Motor mover/leisure battery help (first time caravanner!)

[bickybetty]

My sister and I have bought a 2002 Abbey Freestyle caravan as our first caravan that we'll share. We are total first timers and the van we bought was filthy but seemed in good condition, so far so good. Except I'm struggling to understand the battery and the motor mover. I can plug my caravan into the mains and the heating, the fridge and water pump all work. On battery only the lights work?? Is this normal? What if I was "off grid" I'd have no heating nor fridge (unless i use gas)?
Also, the motor mover will not work at all. The lights come on on the control, the receiver is on and seems fine but doesn't respond to the control.
Because of all this, I have just purchased a Platinum AGM battery as I thought there was an issue with the existing one, I'm still having all of the above issues.

PLEASE HELP!

 

[Gagakev]

My sister and I have bought a 2002 Abbey Freestyle caravan as our first caravan that we'll share. We are total first timers and the van we bought was filthy but seemed in good condition, so far so good. Except I'm struggling to understand the battery and the motor mover. I can plug my caravan into the mains and the heating, the fridge and water pump all work. On battery only the lights work?? Is this normal? What if I was "off grid" I'd have no heating nor fridge (unless i use gas)?
Also, the motor mover will not work at all. The lights come on on the control, the receiver is on and seems fine but doesn't respond to the control.
Because of all this, I have just purchased a Platinum AGM battery as I thought there was an issue with the existing one, I'm still having all of the above issues.

PLEASE HELP!

Hi, welcome to the forum. one step at a time.
Heating will be electric and gas
Fridge will be electric and gas and 12v only when plugged into car and travelling (engine on)
Water pump 12v
Most lights 12v you may have possibly two that will work on mains.
So you are correct in saying off grid heating and fridge will be gas.
Next bit of advice, have you had the appliances gas checked? If not suggest you do this for everyone's safety.
Motor mover, have you switched it on, there is normally a "key" situated next to the mains input socket, but not always so you may have to look for it.
Have you checked the date on the tyres, there should be a oblong box on the tyres with four figures in them , read them and come back on here with the figures, its a date stamp.
That will do for now, others will be along with with more advice.
Oh............happy vanning.

 

[audiorob]

The motor moving works off the battery, and if like mine the key can only be inserted when the mains is unplugged It should look like this and rotates about 180 degrees in the socket (in the battery/mains input locker) to activate the mover. The mover handset will likely have a PP9 battery or similar.

Worth viewing the AWS caravan service engineers website to find someone local to get your checked over - service and damp report!

 

[Sam Vimes]

This may be obvious to you but I'll mention it anyway, so apologies in advance if it is....

Not only do you have to turn on the power to the Motor Mover but you have to engaged the motors of the mover onto the caravan tyres. This may be by pressing a button on the remote or using a wrench or leaver which you put onto a 'nut' on the motor mechanism which allows you to move it forward onto the tyres.

This has caught me out a few times when I've fogotten. Usually you can hear the motors 'whirring' but nothing moves. I've also fogotten at times to release the motors which makes starting off a little tricky.

Also forgotten to take the handbrake off when using the mover.

 

[bickybetty]

Hi, welcome to the forum. one step at a time.
Heating will be electric and gas
Fridge will be electric and gas and 12v only when plugged into car and travelling (engine on)
Water pump 12v
Most lights 12v you may have possibly two that will work on mains.
So you are correct in saying off grid heating and fridge will be gas.
Next bit of advice, have you had the appliances gas checked? If not suggest you do this for everyone's safety.
Motor mover, have you switched it on, there is normally a "key" situated next to the mains input socket, but not always so you may have to look for it.
Have you checked the date on the tyres, there should be a oblong box on the tyres with four figures in them , read them and come back on here with the figures, its a date stamp.
That will do for now, others will be along with with more advice.
Oh............happy vanning.

Thanks so much for your reply.
We're going to get the van serviced before taking it anywhere so I assume they'll check the gas. I blew something just trying to turn the heating on with the gas!
Yep switched the motor mover on with the red key in the battery compartment.
There's only an oblong box on one tyre and that says 4117. Shouldn't they both have one? The tyres are in good condition though

 

[bickybetty]

This may be obvious to you but I'll mention it anyway, so apologies in advance if it is....

Not only do you have to turn on the power to the Motor Mover but you have to engaged the motors of the mover onto the caravan tyres. This may be by pressing a button on the remote or using a wrench or leaver which you put onto a 'nut' on the motor mechanism which allows you to move it forward onto the tyres.

This has caught me out a few times when I've fogotten. Usually you can hear the motors 'whirring' but nothing moves. I've also fogotten at times to release the motors which makes starting off a little tricky.

Also forgotten to take the handbrake off when using the mover.

Thank you! I've had the van a few weeks now so I figured out I had to engage the motor mover eventually! There's no noise or anything from it

 

[bickybetty]

The motor moving works off the battery, and if like mine the key can only be inserted when the mains is unplugged It should look like this View attachment 4938 and rotates about 180 degrees in the socket (in the battery/mains input locker) to activate the mover. The mover handset will likely have a PP9 battery or similar.

Worth viewing the AWS caravan service engineers website to find someone local to get your checked over - service and damp report!

Thank you, yep turned that on. All the lights come on the control as you'd expect but doesn't seem to "talk" to the receiver. I reset the receiver but that didn't work either

 

[audiorob]

Ok but one more thought as the mover will have its own fuse - in the +ve near to where it is connected to the battery terminals - seperate to the in-line fuse that serves the general caravan electrics.

 

[Gagakev]

Thanks so much for your reply.
We're going to get the van serviced before taking it anywhere so I assume they'll check the gas. I blew something just trying to turn the heating on with the gas!
Yep switched the motor mover on with the red key in the battery compartment.
There's only an oblong box on one tyre and that says 4117. Shouldn't they both have one? The tyres are in good condition though

Im glad you have decided to get the van serviced, blew something trying to turn heating on! Alarm bells ringing there. sorry to be a bit harsh but your first post stated it was filthy so that tells us it may well have not been cared for much. When you have the service under normal circumstances they will check the gas but ask them to actually service the gas appliance's (will charge extra I'm afraid).
Tyres I suspect the missing box one could be on the inside of the tyre but the date you have given is the 41st week of 2017, this makes them 7 years old, recommended tyre change is 5 years irrespective if they look good.
Sorry if I sound harsh and given you bad news, but on the bright side you are doing things correctly, we were all wet behind the ears at some time.
Hope you get it up to scratch soon and start to enjoy your van.