Truma Mover SE low voltage?

[nickano]

I bought a van with motor mover and it has a pretty good spec Lucas 105 aH leisure battery. I plug the plug you normally plug into your car for brake lights etc. into the socket on the front of the van and turn the mains safety switch with the red key. Turning the remote control on pairs fine and I hear the first click on the control unit. However the remote never stops beeping after that and the light on the control unit flashes the following sequence: SLSLLSSL (Short/ Long) which when reading the guide on arelectronics.co.uk says it's low voltage issue. So we thought, hey must be a dodgy battery so tried hooking up to my Dad's car battery via jump leads to the leisure battery. It still didn't work. But when Dad started the engine, it immediately did the second click and the remote stopped flashing. I could then move the mover into position on the wheels etc. All of this pointed to the battery being goosed so I bought a new Numax XCV with 800 CCA and 120 aH so it should be perfect. I've checked it's fully charged and.... I'm getting the same thing.

So I'm stumped

Before I send it off and possibly waste more money just wondering if anyone has any suggestions? I'm wondering whether there is enough power by the time it gets to the control unit (floor mounted)... it's less than a metre away so should be fine surely?

 

[otherclive]

I had a problem once when the main power cables were tight onto the battery but the actual cables were not tightly clamped into the battery terminal clamps.

Could there be loose or corroded connectors onto the mover itself?

 

[nickano]

Thanks for your reply. I don't know much about electrics but if it was corroded why it suddenly work when we're started Dad's car engine? Is your theory that some corrosion might be affecting the voltage/flow with just the battery (??) but there was enough being pushed through by the car engine when that was started?

 

[nickano]

And when you say onto the mover are you referring to the motors or the control unit?

 

[otherclive]

My post was based on my experience and there could be several other reasons. But yes poor contacts on the motors could be a possible reason or onto the control unit.

 

[nickano]

So could I use the battery tester at the points it is connected to the unit to test if the voltage is the same there as it is when I connect it direct to the battery? Or does it not work like that? Same with the motors?

Thanks again

 

[JTQ]

Your father's car alternator would significantly lift the voltage at your leisure battery, from at best 12.7 VDC to possibly higher than 15 VDC, so the movers "performance" like that will be different.

Doing that. ie coupling up through to the mover whilst the car engine is running, might though not be a wise thing to be doing, because of the possible overvoltage it causes.

Your work so far is pointing to some excessive voltage loss in the wiring battery to the mover. Are you saying the mover's control box is not directly wired to the leisure battery but goes via the intended lead to the car, into a socket the previous owner mounted up front somewhere?

The wiring here will be way way too under rated for the mover, once that is asked to work, as will the plug and socket. That part is totally wrong, if I understand you correctly.

Movers can pull at or over 100Amps when on load. Just powering the control box, not asking the mover to move the van ought not be more than a few, so doing that not on load ought to be okay, even with that odd wiring.

You can measure the volts reaching the mover's control box, but if wired as I am assuming it is all going to be pointless as your wiring is totally inadequate. It is at high risk of catching fire if the mover was asked to do significant work.

Movers are directly wired, via a massive fuse and the red handled switch from the battery, using cables having a multi stranded copper core, that bundle of strands itself something like a quarter of an inch diameter.

I would first be looking at how the mover's control unit has been wired, is it really via the cable intended to couple to the car as it is hard to credit that could ever be done, let alone work.

 

[nickano]

No there's no direct connection to the car... it was via jump leads battery to battery. The socket at the front is the safety socket, part of Truma design I believe so that you can't accidentally still have your power plugged into your car. They make sure by forcing you to plug it into that and turn the mains switch which seems to complete a circuit.

And just to clarify, the unit is directly linked to the leisure battery.

 

[JTQ]

No there's no direct connection to the car... it was via jump leads battery to battery. The socket at the front is the safety socket, part of Truma design I believe so that you can't accidentally still have your power plugged into your car. They make sure by forcing you to plug it into that and turn the mains switch which seems to complete a circuit.

And just to clarify, the unit is directly linked to the leisure battery.

There is some real confusion here, probably mine. The Truma installation may have the red switch positioned so with the EHU mains cable in the socket the mover's key can't be used, but not the car connection.
Again done to avoid overvoltage and back spikes going to the van's charger/control unit.

 

[Beehpee]

I had exactly the same problem with my Truma mover last year, it paired fine but same issue, it came up with low voltage light sequence, bought new battery and still the same, sent control box to truma who were brilliant and tested the box free of charge, no fault found! So back to checking everything on the wiring side of the system and it finally came down to poor connections on the leisure battery terminals, I fitted new terminals on both live and earth leads going to leisure battery and problem immediately sorted, terminals cost no more than a couple of pounds each and a 5 minute job to change, got to be worth a try to see if that’s what your problem is, make sure the battery terminals are nicely cleaned as well if your using the old battery.

BP

 

[nickano]

One of my terminals is a bit rusty, I'm thinking it might be that now you've said it and I've found out that rust causes resistance and less current.

It all makes a bit more sense when you understand what things actually are/do !!

I'll report back

 

[nickano]

You defo have to do the safety socket plug and main switch see from 1:38 https://youtu.be/RnW6lVQQR54

 

[Beehpee]

My battery terminals were not rusty at all, the problem was, most people often forget that the posts on a battery are tapered, the terminal on the leads is tapered to match, when you put the terminal on to the battery it needs to go all the way down so that it makes a good connection, it’s easy to have the terminal only connecting at the lower front edge, that was what was happening in my case, new terminals are cheap as chips and real easy to fit.

BP

 

[otherclive]

I had exactly the same problem with my Truma mover last year, it paired fine but same issue, it came up with low voltage light sequence, bought new battery and still the same, sent control box to truma who were brilliant and tested the box free of charge, no fault found! So back to checking everything on the wiring side of the system and it finally came down to poor connections on the leisure battery terminals, I fitted new terminals on both live and earth leads going to leisure battery and problem immediately sorted, terminals cost no more than a couple of pounds each and a 5 minute job to change, got to be worth a try to see if that’s what your problem is, make sure the battery terminals are nicely cleaned as well if your using the old battery.

BP

That was basically the problem that mine had.

 

[Beehpee]

Let me just remind you that truma were really helpful, I posted the control box to them, it’s well worth taking pictures of the leads going to the control box before disconnected, if I remember correctly there are 8 leads going to it, 4 red and 4 black, mark each lead with numbers 1-8 or when you come to reconnect you’ll have problems, Truma were great and tested it completely free of charge and then allowed me to drive to the factory and collect it rather than wait for post.

 

[nickano]

Brill...where's the factory?

 

[Beehpee]

Derby I think.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Truma UK is located at "Dove Valley Business Park, an accessible development off the A50 between Derby and Stoke."

I would advise contacting them to make an appointment before going to their site.

 

[Thingy]

Its also near Ashbourne.

As a suggestion, why not take the Caravan to Carsington Water (just outside Ashbourne) for a few days and book a service visit from Truma on site. I have had them out before and they were very good.

Although I accept it is pointing to Low Voltage as you say, have you tried standing closer to the location of the control box with the remote, when operating it.

 

[Beehpee]

When I contacted them I posted it to them having explained the problem, they then phoned me to say no fault found, I actually asked if they could possibly do a re-test as I was convinced there was a fault which they agreed to, I then got a call to say still no fault found and rather than wait on a parcel company to bring it back I drove up to the factory to collect it, I arranged to do that prior to going and it was waiting for me at reception when I got there, I was impressed by how accommodating they were and as previously stated all of this was totally free of any charge, an excellent company to deal with.

BP

 

[bertieboy1]

Connecting two batteries in parallel will cause the good battery to discharge into the not so good battery,in other words if the two batteries were identical then the batteries would equalise in terms of capacity
eg two 100Ah batteries,one with 80Ah capacity and the other with 10Ah capacity,when connected together after a short time both batteries would be 80-10/2 =35Ah with an associated low voltage.When the car's alternator started up the voltage would have increased.
Nothing wrong with checking and cleaning terminals and connections but make sure the caravan battery is in a good state of charge.
The red switch referred to is not a mains switch but an isolator switch for the motor mover.It should be located under or behind the mains socket for the caravan so that you cannot switch on the mover when the caravan is connected to the 230V. mains.

 

[nickano]

Can I just say thank you to everyone who replied.

It was the battery terminals...i bought new ones and trimmed the wires back a bit. The negative terminal was a bit rusty and the wires had gone a bit green. I stripped them back, intertwined them and put the new terminals on. Clicked into life straight away!

Thank you so much, especially Beehpee and otherclive

 

[ProfJohnL]

Its great to receive a reply from someone who has found the forum useful.

 

[Guzzilazz]

Get yourself some Dielectric grease and slap it around the terminals...

 

[otherclive]

Been getting the van ready to take for service tomorrow. Since it was last used in new year I have connected up to 240v to keep battery (2 years old) charged up. Generally for 24 hours every 2-3 weeks.
So on checking display panel I was miffed to find it reading 11v. I rechecked with my meter and yes it was just below 11 v. The battery terminal and cables were tight and corrosion free. I always check that the radio display is off too. So in five days it’s either lost charge or not been charging.

If it’s the inbuilt charger for the Sargent EC 400 unit I might be having to source a new, alternative or refurbished part. And a battery too. Oh the joys of this hobby!