Hook Up drains starter battery

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Jimandcharlotte
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Hook Up drains starter battery

Post by Jimandcharlotte »

We bought our T25 last year. All brilliant, apart from a wierd problem when on mains Hook Up. Everytime we connect to Hook Up at sites, all the electrics including 240v socket work perfectly. But by the morning the starter battery is drained dead flat.

Leisure battery works fine and charges fine when not on hook up (ie from starter battery).

I'm not the sparkiest of owners, so any advice gratefully received.

Jim

MidLifeCrisis
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Re: Hook Up drains starter battery

Post by MidLifeCrisis »

Do you have a Zig or some other sort of charger/power distribution ??
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1664
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Re: Hook Up drains starter battery

Post by 1664 »

MidLifeCrisis wrote:Do you have a Zig or some other sort of charger/power distribution ??
and what conversion is it? We might have a wiring diagram for it.
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ZsZ
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Re: Hook Up drains starter battery

Post by ZsZ »

Maybe a faulty built in charger?
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Jimandcharlotte
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Re: Hook Up drains starter battery

Post by Jimandcharlotte »

Yep, got a Numax 1000 battery charger. And it was a DIY conversion done by the guy we bought it off - so possible it's just bodged.

MidLifeCrisis
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Re: Hook Up drains starter battery

Post by MidLifeCrisis »

Mmm - if it's a home brew van then there's probably not much that can be done to help other than encourage you to start following the wires around the van and see what is connected to what .....
.... if the battery is going flat in a single night then:
a) you're doing damage to your starter battery letting it get flat
b) that power must be going somewhere and if you don't know where then there could be a danger that it is shorting to something and that there could be a safety risk ....

Start investigating !!

Oh - and by the way - welcome to the forum !!
1987 Westfalia Van, Petrol 2.0 AGG

Jimandcharlotte
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Re: Hook Up drains starter battery

Post by Jimandcharlotte »

Thanks. Was holding out hope there was a known fix to this, but here's to a weekend following wires! Thanks for the advice anyway. Will be back when I hit the next problem.

MidLifeCrisis
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Re: Hook Up drains starter battery

Post by MidLifeCrisis »

Well - feel free to post pics of the van wiring or any drawings you can make of the wiring and perhaps folks can help you track down the issue ......
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Re: Hook Up drains starter battery

Post by Smiffo »

Jimandcharlotte wrote:We bought our T25 last year. All brilliant, apart from a wierd problem when on mains Hook Up. Everytime we connect to Hook Up at sites, all the electrics including 240v socket work perfectly. But by the morning the starter battery is drained dead flat.

Leisure battery works fine and charges fine when not on hook up (ie from starter battery).

I'm not the sparkiest of owners, so any advice gratefully received.

Jim

Sounds like some of the DC equipment is wired to the Starter battery perhaps, and not the Leisure battery..??
( So you think AC is charging battery that the load is on, but really something is wired to the starter battery instead - which isn't being charged )

Could try disconnecting Leisure battery, and see if any DC powered equipment still works..??
( like one of the lights, or pump, heater or 12v power outlet etc etc )

Just a thought.
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Re: Hook Up drains starter battery

Post by AdrianC »

It really is going to be multimeter o'clock.

What voltage are you seeing at each battery, when on hookup?
What fuses do you have for internal 12v equipment?
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