Rapido electric problems.

W

Wipso

Free Member
Joined
May 18, 2020
Posts
5
Likes collected
3
Location
Shrewsbury
Funster No
70,883
MH
Rapido 7099f
Exp
2017
During this lockdown I’ve had motorhome parked on drive connected to mains, even though the engine battery is only 2 months old why does it go flat after about 3 days and I have to jumpstart to get engine going. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
Could be a number of things.

Do you have multimeter you can use? What voltage is the battery when on hook up?

Are you sure it’s a new battery?
 
You may have accessories not connected to an ignition live feed
eg, reverse camera, alarm etc
slowly sapping the battery
You can fit a solar panel with dual charge controller to charge both your batteries.

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Depending on year Rapido, on EHU usually charge vehicle battery once leisure is nearing fully charged - is the leisure battery OK and charging fully?
 
Wipso said:
During this lockdown I’ve had motorhome parked on drive connected to mains, even though the engine battery is only 2 months old why does it go flat after about 3 days and I have to jumpstart to get engine going. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
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Regardless of what/How you are charging battery you have another issue.... a battery should last more than 3 days.(more like 3months). Something is draining or shorting your battery. Until that is sorted you are wasting your time disguising fault by just finding a method to keep charged. PS. Just a thought but once you jump start van and get it started you are not relying on that to FULLY charge battery... you really need to use stand alone charger to fully charge battery. Also is battery defo flat or do you have issues with starter circuit as appossed to battery.
 
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Alarms, trackers, car radio and vehicle ecu will all make a small drain on the engine battery. Sometimes the car radio is not closed down when the engine is turned off in which case the drain can be significant. There should be 2 power supplies to the radio, the main one that should turn off with the engine and a second one that just keeps the radio memory alive which should stay live at all times. I would start by checking the radio wiring.

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Wipso said:
During this lockdown I’ve had motorhome parked on drive connected to mains, even though the engine battery is only 2 months old why does it go flat after about 3 days and I have to jumpstart to get engine going. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Once you’ve jump started it what do you do? It will take a long time of engine running to recover. Are you putting a 240v charger on it to fully charge it?
 
Pausim said:
A B2B is a device for charging the leisure battery when the engine is running. I can’t see how that will help with a flat engine battery. A battery master (Vanbitz) or battery maintainer (Sterling Power) which transfer a small charge from the leisure battery to the engine battery might be more appropriate.
Click to expand...
When I looked at the sterling one roadpro stock it and also a votronic one that's 1/3 the cost. Are they any good as far as anyone knows looks too cheap!
 
I don't know what Rapido you have or year. Mines a 2004.And the charger charges both leisure and engine battery. Maybe check fuses in case one has blown.Sorry I cant help.
 
poppycamper said:
Regardless of what/How you are charging battery you have another issue.... a battery should last more than 3 days.(more like 3months). Something is draining or shorting your battery. Until that is sorted you are wasting your time disguising fault by just finding a method to keep charged. PS. Just a thought but once you jump start van and get it started you are not relying on that to FULLY charge battery... you really need to use stand alone charger to fully charge battery. Also is battery defo flat or do you have issues with starter circuit as appossed to battery.
Click to expand...
Agree poppycamper.
No battery should go flat after three days. It must have a drain on it. My money would be on the radio,but could be other things,as stated by Pausim
 
Masman said:
I don't know what Rapido you have or year. Mines a 2004.And the charger charges both leisure and engine battery. Maybe check fuses in case one has blown.Sorry I cant help.
Click to expand...
Mines 2006 and does the same.
But there must be a drain on it to go flat in three days.

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The Wino said:
When I looked at the sterling one roadpro stock it and also a votronic one that's 1/3 the cost. Are they any good as far as anyone knows looks too cheap!
Click to expand...
I have no direct knowledge about this particular device but Votronic are a very good brand. I have a Votronic B2B (1212-45) which is excellent.
 
I will put starter battery on charge and then its probably best take motorhome out for a good run as I have been starting and running engine for 20-30 minutes a week and have now been told this is no good for engine.
 
No good for the engine or the battery. A 20min run will only put back into a battery what has been removed to start the engine from a healthy battery. I certainly won’t restore a flat one. You also want to be carful of flat batteries/jump starting/quick starting, as all these can cause problems with the system ECU’s due to spikes.
 
You need to measure the current drain from the battery when the MH is parked. The best method is to use a clamp meter, which clips round a wire and measures the amps by sensing the magnetic field that the current flow generates. No electrical connection or disconnection is necessary.

Be careful if you are buying a clamp meter. Some only measure AC, ie mains electrics in houses. Batteries are DC, obviously. Even those that measure DC are usually not good at measuring small currents, less than half an amp, that you are interested in.

I have found the UNI-T UT210E is great for measuring small currents like this. It also has sockets for test leads, so can be used as a standard multimeter to measure volts, ohms, continuity etc.

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Measuring current drain with a standard multimeter (ie not a clamp meter) involves disconnecting the circuit and making the current flow through the meter. In this situation you disturb the circuit so the measurements may not reflect the true current when the circuit settles down as the inbuilt electronics closes down the various devices. That's why it's best to use a clamp meter.

To track down the fault, first clamp round the main feed from the battery. If this shows significant current, then clamp round other wires, gradually eliminating suspects and homing in on the faulty circuit.
 
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I have a dc clamp meter if you want to borrow it.
Where do you live in Shrewsbury , i live on Bayston Hill.

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Kuskus,
Thanks for the offer we live on Gains park, I now have a flashing symbol on CBE panel telling me engine battery is flat ,when i disconnect EHU. i am charging engine battery via charger will be back in touch if i need dc clamp.
 
Wipso said:
Kuskus,
Thanks for the offer we live on Gains park, I now have a flashing symbol on CBE panel telling me engine battery is flat ,when i disconnect EHU. i am charging engine battery via charger will be back in touch if i need dc clamp.
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I think that if the CBE panel recognises the engine battery then it will have the internal B2B so should be charging on EHU once leisure battery is charged. There would be a huge drain on the engine battery for it to go flat if the B2B is working. Does your CBE panel have a diode graphic for starter battery charging?
Something like this:
IMG_20200519_131908184.jpg
 
In our Rapido, the CBE mains charger unit will not top up the vehicle battery, unless the leisure batteries reach and maintain 13.6v, and even then it is relatively low amps.
Our charger is located in the rear garage with the vehicle battery under the floor at the front. We found that very little charge was getting to the vehicle battery and over time it was getting low. We eventually fitted a CBE CSB2 unit from the leisure batteries under the front lounge seats with a direct feed to the + terminal on the vehicle battery.
I even bought a new starter battery, but once the CSB2 was fitted the original battery was fine, that was 4 years ago, and the van is now 9 years old.
I suspect the low charge was not helped by the length and small gauge of the wire run from the charger in the garage to the front vehicle battery.
Cheers
Ed
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From what the op has posted it would appear that he hasnt charged the battery after jump starting, a half hour run of the engine wont recharge it so not surprising a flat battery is still flat 3 days later. It needs charging for a minimum 24 hours on a decent mains charger, but even that may not help if the battery has been damaged through over discharging.
 
Sheddy said:
In our Rapido, the CBE mains charger unit will not top up the vehicle battery, unless the leisure batteries reach and maintain 13.6v, and even then it is relatively low amps.
Our charger is located in the rear garage with the vehicle battery under the floor at the front. We found that very little charge was getting to the vehicle battery and over time it was getting low. We eventually fitted a CBE CSB2 unit from the leisure batteries under the front lounge seats with a direct feed to the + terminal on the vehicle battery.
I even bought a new starter battery, but once the CSB2 was fitted the original battery was fine, that was 4 years ago, and the van is now 9 years old.
I suspect the low charge was not helped by the length and small gauge of the wire run from the charger in the garage to the front vehicle battery.
Cheers
Ed
rover.ebay.com

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Click to expand...
This was why I queried the state of the leisure battery in an earlier post. If the leisure battery can't achieve the 13.6volts the starter battery will probably never get charged in EHU

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dunnah01 said:
This was why I queried the state of the leisure battery in an earlier post. If the leisure battery can't achieve the 13.6volts the starter battery will probably never get charged in EHU
Click to expand...
Absolutely agree, but we found that even with healthy leisure batteries, the charge reaching the vehicle battery was inadequate.
Cheers
Ed
 
Is the CSB2 the same as a Vanbitz battery charger ?
 
Sheddy said:
Absolutely agree, but we found that even with healthy leisure batteries, the charge reaching the vehicle battery was inadequate.
Cheers
Ed
Click to expand...
Strange - My CBE panel gives a good charge to the starter once the leisures hit the magical 13.6v, certainly enough to keep it at a state where it will easily start the engine, which is the notoriously bullish 3.0 Iveco lump from the late noughties
 
There are usually 3 parts to a CBE system. The control panel, a charger and the distribution system box (possibly a DS 300). The distribution system usually includes the circuitry that allows a trickle charge to the engine battery when on ehu and the battery separator relay that allows engine charging of the leisure battery system. Some manufacturers wire up the CBE system differently or use a separate something like the CSB2. None of these involve a B2B which is a more expensive bit of kit designed to enhance the leisure battery charging when the engine is running, particularly useful with smart alternators.
 

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