Never had any problem with the 12v supply which consists of a 80Ah battery within a Labcraft TP2 Trailer Pack charger box. I charged up the battery, which is showing 13.2v on multimeter, green in window and green on TP2 display. Installed it into the 'van which has a voltmeter and a manual switch on the wall to change from "car" to "van". Switched to "van" and meter shows full charge. However, if any appliance is switched to "on" the meter on the wall swings into the red and the appliance fails to function. This happens for all/any of the four lights and water pump which the 12v circuit supplies.
Can anyone advise what might be the matter, please?
I cannot find a distribution or fuse board. There is an in-line fuse with the battery, this is still intact.
Hi sounds like a bad connection, or faulty battery failing under load. If you have a fridge just check its not switched to 12v , it should not be wired to the caravan battery circuit but if someone has in the past wired it in this could give you the voltage drop you describe. I would start by cleaning battery connections and the wiring in the TP2 Pack 12v plug
Sounds to me like the battery has come to the end of its life and is simply not holding a charge. Any drain on it just kills it as it no longer has any capacity, even though its voltage is up after being charged. The only other alternative is a major short circuit within the caravan, but I would have though that would have other symptoms such as a burning smell or the battery getting hot. It would also blow the battery fuse unless anyone has bypassed it. A duff battery seems the most likely.
That sounds like a classic worn out battery! You don't say how old it is, but imply it's been used for a while, depending on quality of battery in first place and how well it's looked after, their life can be anything from under a year to 10 or 12 years!
The voltage reading, be it multi-meter or inbuilt van charge meter, really only shows the state of charge, but NOT the health/capacity of the battery. It may only have the tiny functional storage capacity equivalent of say a AAA cell but still be fully charged, which is why it 'dies' on any load application. Batteries lose storage capacity as they age.
Best 1st move is get battery load tested by a battery supplier (Halfords and many garages can do it), that'll confirm it's state of health (expect it to be declared 'dead'!).
Second option is a very poor connection to some part of the electrics, causing an exceptional volt drop on load. The battery terminals are always a favourite suspect, as prone to corrosion (clean and protect with Vaseline or Lithium grease). The rest of the electrics may need terminations checked in a systematic way.
Battery terminal check is the easy way to start, followed by a battery load health test, then if no joy with first two, the tedious task of checking through wiring/terminals, it's not so much the difficulty of task as the inaccessibility/access problems.
Thank you all for your advice and suggestions. I tested the battery under load, checked the fuses and wiring loom until I found the fault was loose spade connectors on the car/off/van switch. I replaced these with new connectors and all good.
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Topic: 1992 Sprite Musketeer 12v electric fail
via mobile 30/6/2024 at 2:10pm
