Battery and motor movers

[carolynS]

We are having a problem with our Rhyno motor movers cutting out and have been advised to get a larger battery existing is 85ah.

has anyone else had this problem and if so what size battery would we need to change to?

thanks

 

[Terry_5112949]

Is your 85ah battery past it`s best? as a bigger 110ah will power your mover no different only it will power it for a longer period of time

 

[JTQ]

There is in principle nothing wrong with an 85 AHr battery; it's just that a bigger one last longer and has more reserves for other uses. If your 85 Ahr battery is having issues then its either that battery is duff or the mover has a fault, as I said its nothing to do with being too small.

The movers whilst taking a heavy current actually don't take much "power", in that in most cases they are used for only a few minutes. For example a normal caravan size TV on for 20 minutes will only use about the same power as your mover working hard for a minute; there is this misconception that they need a big battery, its simply not true they only need a good condition battery to provide a short term high drain. They certainly show up duff batteries.

 

[Afyfe]

Check your battery voltage when starting and running mover.

The voltage will drop then recover but if the voltage collapses down too low and doesn't recover this would cause the mover to cut-out.

Remember as well as providing power to the motor the battery also provides the power to the motor controls and radio receiver.

If the voltage falls too low then they will also stop working

A 85Ah battery voltage will drop lower than for a 110Ah battery for the same current.

 

[JohnM20]

Hi Carolyn

We have been experiencing the same problem recently with our Truma mover. I thought it was the batteries in the remote handset that were at fault but new ones proved to be no different. The 85ah caravan battery is fairly new and was showing 12.9v.

I phoned Truma who suggested that I charge the battery using a car battery charger, not the inbuilt one in the caravan. When I told the tech guy at Truma what the voltage was he said it was not the voltage that was critical but the ampage and that charging it in the way he suggested should rectify the problem.

I have charged the battery as prescribed but have not yet had cause to use the mover since.

Hope this helps.

JohnM

 

[Philspadders]

the battery not only needs a high capacity but also a low internal resistance and high discharge capability.

When your mover starts up it could be pulling more start up current then your battery can supply.This in turn creates a voltage drop.

Depending on the weight of the van the motors may continuously pull a very high current.. eventually this will damage your battery.( Have you noticed the diameter of the cable going to the motors?.. its the size it is so it can handle the current draw and its a little large than your domestic 32amp twin and earth that powers your electric shower)

Many of us now fit "inexpensive" high capacity batteries simply due to the cost of the things and many of these are low discharge rate batteries and not suitable for for the high loads required by motor movers.

See if you can borrow a clamp meter and next time you use the mover check the current being drawn. I think you will be very surprised and shocked ( no pun intended so be careful).

I have an 85amp Numax on my carver movers and it soon drops below 10.5v when using the movers,this will destroy the battery so when its knackered i will invest in a high capacity High discharge unit.

 

[carolynS]

Thanks for your replies.It was "mr rhyno" who advised us on the phone that the battery was definitley the problem. He said the 85 ah was to small and required an 110 ah.

Taking what has been said i think i may have a cheap and cheerful battery supplied with the caravan which is only one year old.Unfortunatley we are in Germany till July so can not carry out tests as suggested.

Cheers ,Carolyn and Cliff

 

[JohnGriffiths]

I had this cutting out problem with an 85AH battery. When I first installed it 3 years ago I asked on this forum whether a car battery might be better as we always used an electric hook up, and never used the battery for "Leisure" purposes. The advice was to stick to the leisure battery, so I did but I feel I should have gone with my instincts. Anyway, I've just changed the caravan to a much heavier one, and transferred the mover, and took the opportunity to put a reasonable car battery on it. It works like a dream now, no cutouts, just smooth power delivery from a battery made to delivery a high current. But would you believe it: went out touring for the first time last week in the new rig, power went off over the whole site for about 3 hours in the evening and for the first time ever we had to rely on the battery for lights, pump etc. Glad to report it held up fine but I was beginning to panic. All things considered, I will stick to the car battery when using a mover.