My mate's got a Swift Conqueror and ever since he got it he's been plagued by a 'swiftly'(sorry?) draining battery, this despite having a 20 watt solar panel on the roof.
Now my mates a pragmatist and knows that the skinny panel on the roof is going to do 'Not a Lot' but he's been alarmed to find that his battery never seems to keep up with his demand. At first he thought the solar panel wasn't working at all but that has been discounted.
He was so perturbed about this he went back to the dealer to discover that, when the van is sat there, with nothing on in the 'van by way of lights, pump, TV booster etc but switched 'On' at the main panel the battery is discharging at a rate of 0.25 amps.
When that was investigated it was discovered that the reason for the discharge was that the various circuit boards on the 'van were taking it's toll of the battery.
They weren't working abnormally but apparently there are something like 5 boards on the Conqueror and there isn't a way of disconnecting them.
Apparently even the fridge has a circuit board and without it the fridge won't work. So, even when the 'van is in a field, say at a rally, the battery's reserve is being used up and there's nothing that can be done.
OR DO YOU KNOW DIFFERENT?
Oh! and how about this for a piece of retro. Despite the Conqueror having all singing, all dancing LED's fitted, The 'Mood' lighting on top of the overhead lockers are illuminated by Fluorescent tubes drawing more than 1.5 amps apiece.
There's progress for you???
------------- How come when some people visit the fountain of knowledge, they only gargle!!!
Sounds like somethings wrong...we have a swift conqueror and when off EHU use a 100 watt solar panel and everything is fine battery never goes below 13v !!!
------------- Coming home back to a caravan
2013
Whit week Kelpie Manorbier
July/Aug Carpenters Farm Isle of Wight
My mates got a 'proper' panel too but that's hardly the point.
It shouldn't be that a caravan is fitted with gas equipment that necessarily needs electricity to work.
------------- How come when some people visit the fountain of knowledge, they only gargle!!!
Some things you wouldn't want to turn off. If it has a tracker, this will have its own internal rechargeable battery running from the 'van's leisure battery, so if some tea leaf disconnects the leisure battery (cuts the cables) to kill it, it doesn't. Same with the alarm. The alarm is probably connected to the awning light for obvious reasons. Fridge circuits are ready to go as soon as the car is connected, fridge light may be permanently connected. Radio presets are kept alive by the leisure battery. Control panels have clocks that have to be kept alive somehow. It all adds up.
In the short dark days of winter a small solar panel may not cope with that lot. Use your mover when you put the 'van back into storage and your battery has no chance.
As for the fridge, I'm not talking about 'The Light' (and who in God's name decided it was clever to put a glaring light in a caravan fridge).
No. Apparently the 'fridge won't work unless the main switch on the 'van is in the 'On' position. You can't have just the gas on. The Leccy HAS to be on, Bonkers.
The radio whilst always connected has a front that can be removed eliminating it's electric consumption.
------------- How come when some people visit the fountain of knowledge, they only gargle!!!
No. The battery isn't weak as I believe they bought a new one with the 'van last year.
I appreciate that 0.25 amps isn't a lot in the scheme of things but overall I think what comes to mind is that manufacturers are not thinking out of the box when it comes to the design and what goes in "The Box".
With respect it is over simplistic to say that a 100AHr battery will last 400 hrs at 0.25 amps drain. It would only last half of that length of time in a practical sense. Not much but far more than it should be.
------------- How come when some people visit the fountain of knowledge, they only gargle!!!
I would be checking where and at what level these individual contributing drains are taking the current.
On first glance your friends looks quite high but not way out for a modern van with electronic managed creature comforts. I dont feel modern vans are optimised for off EHU use, hence I use an 85 Watt solar system for our mainly off grid camping. I dont think it is "bonkers" just that we want to use the van in a mode it is not designed for, but with a decent size panel can be worked around and still have the refinements electronics brings.
I needed to do the same checks on my caravan and found by far the biggest drain was the radio. Despite being switched off on the head unit it had a drain of 340mA. What had not been provided was the equivalent of a cars ignition switch. Doing that reduced it to a few mAs.
The electronic managed fridge was taking 120 mA, and the Alde in standby 10mA.
The quiescent load with the DC master switch off was 60mA.
Fridge requires electricity for Electronic Ignition where fitted. If you have manual piezo ignition then there is no current draw by fridge, except for the light when you open the door.
I also have circuit boards in our 'Tin Tent' that draws current when the 12v is switched on.
These can and do drop the battery to 12.5v from being fully charged, even with 120Watt Solar Panels on the roof.
If however I turn off the circuit boards/12v then the battery remains fully charged.
While we continue to look for 'Tin Tent's' with more and more 'gizzmos' in then we will ramp up the requirement for current draw more and more while its being used.
It will not be long in storage before you get a flat buggered (Below 10.5V) battery if you don't turn the 12v supply off!
Quote: Originally posted by KarlFritz on 19/10/2013
Fridge requires electricity for Electronic Ignition where fitted. If you have manual piezo ignition then there is no current draw by fridge, except for the light when you open the door.
Well... it depends on the sort of fridge you have. Some have auto door locking, heaters so that the freezer door can be unstuck from the body (ours has this), electronic switchover from 12V to 240V, electronic temperature control as well as the lights and electronic gas ignition!
AS emmitdb says, you can take the front panel off the radio to stop the drain from that, but short of disconnecting the wiring you can't shut the tracker and alarm down, or the bits of control panel that are always live.
Time for an Eco/Hibernate/Rally button maybe, that kills the lot but lets you use anything you want, by just turning it on, on its own.
When not using the van, besides switching of at the power panel you also have to make sure the power down button on the main control unit is in the UP position.I had the same problem with my Swift, as if this switch is not up you will get a drain of .2amps.
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Topic: Is your Battery draining fast?
