Heating and electrical trouble

[Spatey]

Hi guys I wonder if some one out there can help us. We went away this weekend only to be forced back home due to heating and electrical trouble. Firstly the leisure batteries were discharging too fast for no apparent reason. We charged up with the generator. Then when the heating was on and I put the cooker on the gas cut out and had to be reset but we could not have both working at the same time. The leisure batteries discharged again. Once we got home we tried the heating again and it now cuts out when the fan comes on. Also the vehicle battery has now decided to discharge but the leisure batteries have held their charge after the drive home. We have 2 x 110 gel batteries which were new last year about this time. We have a 2010 Bessacarr E560 had from new. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

 

[Gaston aires]

Sounds like a short out somewhere. If it was me I would take it to a local electro/diesel mechanic who has the tools and the knowledge to sort it out.
Phil

 

[Badknee]

The gas problem could be regulator icing up and closing the supply off, you are on propane are you? Butane freezes at +1 I think.

Electrickery, that's a specialist job I'm afraid to get things tested out.

 

[phase3begins]

If you have, or an borrow, a multimeter this might help you find a dodgy circuit

http://www.askthemechanic.co.uk/electrical/battery-drain.html

Connect in series and if the current draw is over 0.2 amps pull the habitation fuses one at a time. If the reading drops significantly that is the circuit that is causing the problem.

Now for some wild guesses.
Habitation batteries still charged (via genny) but vehicle battery flat could be alternator or main vehicle battery fuse.

Heating or cooking could be due to low voltage on the leisure batteries. They can appear to be charged but may have fallen below the volts required by the heating electronics. Mine cuts out when voltage drops to 10.5v.

Good luck
Paul

 

[Spatey]

Hi, thank you guys we think we have found the problem with the gas as we have filled up with gas and now it looks like the regulator has gone, so new one ordered. The electrics seem to have sorted themselves out at the moment everything is working as it should, but you know intermittent faults they are a pain to sort out. We will be having someone look at it in the new year. But thank you for your replies.

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[pegleg]

Hi I had that problem a few years ago . I had propane bottles on board, put when the hot water boiler on for my blow air heating to work and keep going off ,but if I put the gas hob on it worked ?? .Anyhow it turn out to be the propane bottle was nearly empty so there wasn't enough pressure to work the two, so change the bottle to a full propane gas one and worked straight away

 

[pappajohn]

Flat batteries..
.
Charged via generator.....plugged onto hookup point on van or 12v output on generator direct to batteries
....and for how long?

Charging a flat battery to fully charged can take many, many hours.
Allow at least 15 hours.

Just noticed you have 2x110ah.... allow 24hrs to be sure.

 

[dave newell]

Sorry but I do feel the need to correct a misunderstanding: Butane does not "Freeze" at 2, 0 or even -2 degrees C, what it does is stop turning from liquid to gas vapour, boiling in other words.

As to the OP, you have two separate issues, on the 12 volt side I'd say your batteries are probably tired and about to expire, on the gas side it is quite possibly a failing regulator.

D.

 

[Spatey]

Hi Dave The gel batteries were new last year and I would have expected them to last more than that. We have refillable LPG gas bottles but we have found that the regulator has died. so new one ordered. We seem to have to buy a new one every year???? getting expensive. We have also been and filled the bottles up which showed the fault with the regulator
Pappajohn it looks like we didn't give it long enough to charge although we had a good run in the van the day before and it's always hooked up to electric all the time on the drive so I don't know.