leisure battery charging circuit (1 Viewer)

[huntersforge]

Happy new year guys.
Sorry in advance if this question is a no brainer ...

Our motorhome is parked up on the driveway hooked up to the mains power to power a small oil filled heater to keep the dampness and frost at bay . My dilema is thus , Can I remove the vehicle battery for charging without breaking the circuit which charges up the leisure battery and will it do the system any harm??
Thanks again
HF

 

[pappajohn]

you can remove either one without affecting the other.

but why remove the engine battery ?

with the battery still in place you could connect your charger and plug it in in the vans 230v sockets.

take it off and you will loose the radio code and if you dont have the code you're stuffed.

 

[huntersforge]

Thanks for info pappajohn . Charge battery without taking it out oh:

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[The vagabond]

Charging vehicle battery

If you have any user manuals with the van have a look at those, you may just find if you are lucky, that the system is designed to charge the engines battery once charging of the leisure battery is complete.

 

[pappajohn]

actually, after reading vagabonds post, your control panel may have a 3 position rocker switch for charging.

our kontiki has and is marked with a pic of the cab, a pic of the living area and a center position which is off.(neither battery is charged)

if it has then switch to the cab position and it will charge the engine battery using the onboard charger.

it may be marked 'hab', 'cab' and 'off'

 

[tan]

Battery Charging

I have a campass avangarde 400 2005 which has the three position switch aux/middle/veh when on hookup the aux switch lets the leisure battery charge but when on veh the voltmeter shows no charge going to veh battery. Would this be correct or am I doing something wrong. I am new to this and would appreciate the advice.

TANoh:

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[pappajohn]

I have a campass avangarde 400 2005 which has the three position switch aux/middle/veh when on hookup the aux switch lets the leisure battery charge but when on veh the voltmeter shows no charge going to veh battery. Would this be correct or am I doing something wrong. I am new to this and would appreciate the advice.

TANoh:

that sounds normal if the engine battery hasnt been connected to the panel.

simple enough to connect but very labour intensive hiding the wires between the battery and panel.

 

[tan]

Maybe I was not clear when on Veh and hookup I just shows 12 volts so I assume panel is connected to veh battery but not charger??

TANoh:

 

[pappajohn]

Maybe I was not clear when on Veh and hookup I just shows 12 volts so I assume panel is connected to veh battery but not charger??

TANoh:

now thats a bit different to your original post...

"when on hookup the aux switch lets the leisure battery charge but when on veh the voltmeter shows no charge going to veh battery."

when on hookup the panel is fed from the charger which in turn is fed from the hookup(possibly direct but i doubt it) via the mains fuse board and is a simple 12v power supply.
the 3 way switch decides where the power supply is directed to...leisure battery, engine battery or nowhere (off)

if it has been wired correctly, on hookup and shows 12v when switched to veh then the engine battery is being charged.
if you put the switch to aux and it doesnt show 12v then the leisure battery isnt connected to the panel or a fuse has blown.

the switch will have 3 wires....center one(permenet live) from the charger/power supply, one to the leisure battery(aux) and one to the engine battery(veh)

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[pappajohn]

try the switch off hookup.

if it shows 12v when in the veh position its taking power from the engine battery.
if it shows 12v in the aux position its taking power from the leisure battery.
in the center it will show nothing on the volt meter.

 

[tan]

Thanks for that but when on hookup aux shows 13-14v but veh shows only 12v after some four hours

TANoh:

 

[pappajohn]

Thanks for that but when on hookup aux shows 13-14v but veh shows only 12v after some four hours

TANoh:

sounds like you can take power from the engine battery but not charge it for some reason.

13v to 14v will be the charger feeding the leisure battery...the 12v is engine battery power only...no charge.

the volts from the charger/power supply to the leisure battery will be 13.6v constant on hookup and should be the same to the engine but it appears not to be charging...just taking power from it.

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[grasscutter]

The handbook for my Swift 630L states that the charger only charges the leisure battery and the vehicle switch on the control panel is only to draw power from the vehicle battery.It only recharges from the alternator.

 

[Kon tiki]

On the last 2 motorhomes I've had the EHU charges both the leisure & engine batteries automatically. Last year we had the engine battery let us down in Portugal (the van was only 3 months old :Sad a French motorhome owner parked next to us lent us his generator for an hour to give it a charge through the EHU. It was enough to get it started & get us to a Renault garage where it was changed under warranty. :thumb:

Don't understand why they don't wire it into the charging circuit when it's built as it can't cost that much extra.