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Subject Topic: caravan battery charging while towing
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Personjjgderbyshire
29/9/2014 at 1:05am
 Location: Nottingham
 Outfit: Lunar Solaris 524 View jjgderbyshire's Profile View Profile   Reply to jjgderbyshire Reply   Quote jjgderbyshire Quote  
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Can anyone tell me if the caravan battery automatically gets charged when both black and grey plugs are connected and vehicle engine is running?
The caravan handbook doesn't mention it and when I asked a caravan technician, he said it does charge, but he didn't sound very sure about it.
Does the 12 volt master switch on the control panel need to be switched on?
Caravan is a 2009 Bailey Senator Vermont.

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jjg


PersonLobeyDosser
29/9/2014 at 1:19am
 Location: Argyll Scotland
 Outfit: 1997 Bailey Ranger 470 4 View LobeyDosser's Profile View Profile   Reply to LobeyDosser Reply   Quote LobeyDosser Quote  
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Yes your battery will charge.

It doesn't usually matter where the switch is on the control panel as both the power to the charger and the power to the fridge does not go through the control panel. They are on a separate circuit.

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Lobey.


Personjjgderbyshire
29/9/2014 at 1:25am
 Location: Nottingham
 Outfit: Lunar Solaris 524 View jjgderbyshire's Profile View Profile   Reply to jjgderbyshire Reply   Quote jjgderbyshire Quote  
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thanks Lobey

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jjg


Persontrog100
29/9/2014 at 10:06am
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if the panel has a volt meter you can tell whether charge is going into the battery or not.. if in doubt make sure the mains charger is switched off connect up to the car and with the engine running check the panel voltage.. if the battery is being charged it will read around 13.5 volts.. the same applies to the mains charger if you ever wonder whether that is working or not..

trog


Persontango55
29/9/2014 at 10:57am
 Location: Lichfield
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Yes the 12S socket (grey) is the one that charges the leisure battery providing that the contact is made and no fuses blown etc. but don't take anything for granted and check for yourself. You need a multimeter which costs under a tenner and the pins to check are numbers 3 (earth) and 4 (positive feed) which creates the circuit. If the test confirms there is a current and a reading on the multimeter of around 13-14 volts then you need to check the caravan battery to see if that is receiving the current from the towing vehicle. If the gauge inside the caravan is switched on then this should confirm the condition of the battery anyway but another way to check is switch off the car engine and take a leisure battery reading then start the towing vehicle up and re-check again which should show a higher reading on the second check.
Below is a diagram of the sockets along with the corresponding connections.

Twin Sockets Diagram


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Personjjgderbyshire
29/9/2014 at 4:49pm
 Location: Nottingham
 Outfit: Lunar Solaris 524 View jjgderbyshire's Profile View Profile   Reply to jjgderbyshire Reply   Quote jjgderbyshire Quote  
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thanks Tango and Trog (could be a name for a tv series)

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jjg



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