Caravan Electrics - Newbie stupid questions

Caravan Electrics - Newbie stupid questions

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Discussion

surveyor

17,767 posts

183 months

Wednesday 1st June 2016
quotequote all
Rosscow said:
Tyre Smoke said:
Aww Sorry mate!

Try Halfords for the leisure battery, no dearer and comes with a three year warranty. Mine is a 110a/h from there. Fitted to a Sterling Amethyst TA 2010.
Will do.

What electrics are in your Sterling, then? As mine is an Ace (also Swift group) and is a 2008 TA. Thought it would have been similar but obviously they must have upgraded.
That panel looks distressingly similar to what I have!

Tyre Smoke

23,018 posts

260 months

Wednesday 1st June 2016
quotequote all
Do you know, I don't know!

It's all under the front lounge seat opposite the door. All circuit breakers and coloured lights. The OP's panel looks a lot older than yours, and yours looks a lot older than mine. I'll post up a pic if I get a chance.

Rosscow

8,723 posts

162 months

Wednesday 1st June 2016
quotequote all
surveyor said:
That panel looks distressingly similar to what I have!
hehe

Tyre Smoke

23,018 posts

260 months

Wednesday 1st June 2016
quotequote all
Not near my van at the moment, but mine is a Sargent EC400 or EC450 like this from the Swift website....


Rosscow

8,723 posts

162 months

Wednesday 1st June 2016
quotequote all
Tyre Smoke said:
Not near my van at the moment, but mine is a Sargent EC400 or EC450 like this from the Swift website....

Oooooh..... heard some stories about those. eek

Tyre Smoke

23,018 posts

260 months

Wednesday 1st June 2016
quotequote all
rofl

Stop trying to get your own back! It's worked fine for six years, and is going to Le Mans in two weeks......

I don't actually think that is my unit, but it's as close a pic as I could get at short notice. It sits up the front inside the van (obviously!!) under the bunk/settee inside side of the battery box.

Rosscow

8,723 posts

162 months

Wednesday 1st June 2016
quotequote all
hehe

Rosscow

8,723 posts

162 months

Wednesday 1st June 2016
quotequote all
Good news!

Mobile engineer has just gone. Electric boards are fine! Think I need to get a new battery, but the charger just had a loose connection so all good.

Dry as a bone, had to replace the black 12v plug to the car as there was a loose connection, and he unblocked one of the gas jets on the hob.

He started at 8.55am and went at 3.45pm. £255 including VAT and spare parts. I think that's pretty good value.


Tyre Smoke

23,018 posts

260 months

Wednesday 1st June 2016
quotequote all
That is good.

RE the battery, if you know someone with a Halfords trade card the battery has something like 40% off.

Back on topic, I'm guessing with solar panels, they only produce 12v at best so would only be any good at topping up the battery? In which case, surely just a couple of crocodile clips directly onto the battery terminals is the way to go? I know a mate who converts VW vans has a massive solar panel on the roof of his, but can't imagine it does much more than charge the battery and possibly run a small cool box.

Rosscow

8,723 posts

162 months

Tuesday 7th June 2016
quotequote all
Boys, I'm trying to determine if my battery is knackered or not.

Full charged yesterday, disconnected and tested with a multi meter. Voltage was 12.76, which I believe is fully charged.

Left disconnected overnight, checked this morning and voltage has dropped to 12.64.

Now, it seems to be that 12.4v is half charged (reading various websites), so I'm presuming my battery isn't holding a charge very well? Will check it again tonight.

AllTorque

2,646 posts

268 months

Tuesday 7th June 2016
quotequote all
Sounds knackered. We went through two batteries in a similar fashion when we bought our caravan. I now remove the battery after every tripp and use a trickle charger (like an Accumate). Always fully topped up now and no problems....

JimbobVFR

2,679 posts

143 months

Thursday 9th June 2016
quotequote all
Tyre Smoke said:
That is good.

RE the battery, if you know someone with a Halfords trade card the battery has something like 40% off.

Back on topic, I'm guessing with solar panels, they only produce 12v at best so would only be any good at topping up the battery? In which case, surely just a couple of crocodile clips directly onto the battery terminals is the way to go? I know a mate who converts VW vans has a massive solar panel on the roof of his, but can't imagine it does much more than charge the battery and possibly run a small cool box.
I've got a 100W panel on the roof of my Bongo, it provides way more than 12V, the MPPT controller I have steps it down to the correct voltage for charging most of the time and hence gains extra amps. I have a 12V compressor fridge and the Battery can easily keep that going 24/7 for at least 3/4 of the year.

chrisga

Original Poster:

2,087 posts

186 months

Thursday 9th June 2016
quotequote all
Thanks everyone, as per my original post we only want the solar panel to top up the caravan battery as the places we will be visiting with the caravan hook ups aren't readily available. We don't have a TV or anything heavy on power other than the caravans own equipment but just want to make sure we can recharge phones and ipads from the caravan battery without risk of it going flat and not being able to then have any of the other systems reliant on the 12v such as water pump running.

I found a cheap (as second hand not cheap make) folding 80W solar panel with charge controller built in online so took the plunge. The solar panel did originally have crocodile clips and a connector along the power cable so I have connected the solar panel leads to the 12v leads from the caravan at the battery terminal quick releases not using the crocodile clips as there wasn't enough space in our battery box for them and they could bounce off I guess. The idea being that we then just need to plug the solar panel in to the connector in the battery box rather than faff about disconnecting the battery everytime and lifting it out. Solar panel manufacturer said that this shouldn't be a problem.

Anyway, off away for the weekend tonight to try out the new panel and guess what... rain forecast..... yey..... apologies to anyone else going away this weekend, that'll be my fault for buying a solar panel! Oh and we'll be testing the new awning's weatherproofness as well.

Edited by chrisga on Thursday 9th June 16:18

chrisga

Original Poster:

2,087 posts

186 months

Thursday 9th June 2016
quotequote all
And this is us set up at this weekends agility competition



Oh and this had to be done too:



The irony... pistonheads, home comforts in a field matter....

Rosscow

8,723 posts

162 months

Tuesday 14th June 2016
quotequote all
Rosscow said:
Boys, I'm trying to determine if my battery is knackered or not.

Full charged yesterday, disconnected and tested with a multi meter. Voltage was 12.76, which I believe is fully charged.

Left disconnected overnight, checked this morning and voltage has dropped to 12.64.

Now, it seems to be that 12.4v is half charged (reading various websites), so I'm presuming my battery isn't holding a charge very well? Will check it again tonight.
OK, so the battery has been disconnected for over a week now, and voltage has dropped to 12.48 in that time.

I presume it's knackered?

JimbobVFR

2,679 posts

143 months

Friday 17th June 2016
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I'd say yes, although I have managed to recover a battery doing similar using a smart charger with a disulpherisation (sp?) program

Rosscow

8,723 posts

162 months

Wednesday 22nd June 2016
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OK, so I've gone for a new battery. Went for a Banner Energy Bull, 115ah.