Not getting power....even from mains

[Jimmer84]

Hi guys,

We have had a cracking couple of trips in the camper along irelands West Coast over the past couple of weeks but noticed a worrying issue with the power in the camper.
Its a 2004 peugeot boxer nuevo, and so far has been faultless.
Our problem started to show on the last day of our last trip where while connected to mains power, the water pump, lights and hob clicker stopped working. Although on the way home when we stopped off to feed our daughter it was all working again on the leisure battery.
Now we are home, over a week of it being in the drive the battery has dropped to 1/4 charge for the first time, plug in the mains and nothing changes, start the camper and it charges it up again, so points to either leisure battery being knackered or more likely something to do with the mains hook up charging ability? Would this be along the correct lines would you guys think?

 

[chatteris]

would look for a fuse before or after power supply/charger and check that

 

[Jimmer84]

I have only been able to find three fuses at the battery which is under the drivers seat, haven't found any others apart from under the dash but would these not be for the engine/driving side of things?

 

[Kannon Fodda]

Suspicion would be with the charger system when on EHU. It could be as simple as a blown fuse.

If you had some charge in the battery following a bit of a drive, so pump etc could work, that suggests the engine side of things is putting some energy in to your leisure battery. But, if the battery had severely drained so that the pump and stuff previously went off, you could need to drive for some hours to fully recharge off engine, hence perhaps why you later only have a 1/4 charge. There are added complexities that a really flattened battery can be damaged and so won't hold a charge (even if if was OK before this issue, it may not be now). Plus batteries can take a while to stabilise after charge so a real measurement is say an hour after you'd driven.

First thing, with a voltage meter, when on hook up, see if there is indications of voltage input from the charger across the battery. There should be a clear difference when the charger is on or off.

 

[Odd-no-more]

Check the main power in, do the sockets work?

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[Jimmer84]

So I put a multimeter onto the battery, results below.

Hook up plugged in - 10.6 volts
Hook up unplugged - 10.6 volts
Camper turned on - 12.55 volts


Would this indicate the battery is done? Also, simpleton question as I'm learning everyday, when your connected to the mains, should this not power everything even if the battery isn't great or does the power run through the battery to the fridge, etc?

 

[Odd-no-more]

Do you have 240v at the sockets?

 

[Jimmer84]

Do you have 240v at the sockets?

Yes there is power at the socket ok, and think there was as well when the lights, water pump and hob clicker had stopped.

 

[Kannon Fodda]

If the voltage rises when you are running the engine (your camper turned on), but stays the same with engine off and hook up plugged in or not, then the problem lies with the mains feed side.

First, as others have asked, if on EHU, do you get power to the internal 240V sockets?
If no start looking at the EHU lead itself. You need to establish if power is reaching your MH. If you have a mains fusebox inside you MH, is that powered or has something tripped?
If yes, start looking around your charger system. Should there normally be any lights to say it is receiving power? You'll have to crawl around and check any fuses between the EHU connection and the charger unit.

If you are successfully on hook up with a charger working, even if a battery was dud, you'd probably have some life in the 12v electrics. But the charger will only supply a finite amount - Mine would do a maximum 12Amps. If the battery is flat, then this might be enough to stop some stuff working.

 

[TheBig1]

your battery charger is not working, either tripped, fuse blown or has died

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[Jimmer84]

your battery charger is not working, either tripped, fuse blown or has died

The trips are all fine, the fuses i would have no clue where that one would be but will start looking under the habitation cupboard for something there.

 

[TheBig1]

On the autosleeper nuevo, which is what I believe you have, the charger may be in a low down locker near the battery. Or if older may be next to the control panel with an illuminated switch. The fuse is likely to be part of the charger itself. The chargers are also known to just fail too

 

[Jimmer84]

well I found the charger OK, under the cupboard floor and against the opposite wall to the control panel. Can't see any fuses on it or around it....ill attach a pic.

How can i check if this is needing replaced?

Sorry for the silly sounding questions, new to this and never dabbled with electrics but happy to work with everything else lol!

 

[Jimmer84]

This is the battery charger

 

[Kannon Fodda]

Presumably the switch on the top is on and hasn't been knocked?

If you are happy power is getting to the unit, but it's not letting power out, unless the cover is supposed to be user removable to allow you to check any internal fuse you could well be stuck and looking for a replacement.

But if you crawl around the van enough, there will be some fusing between the EHU socket on the outside of the MH and the charger unit. If nothing else you are going to get to know where a lot of stuff is on your vehicle.

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[autorouter]

As others have said, it looks like the mains charger is not charging the battery. Usually this is because of a blown fuse or a bad connection somewhere on the wiring into or out of the charger. Check that main power is reaching the charger, and that a good voltage (most likely 13.8V) is present at the output. Maybe the charger is on a separate circuit breaker from the mains distribution box.

If the charger is faulty, people like Apuljack will repair it: http://www.apuljackengineering.co.uk. This model (CTTH/12A) is listed as one of the units they repair.

 

[autorouter]

How can i check if this is needing replaced?

A charger like that is quite simple to test. It's a matter of finding a way to check the mains input, and measuring the output voltage with a multimeter. This charger is a simple constant voltage (13.8V) charger. It's not one of those 'intelligent' multistage chargers that gives out different voltages depending on the state of the battery.

 

[Jimmer84]

Thanks everyone for your help and replies on this. I managed to find a great local guy who had a new charger and he managed to squeeze us in and fit it and check everything.

The battery is actually OK but I have bought another and will bring it with us and can change it when we need to. Just glad to have it sorted before our trip.....heading to the wicklow mountains and east coast of ireland now for a few days of mountain biking and relaxing!

 

[Odd-no-more]

Thanks everyone for your help and replies on this. I managed to find a great local guy who had a new charger and he managed to squeeze us in and fit it and check everything.

The battery is actually OK but I have bought another and will bring it with us and can change it when we need to. Just glad to have it sorted before our trip.....heading to the wicklow mountains and east coast of ireland now for a few days of mountain biking and relaxing!

if you have bought a second battery, can you add it to the one you have to give extra power off grid?

 

[Jimmer84]

if you have bought a second battery, can you add it to the one you have to give extra power off grid?

Not a bad idea, but unsure if I can or not, the current one is under the drivers seat so would have to wire it in somewhere else, i wanted to get a bigger battery but can't cause it wouldn't fit.

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[autorouter]

if you have bought a second battery, can you add it to the one you have to give extra power off grid?

A second battery can be added to give you extra stored energy off grid, but if it's not right next to the first battery there's a couple of points.

First, for safety you need a fuse at both ends of the positive link wire.

Then there's voltage drop and voltage equalisation to consider. The idea is to make the wire length from both batteries equal. It's not a safety thing, it's just that the batteries charge more equally and will last longer if the voltage drops are equal. The easiest way is to extend one of the load wires (the negative one for example) to the new battery, and also put in a link wire between the negatives just like the positives. I know it's an extra wire (quite thick and expensive too) but it will equalise the voltages.

 

[denisejoe]

Have you checked the 240v trip switches our van the charger is on a different switch to the sockets and fridge

 

[mitzimad]

put the other battery under the other seat