Hi, I've been lurking for a wee while, while thinking of getting my first van. Well today I got myself a Bailey Ranger. Looks to be in really good nick, no damp or wet bits, and comes with a lot of paper work. It doesn't however have the basic van owners manual. There are manuals for fridge heating etc but I don't know how to work the lights from 12v for example.
Is there anywhere to get a manual for an older van? Or can anyone help
Thanks
Manuals for a lot of older vans are very difficult to come by and are often not a lot of good anyway.
I take you have a leisure battery installed? If so the lights should just work by the switches on them or near to them. Sometimes there is a switch near the door. Assuming you have a battery installed and it is fully charged, you may have a blown fuse or a master switch which is turned off. These are all generalisations by the way, as I don't really know your specific caravan. Mine is a different make and quite a bit older.
Congratulations! And we wish you many happy trips away.
Lights from 12v is easy - just don’t plug in the EHU! Try switching on the lights & you’ll soon see which ones come off the leisure battery, and which come of the EHU.
And while the 12v lights are on, run some water and see how the lights dim when the pump runs off 12v, telling you the pump drains more than the lights (but I’m not techy so I probably said that wrong).
You’ll soon pick it up; we’re all here for the specifics, someone may have a handbook & YouTube is your friend too.
Thanks for the help. I went digging about and found a some isolator switches in a wee door under the front seat. Looks like the battery is dead though. The van has been in storage and it has been very cold so I hope it will charge up ok
'Dead' batteries in that situation tend to stay 'dead' in a practical sense! It 'may' take a superficial charge and indicate the correct voltages for a fully charged battery, but chances are it'll have no charge capacity of any worth, and therefore is a bit like a chocolate teapot! Batteries left for any period (often no more than a few days) in a seriously discharged state are ruined for good and no amount of recharging or 're-conditioning' revives them! It's worth a try, it may not have reached or stayed in a seriously discharged state long enough to be totally ruined, likely compromised to some extent on capacity and no longer as good as stated capacity, good quality leisure batteries have some tolerance for abuse, but brace yourself for a new battery!
It's things like Motor Movers that will immediately show any inadequacies, water pumps are quite heavy loads but only briefly used (apart from maybe showering!) so may be OK, lights if old style incandescent bulbs and even fluorescent fittings, take a fair strain because of their prolonged use, modern LED bulbs are a lot more forgiving. The heating system will likely have a blower, that can be a strain, again because of it's prolonged use. You should get typically 3-5 days use out of a healthy reasonable capacity (80-100Ah) battery before it requires recharging (that is, only run down to point of needing recharge, NOT dead flat!) in normal use circumstances.
Preemptive but associated answer here! A common mistake is that new to caravaning peeps expect the fridge to run on 12v caravan battery - IT DOESN'T! It only runs (chills) on 12v from the tow vehicle (if towing socket(s) correctly/fully wired - and they aren't always!) WITH the engine running! BUT it does require the onboard 12v battery to run it's control panel on all but the very oldest vans, and the control panel being functional is essential for use on ANY power source. So a duff battery will thwart all attempts to try the fridge! - and don't expect the fridge to chill down quickly, they take many hours (8-12 hrs) to reach correct storage temps, but after an hour, you should be able to detect a chilling in ice box or on heat exchanger fins in back of cabinet if working OK.
As to user manuals, an oft ask question, as previously mentioned, older manuals are often very hard to find! But not all bad news, the manual is mostly full of 'cut and paste' extracts from appliance manuals, which you do appear to have. For the nitty gritty on the actual van, you often find the manual is a one size fits all effort that changes little over a period, covering a range of vans for that year, in fact for several years if no major updates in that period. It's worth looking for any manual from Bailey for your year and maybe a year or two either side, chances are it will cover at least the equipment and switches etc. for your van.
Hi Martin. We had a Ranger which was a 1999 model 510/4.
There was a switch inside the little wooden door covering the electrics under the front nearside seat locker. The switch was on it's side at the top of the little compartment. I think the switch was a master switch for all the 12 volt stuff.
All the lights were 12 volt except the two in the front lounge corners. They were mains voltage so only work on EHU.
That is a load of help thanks for taking the time to give me so much info. Im away with work for a few days but have ordered a new battery so that should be waiting for me when I get back. I'll post my progress when I have some
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Topic: New owner of Bailey Ranger 440/4 (2000)
via mobile 07/1/2024 at 8:00pm
