running interior lights

[scottbott]

this may be a dumb question but I did not realise that when on a hookup and having my interior lights on that they were running off the main battery because I have a battery isolater that I switched off and the wife we have no lights,when I reconnected the battery the lights came on again,is it easy to convert over so the lights are running off 240 volts when on a hookup and as they are now without the hookup??

[kevtherev]

Do you have the aux battery fitted?

[scottbott]

yes,with an intelligent split charge

[mrdp]

Hi I have a split charge and my strip lights - one in the pop top as and one 'downstairs' run of the main battery, I always thought this was odd. I have since wired up led up lighters to the leisure battery and used to take a small plug in lamp to run off the 3 pin 240 sockets ,I don't really know why leisure drive wired it up like that but obviously other have too, doesn't really help you other than knowing you're not alone.

[nevill3]

Do you have an inbuilt battery charger that charges your batteries when hooked up?
Do you have a ZIG unit, if you do which one is it. My ZIG unit allows me to switch between the leisure or starter battery.

I think I read on here that the lights were probably just wired into the standard 12v lighting circuit for the interior lights, hence they run off the starter.

There was a post on how to easily change this..

Here's how I did it.

You'll need a length (3m-4ms of 17A cable, an inline spade type fuse holder, a 15A fuse - you can use the one in no3 in your fuse box. And some crimp / solder connectors to fit on the ends of the fuse holder and one for the leisure battery.

Uncover the fuse box, and undo the retaining screw. Hunt carefully and you'll find a cable(probably red) that heads up the A pillar - it'll have a connector on it. There's a feed going in one end from the fuse box, and another red wire going off to the other side of the dashboard (this powers your radio), as well as the cable heading up towards the A pillar. Turn on a flouro light in the rear, then disconnect the connector. If the light goes out, you've found it.

Next, disconnect the negative cables from your main and leisure battery. Then cut the cables going into the connector found earlier. Put some insulating tape around the end of the one that heads into the fuse box. Put the other two together and crimp them into a spade connector (if your fuse holder uses spade terminals). Then feed the 17A cable from the leisure battery under the carpet all the way to the fuse box (tape it down whereever possible). Put a battery terminal connector on one end, and a spade connector on the other. You can then connect both these spade connectors to either side of your inline fuse holder. Take the 15A fuse from no 3 (you've made this redundant) and put it into the fuse holder. Then attach the 17A cable to the +ve side of the leisure battery. Reconnect the negative side of your leisure battery and test - your interior lights and radio should work fine. Refit the main fusebox and put the cover back on. Then reattach the negative terminal on your main vehicle battery, sit back and have a cup of tea.

[kevtherev]

Hi I have a split charge and my strip lights - one in the pop top as and one 'downstairs' run of the main battery, I always thought this was odd. I have since wired up led up lighters to the leisure battery and used to take a small plug in lamp to run off the 3 pin 240 sockets ,I don't really know why leisure drive wired it up like that .

The ones downstairs are curtesy lights fitted VW

[CovKid]

Fitted out of courtesy? Aww thats nice.