Motormover wont work

[trickydicky]

Ive got a 1998 Swift Corniche which has a built in battery charger,and the van is fitted with a Carver motormover.The battery is 80ah and is 6 months old.When the battery was new the motor mover worked fine,but now the mover just "clicks" and nothing happens.

Ive been told the battery has not got enough charge.How do I find out what is wrong.

 

[Damian]

Richard, first of all check that the battery charger is actually working.

Use a multimeter and with no power connected to the van take a reading of volts at the battery terminals.

Then plug in mains power, ensure th echarger is switched on and take another reading at the battery terminals, it should be about 13.5 to 13.8 volts.

Assuming that you have, without the power on, a reading of at least 12 volts at the battery, energise the mover, without being engaged on the wheels, as you press one of the buttons to start the mover read the voltage at the battery, it should NOT drop below 12v, if it does, the battery is not holding a charge.

If you have let the battery run down over storage time, it may be irrecoverable, but take it off the van and try a good charge on a multi stage charger which will take it up to 14.8 volts and possibly reverse the sulfation on the plates.

Just a point,an 80ah battery is the smallest possible battery which can power a mover, better to uprate to 110ah.

 

[Adam Shanley]

Hello RichardP,

I am from Truma, we took over Carver some years ago. A failing battery is quite often the cause to a caravan mover problem. It is the cranking amps that is needed for succesful operation. I cant confidently say that your problem is the battery but it is a good starting point.

The best advice I can offer is to either call our technical department on 01283 586020 (open again next Tuesday from 8.30am) or email them on technical@trumauk.com.

In the meantime, your nearest caravan dealer will more than likely be able to help.

If you do end up replacing your battery, we now advise that you use a minimum of an 85Ah battery for a single axle caravan mover and a minimum of 110Ah for a twin.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Truma (UK) Limited

visit www.trumauk.com

 

[trickydicky]

Hello Damian,

Thanks for your advice.Im off to Maplins to get a multimeter so I can get to grips with "whats what" as you suggest.Were new to caravanning,and when we bought the caravan didnt have a clue as to what type of battery or how things worked.

Thanks again for your help,its much appreciated. Will let you know how I get on.

Cheers Richard

 

[Heethers]

Glad to see Truma now getting involved with this forum, can only help with customer service after some of the bad posts on here.

l have the Truma S fitted last October by CMI, they advised me that a 110 amp battery is the best bet for the type of mover l had fitted.

NigelH

 

[gary]

Some useful new legislation mostly regarding the recycling of all types of batteries comes fully into force this September.

The very useful off shoot of this legislation is the correct labelling of batteries? until now a leisure battery of a certain size was automatically assumed to be of a certain amp hour, however in many instances this has been far from the truth?

Some 'cheap' batteries labelled as 85Ahr have little more than half that, 110Ahr being 85Ahr or worse!!

The problem with 'cheap' is you may well have paid good money assuming you get what you pay for or a 'bargain', after September, (all good companies have already changed over), the actual power will need to be displayed and price comparison will be at worse a fairly simply calculation

You may then today see Ahr missing from the 85/110, good batteries are then labelled with the actual, say 82Ahr or 105Ahr perhaps.

Sadly though this is not actually required in favour of a more misleading power rating to the unaware, it's up to us then to become familiar with these markings and knowing how to interpret them.

In the fairly short term though, those batteries that were far from what they appeared to be should quickly become unsellable at any price, this should then leave us back to actually getting what we assumed we always have?!