hi all, we've just bought a 2nd hand Compass Drifter 460 on a boxer chassis and could do with some general advice. We've looked at the manuals but are now more confused than ever. can someone please explain in plain english the electrics control panel, esp how to use the charging.
How do we set it up for when its parked on the drive between trips? It is plugged into the mains, we assume that should we be setting it to 'car' to charge the car battery so as not to drain the vehicle starting battery? is this correct?
We know that we should we put it to 'van' when we are at a site (presumeably to charge the leisure batteries) - why then doesn't the car battery drain when you are parked up at a site? This is probably a basic question but it ahs us confused -Please help?
Hi and welcome to the forum. The rocker switch should have 3 settings which is car, van and neutral and like you said it has to be set on van when on site. You only set it to car when you have the engine running as the leisure battery receives a charge direct from the vehicle alternator whilst in transit. Whilst it is on a 240 volts supply the switch is best set to neutral which is the central position. If you have the switch on car and you disconnect the battery leads it may cause a spark and blow a fuse so you are best just to have the charge feed from the domestic electric supply only.
If you are connected to EHU,be it on site,or at home it will only charge the leisure batteries,no matter what the position the rocker switch is in,so long as the main On/Off switch is on,the rocker switch is for when you are not on EHU,and using batteries only,if switched to Van,your 12 volt lights will use the leisure battery,but if switched to Car,the 12 volt lights will use the car engine starter battery,I would not recommend using the car battery for very long, because if you flatten it, you cannot start the engine,while you are running the engine while travelling,it will charge both batteries,Car & Van.On site or at home with the EHU, just leave the switch in the van position,then your car battery is not in use at all & should stay charged.
------------- Think this year is to follow old meet friends for 2014.
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Pete.
It really depends on how it's been wired up. You find all sorts of strange things in secondhand motorhomes. I had one where the handbrake light was wired so that it stayed on if you forgot to switch the fridge on to 12v when you drove away, presumably a previous owner kept forgetting so had it wired that way to remind him. The dealer sorted it out for me.
There was no onboard battery charger when I bought it so I had one put in because the cab battery kept going flat if I didn't use it for a couple of weeks because of the alarm.
The rocker switch on it - in car position the 12v worked from the cab battery and the cab battery was charged whilst on EHU; in van position the 12v ran from the leisure battery and that was charged whilst on EHU.
So at home when van wasn't being used so much I kept the EHU on and the switch on car so that the alarm didn't flatten the cab battery. On site it was switched to van so the water pump, lights etc was running from the leisure battery which was being charged by the EHU (or not if we didn't have EHU, but at least the cab battery wasn't being used).
------------- Caz
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Topic: newbie to motorhoming
