- Feb 24, 2013
- 13,834
- 104,494
- Funster No
- 24,833
- MH
- Hymer S800
- Exp
- not long enough
so we are going out under a bit of a cloud, but it already has a silver lining
two days ago the 12V sockets on the habitation side failed, must be a fuse, but I cant one that's gone, so not looking any harder, could easily make things worse, even taking a couple out and back in again I managed to lose the hob ignition, which I mended again (to be more precise put the fuse back properly)
so with no 12V socket my laptop charging has to be done from the cab socket, which stays live even with ignition off, now we have had a problem with this in the past (flat cab battery) so am now cautious, charged while driving, but lap top went flat and I wanted to post about Pont de l'Arche last night, so decided 1/2 hour wont hurt, so did that, but then the mifi went flat so plugged that in.
That is where I think I went wrong, tiny as it is, I then forgot to unplug it, in the morning walked out for bread, came back I said I will just start engine to demist while we have breakfast, oh no we wont, deafening click, no start
SO now half past nine, no real panic tunnel booked for tomorrow, only shopping to do today, it is bright sun maybe the solar will sort it? Checked volts on cab, have actually got 12.7, seems odd that more than enough, so tried to start again with Bev watching volts, dropped to 8.5V and a quieter click
Balls, so have breakfast, watch voltage barely change, now I know you experts will remind me it is charging the hab batteries but this is meant to be semi intelligent, the hab batts are 13.2, so get on with sorting out the cab battery. But nothing doing
No problem we are in the RAC for just this kind of thing, but how about asking our French neighbours who we had spoken to last night, for a jump start, get phrase book out, the French don't seem to have jump leads or a translation for it anyway, and there is always the risk of one or both of us upsetting the vehicles by jump starting
SO I decide to go to the town look for a garage arrange my own jump start, must be quicker than waiting for the RAC, off I trot, find 2 both closed on Mondays, bad enough everything closes for lunch but whole days as well??
SO back to MH, ring RAC, open bonnet, not really sure why, just looking at things as men do, RAC are sort of brilliant, first we get a UK moron who insists on following script, right through to exactly where are you, question 20 ish, in France, or I need to transfer you, no actually you need to ring ..........................
so I ring alternative number, lovely girl in France perfect English, commented favourably on my French pronounciation of the place we are stuck at, I think I am in love with her, she is sorting things out and sounds gourgeous at same time. She says she needs to verify our RAC membership, then find a recovery option, then will call us back with timings
Put phone down, French man who has seen bonnet go up and me on phone knocks on my window, wants to help, we explain the problem. He has an on board generator, and goes to get a lead which has a UK 16A plug on end for us and plugs his back into his end. Brilliant, controller shows mains connected, 14A going into hab batts, cab batt at 14V but shown no current (never does not a fault)
Give it 5 minutes, try to start, still nothing at all, volts still drop back to 9, so agree to leave it 30 minutes, now dreading a call from RAC what to do when they do, daren't cancel them, anyway they don't call, but an English MH arrives and parks next to us, immediately comes to investigate what is going on. He has an emergency jump start thingie, I have tried those in the past without much joy, anything bigger than my mums Yaris no chance and it even failed on that once.
So it has now had 15 minutes on the generator charging, get out his jump thing and bang it starts first time, proper result, now still not sure what to do when RAC call back, should I get it checked the battery might be goosed and still not restart again
With that French recovery truck turns up, drags out a leisure battery with jump leads attached while I explain it is running now, he shrugs and goes back to truck, having first got the worlds biggest battery to try a jump start he gets the most pathetic multi meter and insists on 'testing' the battery
With the engine still running he confirms 14.4V, gives me a thumbs up and says OK, now even I know that volts while running do not tell you much, so I explained I wanted to turn engine off and check again, we did and got 13+ V and more importantly it restarted after
So 'test' now complete we sign papers and off he goes, we shake hands with monsieur le generator and kiss madam 4 x she says that is the norm, he goes we talk to new UK neighbour for a bit then risk moving on
Now having a flat battery is not good, at what point are you brave enough to turn it off again, for me my drive would be best but no option, parked on a garage forecourt possibly, maybe just after buying a jump start kit, all not going to happen
So I have just been brave enough to park and turn off in Hyper you Abbeville, Bev is shopping, I am writing this update, everything was unplugged before I turned off, just off to find / join Bev now, in about an hour I will know if it was a clever thing to do or not
Turning the engine off that is, we are now not parked at all easily for recovery
........................................................................
will let you know later
two days ago the 12V sockets on the habitation side failed, must be a fuse, but I cant one that's gone, so not looking any harder, could easily make things worse, even taking a couple out and back in again I managed to lose the hob ignition, which I mended again (to be more precise put the fuse back properly)
so with no 12V socket my laptop charging has to be done from the cab socket, which stays live even with ignition off, now we have had a problem with this in the past (flat cab battery) so am now cautious, charged while driving, but lap top went flat and I wanted to post about Pont de l'Arche last night, so decided 1/2 hour wont hurt, so did that, but then the mifi went flat so plugged that in.
That is where I think I went wrong, tiny as it is, I then forgot to unplug it, in the morning walked out for bread, came back I said I will just start engine to demist while we have breakfast, oh no we wont, deafening click, no start
SO now half past nine, no real panic tunnel booked for tomorrow, only shopping to do today, it is bright sun maybe the solar will sort it? Checked volts on cab, have actually got 12.7, seems odd that more than enough, so tried to start again with Bev watching volts, dropped to 8.5V and a quieter click
Balls, so have breakfast, watch voltage barely change, now I know you experts will remind me it is charging the hab batteries but this is meant to be semi intelligent, the hab batts are 13.2, so get on with sorting out the cab battery. But nothing doing
No problem we are in the RAC for just this kind of thing, but how about asking our French neighbours who we had spoken to last night, for a jump start, get phrase book out, the French don't seem to have jump leads or a translation for it anyway, and there is always the risk of one or both of us upsetting the vehicles by jump starting
SO I decide to go to the town look for a garage arrange my own jump start, must be quicker than waiting for the RAC, off I trot, find 2 both closed on Mondays, bad enough everything closes for lunch but whole days as well??
SO back to MH, ring RAC, open bonnet, not really sure why, just looking at things as men do, RAC are sort of brilliant, first we get a UK moron who insists on following script, right through to exactly where are you, question 20 ish, in France, or I need to transfer you, no actually you need to ring ..........................
so I ring alternative number, lovely girl in France perfect English, commented favourably on my French pronounciation of the place we are stuck at, I think I am in love with her, she is sorting things out and sounds gourgeous at same time. She says she needs to verify our RAC membership, then find a recovery option, then will call us back with timings
Put phone down, French man who has seen bonnet go up and me on phone knocks on my window, wants to help, we explain the problem. He has an on board generator, and goes to get a lead which has a UK 16A plug on end for us and plugs his back into his end. Brilliant, controller shows mains connected, 14A going into hab batts, cab batt at 14V but shown no current (never does not a fault)
Give it 5 minutes, try to start, still nothing at all, volts still drop back to 9, so agree to leave it 30 minutes, now dreading a call from RAC what to do when they do, daren't cancel them, anyway they don't call, but an English MH arrives and parks next to us, immediately comes to investigate what is going on. He has an emergency jump start thingie, I have tried those in the past without much joy, anything bigger than my mums Yaris no chance and it even failed on that once.
So it has now had 15 minutes on the generator charging, get out his jump thing and bang it starts first time, proper result, now still not sure what to do when RAC call back, should I get it checked the battery might be goosed and still not restart again
With that French recovery truck turns up, drags out a leisure battery with jump leads attached while I explain it is running now, he shrugs and goes back to truck, having first got the worlds biggest battery to try a jump start he gets the most pathetic multi meter and insists on 'testing' the battery
With the engine still running he confirms 14.4V, gives me a thumbs up and says OK, now even I know that volts while running do not tell you much, so I explained I wanted to turn engine off and check again, we did and got 13+ V and more importantly it restarted after
So 'test' now complete we sign papers and off he goes, we shake hands with monsieur le generator and kiss madam 4 x she says that is the norm, he goes we talk to new UK neighbour for a bit then risk moving on
Now having a flat battery is not good, at what point are you brave enough to turn it off again, for me my drive would be best but no option, parked on a garage forecourt possibly, maybe just after buying a jump start kit, all not going to happen
So I have just been brave enough to park and turn off in Hyper you Abbeville, Bev is shopping, I am writing this update, everything was unplugged before I turned off, just off to find / join Bev now, in about an hour I will know if it was a clever thing to do or not
Turning the engine off that is, we are now not parked at all easily for recovery
........................................................................
will let you know later
