New member & questions - Autottrail - what else? (1 Viewer)

[Vanimal]

Hi all

My wife and I are now proud excited owners of a 3 month old Autotrail Delaware:thumb: . We are using it for the 1st time this weekend and have a few questions as I have read and read many threads but not found exactly what I was looking for.oh:

The MH had 1 leisure battery (not sure if it is a 84,95 or 110) so we bought a new 110 which is on charge out of the MH as it is in storage. Now the questions i have are:
1 - The standard connectors with the 1 battery in place seem to have additional wiring with what seems to be some sort of quick connectors, are these for connecting to a 2nd battery and do I only need to buy the battery side of the quick connector and connect + to + and - to -?
2 - If the additional wiring is for something else do I buy some sort of connectors to connect the 2 in parallel?
3 - As the current battery is showing low voltage can I disconnect and swap out with the one currently being charged without the main control unit going bananas? or do I need to trun off a master switch 1st, if so where is it?
4 - We have bought a fresh water container, the rolling type 50L. i also bought a Whale pump for pumping the water from the container into the MH, is there an easy way of getting power to the pump other than sorting some sort of quick connectors to the battery? (the water inlet has no power fitting so will simply use a blue water pipe connected to end of Whale pump.

That is all for now I think.

Excellent forum here.

Vaughan

 

[lindyloot]

Hi Vanimal,
In answer to points 1,2 & 3, In the Autotrail handbook at the back there should be a wiring diagram for the leisure battery charging circuit/habitation electrics.This should give you some Idea as to how the batteries are connected and what they are running.I haven't had to do anything as yet with my leisure batteries.
Point4
I have connected a 12v cigarette lighter socket to mine, with a long cable attatched to the whale pump.Reason being you can then use it in any 12v cig socket, even a portable charger pack. It is not advisable to use crock clips on the leisure batteries for the simple reason they may becharging when connected to 240/ mains hookup and any spark could cause an explosion.
Hope this is of some help to you
Lin

 

[Phil]

Hi Vaughan, it is not wise to connect together batteries of different ages and you should not connect together batteries with different power ratings. So you need to check what is fitted to the M/H already before you connect any additional battery.

Phil.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[potjoe]

Batteries?

With your A-trail it as 2 plugs so you can buy the 2 cables/batt fittings cost £18.???p and you then put batt 2 on as well,as your van is new or as new i think, the batt on your van is 110v so put new 110v batt along side it.You have a 136ltr f-water tank on your van so why use a 50ltr a-roll as well?just take a hose pipe and fittings that fit all tape ends.john

 

[Vanimal]

Thanks all

I will go to Discover to look for the connectors for the additional battery. The cigarette socket seems like a good idea and will wire one in.

Thanks again
:thumb: