batteries flat (1 Viewer)

[Dilbert]

after a shakedown trip to the West Country in our Peugeot talisman we awoke to a flat vehicle battery and got jump started by a friendly local. ( cheers mate ! ). Off we went back home with no other prob. Out came the toolbox . It turns out the leisure battery is an old small car battery ( Vauxhall branded, faded or missing labels). Rated at 200a 44ah so I'm off down to euro car parts in the morning to get the biggest flipping battery I can stick under the seat! Question is I always thought that if you flattened the leisure battery the van battery was unaffected am I wrong? I'm looking at 100ah leisure and maybe a new van battery . By the way we were only using one of the ceiling lights for about 4 or 5 hours. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[DavidG58]

the two batteries are (or at least be) completely separate

You are confusing me though, the vehicle battery was flat needing the jump start, but you also seem to have a duff / incorrect battery fitted on the leisure side

Did the leisure side fail as well?

I would say get them both changed ASAP, anybody fitting a car battery for the habitation side cant be trusted to get the vehicle side right either

You haven't said how old things might be, or if under warranty, but hopefully 2 batteries will sort things

 

[Reallyretired]

I don't think the Talisman has been made recently so not under warrantee. Definitely change both batteries and get a multimeter so you can check out how things are wired.

I bought my current MH at a year old and the vehicle battery needed replacement after a year. Turned out the battery was far older than the motorhome and badged Fiat in a Mercedes. It looked like the dealer took all the batteries out of the display stock (understandable), and if you bought you had pot luck on which battery you ended up with. I won't mention who the dealer was because this may be a common practice and their service was OK otherwise, it wasn't worth taking up with them as a new battery was cheaper than the fuel and time to go back to them.

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[Dilbert]

Sorry for the confusion. The van is 2000 petrol and the lesuire battery went flat and then the van one lost power so all I got was a slow churn in the morning. The van battery is a 200a 60ah and has been OK . As I said I thought a dodgy leisure won't affect the vehicle battery

 

[DavidG58]

you are correct in your thoughts that a flat battery on the habitation side should not affect your starter battery

one potential issue could be previous owners have wired things to the wrong batteries

I also flattened my cab battery by connecting to a 12V cigar lighter I thought was connected to my leisure battery

sounds like you need to get it checked, hope it is something simple

but probably not a bad thing to change them both anyway, if more than a few years old

 

[Dilbert]

thanks for that I'll have a look in the morning there's a few wires connected to the pos side of the vehicle battery after sorting out a new leisure battery I'll get busy with my circuit tester. I'm newly retired so I've plenty of time. And love tinkering! Mrs dilbert and 12year old grandson enjoyed the trip and looking forward to more.

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[pappajohn]

battery is a 200a 60ah

Bit confused here.
A battery can only be rated at one value.
200 cold crank amps (CCA) seems a bit low for a 2ltr engine, especially a diesel (assumed)
60ah will be the stored capacity.
Leisure battery wants to be at least 100ah
And whatever is listed in the book for the engine

 

[treetops1]

10 years ago we hired a new motorhome to give it a try and on our first night in France we kept the lights on , and the television on all the next day and it flattened both batteries .It turned out there was a little red knob to turn that isolated one from the other .As this was new to me at that time and even today I have no knowledge as to why this was but it was a brand new van .We were grateful for the guy next to us who gave us a jump off .after that we sat in the dark the rest of nights in case we had the same problem again ,but I am sure there must be plenty of these vans about but have not got a clue what the model was .Fortunatly it did not put us off lol.

 

[Wildbill]

Get a solar panel battery master and make sure that the hab and engine battery's are not linked together there a small relay that will only allow current to go one way from your mane battery to your leisure battery works a bit like a diode not expensive.
also check the fridge is not drawing power it should only work 12v when engine is running but I have seen them drawing from the leisure battery's
bill

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[ambulancekidd]

after a shakedown trip to the West Country in our Peugeot talisman we awoke to a flat vehicle battery and got jump started by a friendly local. ( cheers mate ! ). Off we went back home with no other prob. Out came the toolbox . It turns out the leisure battery is an old small car battery ( Vauxhall branded, faded or missing labels). Rated at 200a 44ah so I'm off down to euro car parts in the morning to get the biggest flipping battery I can stick under the seat! Question is I always thought that if you flattened the leisure battery the van battery was unaffected am I wrong? I'm looking at 100ah leisure and maybe a new van battery . By the way we were only using one of the ceiling lights for about 4 or 5 hours. Any help would be much appreciated.

For your leisure battery the Auto-Sleeper guide on your motorhome says 85amp & you'd really be struggling to put a bigger battery in the available room under the drivers seat. Also be very careful that you've got the right type of battery, the posts must be the correct way round as there is no slack to use if you bought one with the posts the wrong way round.
We have an Auto-Sleeper Executive which is very similar to your motorhome & it'll happily cope with the strip lights (& there are plenty of them) being on all evening in winter with no ill effects on the leisure battery & yes that's working off grid. I'd consider changing as many of the non strip lights over to LEDs as the energy savings are terrific.
As to why your cab battery failed I'd be unable to help but as has already been suggested by other forum members the wiring may have been tampered with by an over zealous DIY fiend & getting these things right can be very tiring.
Good luck...Robert.

 

[TheCaller]

our Peugeot talisman

I'm not familiar with that particular conversion, but many UK conversions of similar age would have a very simple 12V charging system. There is often a manually operated switch that just connects the two batteries together. That allows the leisure battery to be charged when the engine is running, but also means that if they are left connected, all usage is also taken from both batteries while parked up.

A lot of the control panels from that era were originally designed for caravans, so sometimes the switch labelling can be a bit confusing as well when you are trying to work out what really happens in each position.

I had a T4 VW campervan with a ZIG control panel & it wasn't until I got up one morning to find I couldn't start the engine that I worked out just exactly what the various switch positions actually meant in reality. I had expected that there would be a relay that only connected the two batteries while the engine was running. There wasn't. And that was on a professional conversion done in 2008! Particularly surprising as in every other way, it was an excellent conversion.

 

[Dilbert]

Thanks for all the help fellow funsters I've checked all the wiring with the wiring diagram in the original auto sleeper handbook and everything looks standard so I'll replace the vehicle battery with a heavy duty one and get a hab battery of 100ah or so. If the problem persists I'll look at the changeover relay that's under the drivers seat maybe it's not clicking over when I turn the engine off. Anyway ta peeps,

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[DavidG58]

and as suggested look to change as many bulbs as you can to LED, we have a controller that displays current being drawn, I was staggered at how power hungry some of our lights were

 

[Reallyretired]

As someone else has suggested, make sure there is room for your chosen battery and that the terminals are on the correct side. If you buy through Tayna who are good value, their site gives the sizes and terminal arrangements of all their batteries.

 

[WillH]

Just a thought, if both batteries have gone down check the alternator, it's common to both.

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[Dilbert]

Back again funsters I've been round the corner to euro car parts and bought a heavy duty veh battery and a 100 ah leisure battery (low height) at £156 not cheap this motorhome lark. Anyway I cleaned up the relay and everything seems to work ok. I think it was just a coincidence that both batteries failed at the same time but then the van had been idle on the previous owners drive for quite a while. Thanks again to all that answered.