Dead battery/campe electrics

[stevewright76]

My main battery is flatter than tuesday's pancakes - which makes me wonde what drained it (no, I didn't leave lights on in or out of van) zig unit show's it's totally dead, not even enough to put red light on

Now camper van wiring seems like an esoteric art form (my leisure battey is fine so may switch the two for now but - anything likely to be a culprit to drain battery like this in two days - just the cold???) which brings me on to other bits and pieces:

Zig units - how do you charge leisure battey with these/use them in general (it's a simple 3-position meter)

Running fridge on electric - I disconnect the fridge wiring to ensure it's off, but am not too sure that how to get/check it's running - not very effectiv on electric, but is that typical, or is there a setting on the gas switch to turn it to fo electric? (It's one of the brown-lined, beige doored 2-way old school fridges.)

Probably more q's soon - AA on th way!

Steve

[Horza]

Erk. Don't switch batteries unless when you say lasure battery you just mean the other standard type "car" battery you use for camping. Proper lesure batteries don't do car starting without damage to themselves I'm told.

The fridges I've seen have a switch of some sort to go from gas to electric. 12v electric isn't usually thermostatic and is only meant for use when the engine is running i.e. to get you to and from your camping location. Again in my experience the fridge on 12v takes a while to cool down but then is way too cold, freezing your beer and carrots.

I don't know what drained your battery, alarm perhaps? There has been some talk of knackered batteries not holding a charge in cold weather but I haven't directly experienced this.

I did have a major problem of a similar nature with my battery going flat four nights in a row with a previous vehicle. I eventually figured that local youths were opening the car without damage and then repeatedly trying to start the engine which was imobilised. I caught on because on the fourth attempt they didn't bother putting it back as they found it. Definition of madness I thought, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a diferent result. *sigh*

[stevewright76]

Thanks for info re: battery fridge being good while on a run - makes sense and fits with experience (sub-baltic on a run, nowt when parked) - interesting info.

Didn't switch batteries, AA relay to the rescue - again useful info and good to have fr me (and hpefully other newbies to leisure batteries)

Battery all charged up and seems to be holding charge leading to suspicion it was an internal light left on for a few days but all good again.

Tiem to investigate getting fridge running on gas - hmmm, this could be interesting but have had one before so no real excitement.

I LOVE these forums in a pinch