I got new 12v 115ah battery I connected it (positive and negative) and turned on the main switch inside caravan plus the ones marked for lights/heater/sockets etc nothing! Nothing at all
I tried it then by plugging it into my house and all I’ve got working is the 2 side lamps at back of caravan over the seating area, my plug sockets and the light on the fridge is on but fridge/freezer is not getting cold!
Can anyone help?
Why isn’t it working off the battery? (Battery brand new and green light is on it saying it’s got charge)
Why have i not got ceiling lights, side lamps, toilet flush, or fridge getting cold?
The owners manual will explain the often not terrible obvious combination of switches necessary to operate the electrics. A warning - DO NOT turn on the water heater without water in the system/boiler, you risk damaging it!
Now I'm not familiar with your specific van, nor the equipment fitted to it, so can only advise in general terms.
Firstly the fridge. Caravan fridges do NOT cool running off the 12v caravan battery (much too high load and would flatten it in mere hours!), they do cool on 12v supplied from the towing vehicle (IF the towbar wiring is equipped to do so, and that is not always the case!), so the 12v setting on fridge is only for when hitched to tow vehicle.
In most modern fridges a 12v supply from the caravan battery/mains battery charger needs to be present to power the CONTROL PANEL, otherwise the mains or gas cooling wont work.
The Absorption type fridges as fitted to caravans are painfully slow to cool down, 8-12 hours is quite normal for them to reach correct operating temperatures, so have you given it time before declaring 'not working'? They are silent in operation, so only clue to working is the control panel lights and chilling down! After an hour or so, there should be a just detectable chilling in the icebox and/or the heat exchanger fins in the back of fridge.
What works on 12v battery and what works on 240v are slightly different problems, with a certain amount of crossover.
The battery/12v circuits are protected by fuses, are they OK? There is usually a master in-line fuse in the positive cable from the battery, these are sometimes a little difficult to locate as often out of easy sight. Is that OK? Not too uncommon to find corrosion in the fuse holder/cabling preventing a good connection.
The mains equipment/circuits are protected by circuit breakers, are they all flipped to the ON position?
TBF fault finding when hands on and you know what you are doing can be tricky enough, doing so from afar instructing someone unfamiliar with electrics (and there are electrocution/fire risks involve for the unwary!) and without user manuals can be a long drawn out process. After checking the obvious, it may be better to call in an expert (specialist caravan engineer), who should be able to run through the typical fault points pretty quickly.
Did you clean the inside of the battery terminals before you fitted the battery?
Otherwise I would check for an inline fuse as above.
Also check that you didn't break the cable near the battery when you fitted it. Cables can get brittle over the years.
DaveS1
From a dealers picture I can see a white electrics panel inside the van.
At the top is the mains electric consumer unit with an RCD main breaker on the left and a yellow push to test button. All 3 switches should be up. The front lights look like they are mains 230 volt so if they are on, electric is getting through.
Below that is a black plastic circle, probably with a screw driver slot. This is probably a fuse accessed by unscrewing with a screw driver.
Below that are 2 green switches with O and I on them. Pressing top switches them off and pressing bottom switches on. Looks like they have some writing by them I can't read.
Below them there is a battery voltage indicator or voltmeter, it probably reads 13.8 volts or so.
Below that are 2 black switches but I can't read the writing.
There also appear to be some little lights near them which may indicate various things.
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Topic: Avondale 515/4 golden Mayfair electrics
via mobile 05/7/2025 at 10:08pm
