Went to start the van this morning only to find the battery was flat! Not even enough to turn the engin! We have the battery on charge but.... Is my memory playing tricks on me or will the cab battery charge while on hook up?
The battery is less than 2 years old. We have not been out in the van for a couple of months but everything was ok last winter.
All vans I've come across only charge leisure battery on hookup. If you are not starting any vehicle for more than a month you should disconnect the engine battery, with a modern vehicle there is always a slight drain. Its best to charge battery once a month if it ain't being used, hopefully yours will be ok once charged.
I would have thought yours being a relatively newish van it woulf have had the facilty to charge both batteries when on ehu. Or maybe it has but you have not switched it on.
Our engine battery gets charged when on EHU, as well as the leisure battery. It splits the charge between them. But it may be that yours doesn't. Is there a panel which tells you whether the battery is being charged/or shows what voltage it is at?
Also, even though the battery was ok last winter, the fact that it had stood for a couple of months would mean that the battery would have drained somewhat. If you have an alarm/immobiliser then that will take power from the battery all the time, even though it is not very much, over time it will add up. If a battery is discharged to a great extent then it will not recover 100% after being recharged.
Well after a night on hookup - nothing! I was inside trawling google to find out how to get that cover of the positive side when the van started
DH had pulled and pushed just about everything and when he tried to push the positive cover thing it went down about half inch and - poof - In true Harry Potter style a spell was cast and off it went running like a dream.
Its heading off for the motorway as we speak - gets it tubes blown out a bit - thanks for all your help yesterday. It was very much appreciated.
Vans back - ran like a dream - only problem is that all our hard work yesterday cleaning and prepping it for winter has gone to waste as it is now filthy - its not supposed to rain!!!
Well magnolia a meter is your friend...... Every generator today has a good output, mine something like 700 watts, which is enough to charge both battery's. To connect the two together is very simple, its + to + and - to -, but, when you switch off the ignition then both battery's should be parted. This is done automatically by a separation relay. They are 70 to 130 Amp relays that will take a surge of some 1000 amps, (your starter battery is full and your leisure battery half full you can imagine the amount of current needed to bring one up/down to the other). Don't use a normal switch as they cant take the current, and the contacts burn, make a lovely very expensive fire.
The other two wires on the relay would go to the + on the ignition switch and the other wire to the generator warning lamp or on the W terminal on your generator.
And now this is where the meter comes into it, make sure your generator charges at about 14 volts at about 1750 RPM.
Good luck
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Topic: Flat battery!
