benimar Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 Well we did it, went to peterborough our van and with Mum and Dad in there 2 month old Duacatto based Ace 630ek. They have the leisure battery 110ah fitted, never used in vain, as they only go to electric sites. Thursday I fixed up a properly working 150w inverter and pluged in there 15inch colour TV. After about 3 hours use, the battery was shot. Not even enough to keep the fridge light from blinking,despite it being on gas. It was quite cold and they did not have enough power for the heater to run and were a bit cold during Thursday. On Friday I conected the suitcase solar panel and it charged for the day, it was only a 13w, so do not expect great results. I started my on board geni and and ran a lead from my leisure battery to my dads van battery for approx 3 hours during the day. We did not use the tv or anything else that would draw excessive current on his van for the whole day. Still on Friday night the heater fan on low the battery ran out after an hour or so. Is this the norm or could there be a fault. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Cole Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 Hi benimar, It is not normal for your battery to lose its charge with the use you describe, I give my 110APH battery far more load than you discribe when not hooked up and have never had it go flat It sounds as if your battery is not taking a full charge and is faulty it is possible that a cell is shorting out and putting a drain on the other cells. The problem is that when you buy a camper you do not khow old the battery is, it could have been left discharged for some time and this would shorten the battery life. Batteries usually have a date code engraved on the top by one of the terminals, if you can find this it will give you some indication of the batteries age. A 13w solar panel will be of little use charging a 110APH battery if it is flat you would need at least 50w to put a charge in if the battery was flat and even the it would take days. Have you checked the battery voltage on the on board panel ? check the standing volage when fully charged with some lights on it should read about 12.7v- 12.9v and the voltage should remain steady if the voltage drops off over a short period of time then it is most likely that the battery is faulty. Check that the battery connections are tight and clean. If you are unsure take the battery to an auto electrical centre and have it tested. regards geoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigal55 Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 also hand the mh been standing for a while,my ace seems to draw 0.2amps even with every thing switched off,if the battery was low a run to peterborough would not be enough to put the charge back. just a thought Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Dwight Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Steve, We have had to have our Battery charger replaced on our Milano, it appears that Swift have had problems with chargers they have fitteed. The new ones come with internal cooling fans. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel E Posted April 30, 2008 Share Posted April 30, 2008 Steve, You can check quite easily whether the battery is shot or whether it's just not getting enough charge, using a voltmeter. A fully charged battery with nothing switched on should show around 12.4 to 12.6 volts. Fully discharged, it will show about 11.8 to 12.0 volts and anything in between is showing low charge. After getting full charge, leave the battery to settle without using anything that draws current and check the voltage every hour or so. If it is continually decreasing, your battery is not holding charge and needs replacing. If your voltmeter has a DC amps setting, you can monitor the input to the battery when on charge and the output from when in use with the charger switched off. Such a meter is an invaluable part of every motorhomer's toolkit and costs under a tenner from Maplins. Mel E ==== Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exustrek Posted April 30, 2008 Share Posted April 30, 2008 Did it judder? Bryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.