Vehicle voltage high. Error message on habitation panel. (1 Viewer)

Sep 10, 2020
339
841
Lancashire
Funster No
75,713
MH
Autograph 69-2
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Moved over to the Dark Side after 16 yrs tugging.
Can't seem to find the answer to this one with a search on the forum. The control panel on a Bailey suggests the vehicle voltage is too high at 14.4 v and can cause damage to the cab battery.. contact dealer if problem persists. The massage repeats every few minutes. Not sure if the problem will not persist when the sun goes down.
FYI - The MH is sitting on the drive and has a solar panel and it is sunny today and there is no EHU connected. Power is off to all appliances and pumps.
Can anyone offer an explanation. Dealer is closed for the bank Holiday so can't phone service help line.

cab batt high 1.jpg
may cause damage.jpg
Voltage 14.4.jpg
 
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Badknee

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Aug 25, 2014
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Hmmmmm, 14.3v is the anti sulphate voltage. Stops the battery plates clogging up in other words. Ours runs @14.3 when driving but only gets up to that for the hab batteries when on ehu. 🤔
 
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Riverbankannie

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Mar 11, 2016
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Can you reset the panel to see if it is a recurring problem or a one off? We had similar on a Ducato last year, just solar like you. Went up to 14.6v and gave error on airbag ECU, but once reset it has not occurred again - touch 🪵

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Sep 6, 2019
185
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I had a similar problem last year,the voltage on my display panel was reading 16.5v . Plugged the van into the mains to try a few things, soooo, the internal lights worked but the fridge/truma boiler would just shut down after 30 seconds or so.. BUT everything worked ok when it was dark. turned out to be the solar controller which had gone faulty( it has overload protection built in) .
Hope you get your problem sorted.

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Feb 9, 2008
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Nothing to worry about I.M.O. This would probably be a reading taken in the morning after a night of no voltage being fed into your batteries and so first thing in the morning when there is sufficient light the S.P. controller will put in as much voltage as its safe to do so. Check again in the afternoon, likelihood is it has dropped to 13.7 V and back in float mode.
 
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Apr 27, 2016
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Since the 80s
14.4V is a typical voltage for the second (absorption) stage of a 3-stage charging sequence. Your solar controller will probably reach this voltage every day because it starts the 3 stage sequence after closing down overnight.

Good controllers measure the time taken to reach this voltage, and cut short the absorption stage to avoid repetitive overcharging. It should drop to the float voltage of 13.4 to 13.8V quite quickly. If it stays at 14.4V for hours when there's no load on the batteries then something is wrong.
 
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Arnside037
Sep 10, 2020
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Moved over to the Dark Side after 16 yrs tugging.
Thanks all. . Just checked the readings now that the sun has gone down. leisure batt reads 13.6v / 100% and the cab batt reads 12.9v / 100%
Looks like the solar in full sunlight is pumping max voltage 14.4 v and this is probably setting the warning, but in non-sunny settings , the voltage is not so high and does not set off the warning.
I hope I'm right and that I should ignore the warnings - unless they get to going off in the evenings or at night. Maybe I'll hook up tomorrow evening and see if the EHU pumps in the 14.4 volts to trigger the warning. I think it probably won't.
Thanks again folks.

PS. camcardle75 ... its a Truma panel. Strange that the battery cables are not both the same ie black and red, and that the solar cables are black and red and its a battery cable set that are blue and white. I would have expected the solar cables to be the different ones and both the battery cables to be a pair of black and red.

solar control panel.jpg

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Feb 9, 2008
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Its got nothing to do with the sun going down. Its caused by the state of your batteries. When the sun goes down your habbitation services will be drawing power from your batteries. When the sun comes up in the morning your S.P. controller will start to replenish your batteries again hence the 14.4 V and then go into float mode when fully charged and drop to 13.7 V ish.
 
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Arnside037
Sep 10, 2020
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Moved over to the Dark Side after 16 yrs tugging.
Its got nothing to do with the sun going down. Its caused by the state of your batteries. When the sun goes down your habbitation services will be drawing power from your batteries. When the sun comes up in the morning your S.P. controller will start to replenish your batteries again hence the 14.4 V and then go into float mode when fully charged and drop to 13.7 V ish.
It's not the habitation battery that has any issues. Its the vehicle battery. In any case the control panel is set to Power off so nothing should be drawing power and in fact the panel confirms that no current is being drawn.. it returns 0.0 amps. The vehicle battery is showing 100% at 12.7 v this evening.
 
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Apr 27, 2016
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Strange that the battery cables are not both the same ie black and red, and that the solar cables are black and red and its a battery cable set that are blue and white. I would have expected the solar cables to be the different ones and both the battery cables to be a pair of black and red.
I think it's worth double-checking that the leisure battery goes to Batt1, the starter battery goes to Batt2 and the solar panel goes to the panel connection. You could do this by measuring the voltages with a multimeter. You could disconnect one of the solar panel wires and measure the voltage, should be about 18 to 24V. Because it's a PWM type, the solar panel voltage while the panel is connected will be about the same as the battery voltages.

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Feb 9, 2008
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It's not the habitation battery that has any issues. Its the vehicle battery. In any case the control panel is set to Power off so nothing should be drawing power and in fact the panel confirms that no current is being drawn.. it returns 0.0 amps. The vehicle battery is showing 100% at 12.7 v this evening.
Thanks for the correction, you did say cab battery in your first post and I missed it. However, the same principle will apply to both sets of batteries and I would be surprised (very surprised) if there was no draw from your cab battery during the night, even with the control panel switching off. Clocks, alarms, radio's etc will always take a small charge from the battery.
 
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wuzzlewood

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Dec 28, 2020
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Bailey Autograph 3
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since 1990
Hi, we had the same problem on our new 74-2!
I changed the charge priority or split to 90% Liesure and 10% vehicle battery!
The problem has not reoccurred since even in bright sunlight!
I have a very knowledgeable friend who repairs motorhomes for a living, he is my go to person!
His advice was to check the voltage with a multimeter as the Bailey panels were “crap”, his words!
If it happens again I will check but by change of charge priority seems to have worked!

Additionally check that your Truma controller is set for lead acid battery as the gel battery setting will try to push a higher voltage into the battery! I assume if set to gel it takes both batteries as being gel even though vehicle batteries are almost always lead acid!
 
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Arnside037
Sep 10, 2020
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Moved over to the Dark Side after 16 yrs tugging.
Thanks wuzzlewood. Ill see if i can find what are the present the settings on the Trauma panel. (Can't use the phrase current settings can I :giggle: )

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Arnside037
Sep 10, 2020
339
841
Lancashire
Funster No
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Autograph 69-2
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Moved over to the Dark Side after 16 yrs tugging.
Ooooo .. thanks Anthrax that's a great help. I was going to spend time tomorrow trying to find it. Youv e saved me much time. Ta. (y)
 
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