Club 80-90 Forums

Hi All,

I recently bought a 2.0L 1982 Aircooled T25. The missus and i booked time from work and went about preparing the camper for a leisure battery.

I perused the leisure battery market and all split charge options until i finally settled on the Intelligent Relay, a 110Ah battery and 600 Watt Inverter. I installed all of these within a couple of hours and was very happy with the result as the new sockets were working absolutely fine and lights and fridge too.

It wasn't until we were two days into our first camper tour when we discovered that there is something amiss with the charge to the leisure battery. I disconnected the intelligent relay and went about trying to find a standard switch which i could turn on/off whilst driving (this was massively difficult on the south coast in the sleepy villages).

With the switch now installed when went about the next day switching the charge manually periodically. This had very little effect on the leisure battery as it was still very flat. This was really frustrating as you can imagine.

So, we purchased a standard 230v cable and plugged in on campsites after that.

My question is: Is it most likely to be the main battery or the alternator? I should point out that on one occasion during our trip we obviously did not charge the main battery for long enough and there was not enough power to start the camper, since then the battery light does not come on when i start the ignition.

Oh, and i love this site, just found it and joined straight away. We have named the camper Frank the Tank, our first camper and not regretting it at all. Best buy ever.

Do you have a really good earth on the leisure?

CovKid wrote:Do you have a really good earth on the leisure?

Well, it's fixed to the steel body work which is under the seat. I think it's a good earth point but you may have better knowledge than me on this.
I was only supplied with about 300mm of cable to earth the battery and had to make do.

First thing that strikes me is you say that the fridge was working - it shouldn't be run from the battery - alternator only.That will cause a flat leisure battery in a very short time.
How did you run the vehicle battery down,the purpose of the leisure is that everything runs from it (NOT the the fridge) - so that you still have power to run the van.

Battery light not coming on is a sign of the alternator charging circuit malfunctioning.

Oldiebut goodie wrote:First thing that strikes me is you say that the fridge was working - it shouldn't be run from the battery - alternator only.That will cause a flat leisure battery in a very short time.
How did you run the vehicle battery down,the purpose of the leisure is that everything runs from it (NOT the the fridge) - so that you still have power to run the van.

Battery light not coming on is a sign of the alternator charging circuit malfunctioning.

Ah, the fridge was only on every now and then. I ran the vehicle battery down by driving with the Intelligent Relay bypassed for a direct link, but had the radio on too( I forgot i was trying to charge the leisure battery). Not once did i turn off the engine whilst the charge was on, it was always disconnected before i switched off the engine.

have a look at the wiring diagrams that are available as downloads on this site

this one would suit you.
http://www.club80-90.co.uk/pages/downlo ... arisma.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

try to ensure everything is lined up as per in attached diagram.

Possibly your brush pack on your alternator needs replacing and it is not giving a high enough voltage output to switch on the relay.
The fridge is something in the region of a 10A drain, then you have your inverter and whatever you were running from that + lights+?.
Have you checked the voltage output of the alternator?

(you don't need to quote the post that you are replying to when it is the last post)

thanks folks, i'm gonna try the brushes first. Then move onto the alternator / battery

Just an update for future reference for any other noobs,

I used a multimeter to test the alternator, and the battery. Checked the brushes and connections, all appeared fine.

Turns out, my stereo was drawing a small amount of power and a redundant alarm too. Stripped out the alarm and re wired the stereo.
Still the battery was dropping some charge so i was recommended Kwik Fit who test the battery. They tested it for free and it took seconds, their machine printed a receipt to say that the battery was only giving 60% efficiency on startup.

Time for a new battery.

Ray