Caravan Electrics

[Stuart_374391891]

I am fairly new to carvanning and we have brought a Fleetwood Heritage 550ES which we have currently sited until we know all the ins and outs of owning it.

We have a leisure battery in the battery compartment, which is relatively new. We know it is working ok as when we pull up to the caravan and turn on the outside lights they come on. We then hook up the site mains electric.

However we seem to have a problem with the trip switch on the mains. When we have 3 internal lights, TV and possibly a laptop on we are fine, but when we then turn on another light it trips the fuse. This is getting annoying as we sometimes have to turn nearly everything off if we want to run the taps as the pump running also pulls on the electric and our lights dim whilst running the taps.

How do we stop this from happening or how do we give ourselves more power?

 

[mikecandsarahb]

i dont know alot about your van but it seems as if you dont have much power going into the 12v side of your system, id check that voltage at the battery and see if your on board battery charger is working,

as for powering your laptop these pull alot of power from the mains, mike

 

[WatsonJohnG]

Is it alsways the same light that trips the fuse?

 

[Stuart_374391891]

No its just a combination of different electrical items.

It just seems that if I run more than 3-5 items (i.e. lights, pump, tv) the trip switch goes.

 

[Stuart_374391891]

i dont know alot about your van but it seems as if you dont have much power going into the 12v side of your system, id check that voltage at the battery and see if your on board battery charger is working,

as for powering your laptop these pull alot of power from the mains, mike

How would I check this?

 

[WatsonJohnG]

It seems odd that 12V lights are tripping the 230V trip if I am understanding you

 

[Stuart_374391891]

Yeah if I run lights and the water pump I usually lose the trip.

When it trips out the lights go dim, but I lose all the plug socket power.

 

[WatsonJohnG]

I would have your battery drop tested as the lights shouldn't go dim with what you say you have on

The TV will be the biggest user if on 12V but it sounds as though one of the problems is lack of battery capacity under load possibly due to a faulty cell

Maybe the load then put on the charger is too great and its tripping out but its a strange one

 

[Stuart_374391891]

Thanks.

Checking the battery I know how to do.

However how do I check to see if the charger is working properly?

 

[Damian]

Stuart, to check your battery charger, firstly with no power connected to the van, check the voltage reading at the battery terminals, it should be about 12.65v on a good battery fully charged.

Anything less than 12v and the battery is dead for all intents and purposes.

Next connect power to the vanand make sure the charger switch is in ON position, then check the battery voltage at the terminals, it should be around 13.8v if the charger is working correctly.

 

[Stuart_374391891]

Thanks.

We have tried all this and it is giving the readings that you are suggesting or very near to.

We have checked all the fuses and they are ok.

We also removed the site meter reader that they install to see how much electricity to charge us for and this didn't do anything. We thought this might have been faulty.

The battery is a 110amp battery.

 

[WatsonJohnG]

Are you just checking the battery with voltmeter or have you had it drop tested under load?

 

[Stuart_374391891]

I have checked the battery charger as suggested by Damian.

I know I might sound stupid, but surely if I remove the mains power and we are still registering 12.5v or in that area then the battery has charge and is OK.

 

[Woody3]

It looks as though some people here are not reading what is happening. The fault is on the mains side - nothing at all to do with 12V.

The pump runs from 12V so if this is causing dimming of the lights it suggests that the power supply is not able to provide the current (about 3-5A for most pumps) and is thus running off the battery. Question: is the 'van fitted with a 'normal' high-current switched mode PSU?

Putting on a fourth light causes the mains to trip, but are we talking the 6A breaker for the lights, the 16A breaker for the power, or the RCD? As I read it, the latter.

First, with the mains disconnected, make sure that all connections on the mains input and the power switch box are good and tight - and that includes both ends of the mains lead. If you are not competent to do this get someone who is.

If everything is going off - as implied - and there are two breakers as is normal (6A for lights, 16A for sockets) then it is the RCD that is tripping. The only way that this will trip in a caravan is if there is a mains wiring fault. As anyone inside the van is unlikely to be earthed then, with one possible exception, even touching a live part will not cause it to trip as protection. That exception is if the person touching the live is also touching at the same time some part of the equipotentially bonded metalwork - if indeed it is - such as the sink, cooker, microwave, or such - I would suggest this is unlikely. If the RCD is tripping the only cause would be a socket with neutral and earth reversed or an appliance similarly incorrectly wired. Plugging items in one at a time to each socket will trace this one.

If however there is only one breaker and it is switching off alone, then something is drawing too much current, unless it is of too low rating. It should be 16A to feed sockets (with some sort of separate protection for the lighting) but if it is, say 6A feeding everything then it may well trip under load with surge. 6A at 230V (nominal) is 1380W and it will take probably double that to trip. TV takes about 60W, lights say 60W apiece, fridge 120W, laptop about 100W if the battery is flat, 150W for the PSU even running flat out - but this is nowhere near 1380W in total. However some items - and the switching power supply for a computer or TV is a good example - can often pull a considerably higher current at the instant of connection albeit not for long but long enough to trip the breaker. Is this what is causing it?

For a start I would suggest getting a mains connection tester (a 13A plugtop with neon lamps in it that indicates correct polarity) and checking that every socket is wired correctly. (It is useful to have when touring anyway - costs less than a tenner.) If that is not the cause, then try plugging in one item at a time and see if it is any specific socket or appliance that causes the trip.

If you can't find anything obvious, come back here with your findings and we'll see if we can help further.

 

[Stuart_374391891]

It looks as though some people here are not reading what is happening. The fault is on the mains side - nothing at all to do with 12V.

The pump runs from 12V so if this is causing dimming of the lights it suggests that the power supply is not able to provide the current (about 3-5A for most pumps) and is thus running off the battery. Question: is the 'van fitted with a 'normal' high-current switched mode PSU?

Putting on a fourth light causes the mains to trip, but are we talking the 6A breaker for the lights, the 16A breaker for the power, or the RCD? As I read it, the latter.

First, with the mains disconnected, make sure that all connections on the mains input and the power switch box are good and tight - and that includes both ends of the mains lead. If you are not competent to do this get someone who is.

If everything is going off - as implied - and there are two breakers as is normal (6A for lights, 16A for sockets) then it is the RCD that is tripping. The only way that this will trip in a caravan is if there is a mains wiring fault. As anyone inside the van is unlikely to be earthed then, with one possible exception, even touching a live part will not cause it to trip as protection. That exception is if the person touching the live is also touching at the same time some part of the equipotentially bonded metalwork - if indeed it is - such as the sink, cooker, microwave, or such - I would suggest this is unlikely. If the RCD is tripping the only cause would be a socket with neutral and earth reversed or an appliance similarly incorrectly wired. Plugging items in one at a time to each socket will trace this one.

If however there is only one breaker and it is switching off alone, then something is drawing too much current, unless it is of too low rating. It should be 16A to feed sockets (with some sort of separate protection for the lighting) but if it is, say 6A feeding everything then it may well trip under load with surge. 6A at 230V (nominal) is 1380W and it will take probably double that to trip. TV takes about 60W, lights say 60W apiece, fridge 120W, laptop about 100W if the battery is flat, 150W for the PSU even running flat out - but this is nowhere near 1380W in total. However some items - and the switching power supply for a computer or TV is a good example - can often pull a considerably higher current at the instant of connection albeit not for long but long enough to trip the breaker. Is this what is causing it?

For a start I would suggest getting a mains connection tester (a 13A plugtop with neon lamps in it that indicates correct polarity) and checking that every socket is wired correctly. (It is useful to have when touring anyway - costs less than a tenner.) If that is not the cause, then try plugging in one item at a time and see if it is any specific socket or appliance that causes the trip.

If you can't find anything obvious, come back here with your findings and we'll see if we can help further.

Thanks this was a great read.

Your right it is the RDC that keeps on tripping out.

 

[Stuart_374391891]

Thanks that was a great read and I will go and buy a socket tester tomorrow morning.

Your right though it is the RDC that keeps on tripping out.

 

[vansmudge]

Thanks that was a great read and I will go and buy a socket tester tomorrow morning.

Your right though it is the RDC that keeps on tripping out.

I am coming onto this topic late.

We have a 560-4 and encountered simillar problems - as newbies!

Do make sure that your heating is turned off before you do any testing.

If it is set on 2KW and you have all of the other goodies tuned on then there is a good chance that you will trip.