Oscillating 12 volt lights - Bailey Senator Indiana series 6

[valinspain]

Has anyone else experienced a problem with the lighting system flickering on the above van? The problem occurred suddenly after we had been away for about two weeks. One evening the lights suddenly dimmed and then started to flicker. Initially we thought it was probably that the battery had somehow discharged (although the van has constantly been attached to the EHU for the whole of the time we have been away) but even so the meter never reads more than 13 volts at its peak. Water pump and TV seem to be operating fine, but the lights are unusable. If anyone has any suggestions they would be most gratefully received.

 

[TD42]

If its all the 12v lights flikering the first thing to check is the relevant fuse holder is grippng the fuse ok I would next suspect the transformer

 

[DeliDave]

we have a lighting cutoff switch on the panel,perhaps it is on its way out,Maplins have a similar one or RS do the exact replacement but have to pay p&p from website

 

[WatsonJohnG]

On our series 5 Senator there were 2 panel lighting switches

They work via relays on the circuit panel

If the relay fails the lights stay on

This happened shortly after we had the van serviced and it was returned with the panel switches off but when switched on all the van lights came on at the same time

I fitted another relay to do the switching outside the circuit panel

Using relays in the first place ensures that the panel switches are taking a low load

 

[valinspain]

Thank you all for your ideas. We looked at all of them, but it appears that the problem is caused by the fact that in this model almost everything is run on 12 volt i.e. all lights (no mains lights at all), TV, radio/DVD, water pump, heater fan, toilet flush etc etc. Therefore all power except the water and room heaters needs to be supplied via the battery or charger/transformer, which is suitably heavy duty having an output of 20 amps. The TV is also directly wired to 12 volt (factory fitted) and is always on standby unless the 12 volt input lead is disconnected. This all works well when the the hook up is a 16 amp and stable. Our problem is that we are currently in Spain with a 10 amp EHU which is subject to voltage drop at times of heavy useage, meaning that the beefy charger dosn't get enough power to keep the battery charged! We think that although in theory this is a simple system it is a pity that Bailey have not thought about situations like this and have removed some of the options you would normally expect. i.e more than one way of operating systems.we are now looking to convert the TV back to AC operation via a power adapter.

 

[caravanoracle]

sounds to me like the battery fuse has blown, and you are operating all your 12v appliances directly off the charger rather than from the battery. this would explain why the volt meter is still showing ok. to check, simply unplug the mains and see what happens when powered from the battery. if everything goes off, then it is what i have said.

if you then replace the blown 15amp fuse, it will blow again straight away until you charge the battery away from the caravan. the reason for this is because when the battery is flat it will try and draw the full 20amps which will blow the 15amp fuse.