I am suffering with the leisure battery going flat within a week whilst the van is at the storage site.I have checked that the mover is switched off and even when I isolate the 12v system at the fuse box ,when I connect a multimeter in line between the positive battery terminal and the red positive lead I expect to see little or no voltage but it is showing 12v,have I got a direct short?
Am I Doing Something Wrong?
- Thread starter Roy_374352497
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Damian
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- Mar 14, 2005
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IF you had a direct short you would blow a fuse or fuses, or have a fire.
It is more than likely something else is drawing power, such as the Status aerial booster being left on, or the fan on the fire being left on, or a radio with memory drawing power to support the memory feature.
Try connecting your multimeter in line as you have done, but set to amps to see what power draw there is, from that you should be able to eliminate items and trace the problem.
It is more than likely something else is drawing power, such as the Status aerial booster being left on, or the fan on the fire being left on, or a radio with memory drawing power to support the memory feature.
Try connecting your multimeter in line as you have done, but set to amps to see what power draw there is, from that you should be able to eliminate items and trace the problem.
You only need to be drawing half an amp to flatten the battery in a week, so it could be something very small as Damian says.
I always disconnect the battery when in storage, and if for any length of time I take it home and put it on trickle charge in the garage.
Keith
I always disconnect the battery when in storage, and if for any length of time I take it home and put it on trickle charge in the garage.
Keith
I had a similar problem....and it was the earth terminal on the battery that wasn't making a good connection and as a result, the battery was never being fully charged, and therefore very qickly running flat.
Damian is basically correct.
However I would have the battery checked out. You don't say what ampage battery you have, the norm these days is 110amp.
You haven't mentioned if your alarm goes off, so I'm guessing you either don't have one, or you leave that off.
I had to look at a friends van where they had a completely flat battery like yours and in their case their alarm would go off for no reason.
What I found was that the manufacturer of the caravan had wired the radio memory permanent live wire into the same circuit as the alarm supply. In this case as soon as the alarm detected a drop in voltage to below 10 volts, it started piping every minuit to warn us of that.
The two things I found were initially thta the battery was shot and would not hold a charge, also it was discharging at a faster rate than 110amp/hr. Secondly the mains powered built in charger fro the caravan could not keep up with out put as soon as you put a light on and the radio.
After replacing the battery and installing a more powerfull charger, we solved the issue.
If you ahve a mate who is a cometent auto eletrician, they might be able to find the problem for you at mates rates rather than at dealer prices.
Atb Steve L.
However I would have the battery checked out. You don't say what ampage battery you have, the norm these days is 110amp.
You haven't mentioned if your alarm goes off, so I'm guessing you either don't have one, or you leave that off.
I had to look at a friends van where they had a completely flat battery like yours and in their case their alarm would go off for no reason.
What I found was that the manufacturer of the caravan had wired the radio memory permanent live wire into the same circuit as the alarm supply. In this case as soon as the alarm detected a drop in voltage to below 10 volts, it started piping every minuit to warn us of that.
The two things I found were initially thta the battery was shot and would not hold a charge, also it was discharging at a faster rate than 110amp/hr. Secondly the mains powered built in charger fro the caravan could not keep up with out put as soon as you put a light on and the radio.
After replacing the battery and installing a more powerfull charger, we solved the issue.
If you ahve a mate who is a cometent auto eletrician, they might be able to find the problem for you at mates rates rather than at dealer prices.
Atb Steve L.
Roy
On our recent Bailey even with the 12v master switch set to off the Fridge Feezer is atill live. Although it doesn't run on the caravan battery the led's still operate and I suspect the fridge interior light would.
The Fridge has to switched off and not assumed to be off when the caravan master is off.
On our recent Bailey even with the 12v master switch set to off the Fridge Feezer is atill live. Although it doesn't run on the caravan battery the led's still operate and I suspect the fridge interior light would.
The Fridge has to switched off and not assumed to be off when the caravan master is off.
I think I've found the problem thanks ,hopefully it's the radio/cd player,even when turned off its taking power.So it looks like when the van is in store I'll have to scrabble under the seating unit to the switch that isolates the 12v system.These caravan designers why can't they design vans with all the electrical switches together at eye level?
Roy - why not just disconnect the battery? Presumably it is easily accessible from outside the van?
Keith
Keith
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