control Panel feature. Forum members can also choose through their Profile whether or not to view signatures. I’m not sure if the latter option is “Yes” or “No” as default, or which of the two the majority of members choose, but I choose “No” as - while signatures like yours can be useful - I reallly don’t want to be constantly distracted by the profound/poetic/comical varieties. Consequently, I won’t normally ‘see’ signatures and, unless I’m absolutely desperate to try to identify the motorhome a member might own and think there might be a clue in a signature, I won’t alter my own Profile to make signatures visible to me. The O&AL forum’s software has never offered (at the initial registration stage) a new forum member the specific option to identify his/her motorhome/caravan etc. This limitation was complained about early on and the best ploy that could be arrived at was to put such information in the Profile’s Location field where it would always be readily apparent (as on my own postings). There’s nothing to advise new forum members to do this and a lot of ‘long term’ members don’t bother. It’s certainly not an ideal solution, just the best of a bad lot. The wiring-diagrams section of the 2004 model-year Bessacarr Technical Handbook http://bessacarr-owners-club.org/info-centre/manuals/motorhome/1053124-Bess-MH-Service-Book-2004.pdf reveals that a different electrical system was fitted to E400 Series motorhomes than to the E700 Series range, with a “KT92GB” ‘Distribution Panel” being fitted to E400 models. Although the KT92GB ‘control panel’ is not mentioned in the 2004 Owner’s Handbook, it is referred to on Pages 31/32 of this earlier publication. http://bessacarr-owners-club.org/info-centre/manuals/motorhome/1044827-MH-Owners-Hbook-2002.pdf I believe the E400 system came from “Plug-In-Systems” not Sargent, and the 2002 handbook does say (at the foot of Page 30) that the onboard charger can be used to charge either the vehicle-battery or leisure-battery via the distribution panel’s selector switch. This useful capability is not mentioned for the Sargent system fitted to the E700 range, though that does not necessarily prove that the capability is missing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyLou Posted January 27, 2017 Author Share Posted January 27, 2017 Hi all thanks for the comments. Turns out what I have to do is turn on the electric via the main control panel and then select vehicle battery as the source. What confused me is that to charge the leisure battery I do not need to turn it on. Thanks again and happy motorhoming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Duck Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Andy&Lou - 2017-01-27 10:27 AM Hi all thanks for the comments. Turns out what I have to do is turn on the electric via the main control panel and then select vehicle battery as the source. What confused me is that to charge the leisure battery I do not need to turn it on. Thanks again and happy motorhoming. Which, I think, is pretty much what I said whatever type the control panel is. No doubt Mr. Uzzell will put me right if I've thought wrong :-S FD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 What you said originally was "If you switch the battery selector to cab it will charge the vehicle battery. Switched to habitation it will charge the leisure battery. If the battery selector switch is in the 'middle' position, it charges neither!” Andy’s Bessacarr has a Sargent electrical system with a ‘button' battery selector, whereas your Bessacarr has a Plug-In-Systems system with a 3-way ‘rocker’ battery selector switch. Andy’s 2005 motorhome has a Sargent EC2007 system. While it’s fairly common knowledge that later Sargent systems can charge either the vehicle or leisure battery as Andy has now described (with leisure-battery charging being the default) and although there are earlier forum threads that suggest this would also be the case for the EC2007 system, I wasn’t certain if this would be true for Andy’s motorhome. I’d much rather not provide specific instructions on how to do something unless I’m sure that advice will be correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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