No electrical power and trip switch not working

[Brian_5106957]

Hi guys,

I was in our Avondale Dart and flicked on the battery and then a light, it flickered for a split second and went out. Now nothing works at all, no plugs no lights, nothing. I switch on the 'van battery, the neddle goes to yellow, I then switch on any of the circuit swithes and the needle returns to 0. When the needle is at yellow and I try the trip switch it doesn't trip.

Have I blown a fuse??

The 'van was not hooked up it was in our driveway at the time.

Hellllp.

Brian.

 

[vernon]

Sounds like the light has a short circuit, suggest remove and disconnect the light and try again. (Isolate the wires when you remove the light)

 

[Cockovan]

Are you sure your battery is fully charged. If it only goes to the yellow with no appliances running I suspect there is not enough energy to power anything you then switch on.

As to the 'trip switch' I have never come across one in a 12v circuit. If you are talking about one on the mains board it has no connection with the battery circuit.

 

[Damian]

Brian, as Alan has said, ther eis no trip switch on the 12volt side of the electrics, that is only for the mains circuits.

On 12v van power you will only get 12v lighting, water pump and heater fan as well as 12v sockets.

If the battery indicator went straight to yellow and O then it would indicate that he battery is fully discharged by either not having been charged previously, or it has suffered a major internal fault and is useless.

Try taking the battery out and charging it on its own for 24 hours before starting to tear things apart in the van.

Before yo ucharge the battery , check its voltage with a multimeter, then check it an hour after charging, it should read about 12.8 to 13.5 volts, if not, its in need of repalcement.

 

[Brian_5106957]

Thanks guys. I never knew that about the trip switch, cheers. I'll take the battery out, test it and give it a charge in the next few days.

I'll keep you posted.

Cheers.

 

[TonyAsh]

Brian, I had a very similar problem with my electrics, all power suddenly went off and I assumed that the tripswitch inside the plugin point had overloaded. The cause was actually inside the caravan, I unscrewed the front of the tripswitch panel inside the wardrobe and pulled the unit forward - a large connector similar to an electric kettle connector had come away from the rear of the panel. Once plugged back in all was working well and no problems since.

 

[Brian_5106957]

Got it sorted. It was just a flat battery. I must have left the caravan battery switch on and the front light circuit switch on and a light on too. Got a lead to plug it into the house socket, 4 or 5hrs later, hey we have battery powered light.

Duh! How stupid do I feel?