Split Charging Problem > Fuse blown
Posted: 17 Jun 2020, 09:12
So last May we got to the campsite only to find that the 075 battery we use as a leisure battery was flat and no charge was going to it . Not really a big problem but we were at a non-electrical site and I needed to spark the fridge to put it on gas. Just put in the starter battery to get the stove going and when we went out for our hill climb dropped the flat battery off at a local garage to recharge it.
I thought it was just the battery being low on charge so recharged it fully at home. No problems on later camping weekends but then we were on electrical hook-ups. But by end Sept the batter was completely flat and I killed my cheap charger trying to bring it back to life.
I thought it was a problem with the Zig system and the online forums really didn't address my particular problem. BUT yesterday I finally had the chance to use the multimeter on the system and yup no charge going to the leisure battery (which was my spare 075 starter battery). It's located at the back and has a fuse and a breaker on it. Both of those were fine. And then I remembered a forum post that said there may be another fuse on the charging cables but near the starter battery. A quick rummage around under the seat, saw it, pulled it and voila! a blown 20amp fuse. Fingers crossed I pulled another one from the fuse box, inserted it and turned on the bus - multimeter verified we had a proper charge to the leisure battery!!!
So, the lesson learned here was to use the multimeter and then look for fuses on the main positive or negative charging cables (mine is on the positive) to see if they had blown or not.
A simple fix that was bothering me for months as I had no time to rummage around hunting down the root cause.
I also bought a proper leisure battery yesterday so the other 075 stays as a spare, plus another gas cylinder for all of our wild camping plans for this CV-19 affected summer.
Andrew
I thought it was just the battery being low on charge so recharged it fully at home. No problems on later camping weekends but then we were on electrical hook-ups. But by end Sept the batter was completely flat and I killed my cheap charger trying to bring it back to life.
I thought it was a problem with the Zig system and the online forums really didn't address my particular problem. BUT yesterday I finally had the chance to use the multimeter on the system and yup no charge going to the leisure battery (which was my spare 075 starter battery). It's located at the back and has a fuse and a breaker on it. Both of those were fine. And then I remembered a forum post that said there may be another fuse on the charging cables but near the starter battery. A quick rummage around under the seat, saw it, pulled it and voila! a blown 20amp fuse. Fingers crossed I pulled another one from the fuse box, inserted it and turned on the bus - multimeter verified we had a proper charge to the leisure battery!!!
So, the lesson learned here was to use the multimeter and then look for fuses on the main positive or negative charging cables (mine is on the positive) to see if they had blown or not.
A simple fix that was bothering me for months as I had no time to rummage around hunting down the root cause.
I also bought a proper leisure battery yesterday so the other 075 stays as a spare, plus another gas cylinder for all of our wild camping plans for this CV-19 affected summer.
Andrew