Electrickery

[Mocki]

now then, i didnt say take the battery out of the van, i said disconnect it! hehehe!!

it would work as a second battery, but its isnt big enough for that either....

[Other-Power]

The two wires, red wires from the starting battery that run to the ebber, one of those goes to the westy battery charger that many people (me including) think it is the ebber intialy. One of the lines is fused and one is not (the one that goes to the battery charger is not fused, but the chager is fused internaly). the battery charger maybe draining the battery as may the alternater.

[Ivybvus]

Had this thought - is it possible to fit a battery isolator switch - and if so would you put it on the live side or the earth side?

This would take the battery off-line when standing and so avoid drains and would also mean that the van could not be started/driven off by some antisocial individual

[Mocki]

yes, its possible, you should be able to find one in any caravan shop, they are common on caravan leisure batterys, and on the pos lead.

[steffanstringer]

Dear All,

I finally pulled my finger out (and wallet) and got this sorted by an auto-electrician. Turns out I had two problems and none of them related to the heater. The Halfords boys had wired up my stereo a bit wonky. It's an Alpine unit and keeps checking to see it it's got a CD in and causes an intermittent drain. As I am going to be swapping the unit over for one with a remote control that I have in another vehicle, the sparky put in a temporary switch so that I can disconnect it from the starter battery when it's not needed.

However this was not the only thing causing the drain - one of the fluoros in the back is busted and was keeping a permanently open circuit. If 'd only taken the tube out when I was searching for the fault I would have fixed most of my problem. Any one know where to get replacement 12V lighting strips - fluoro or LED?

Cheers

Steffan