DC voltage drop.

Not familiar with your van, but on my MH the battery charger can simply be turned off.  For testing purposes why not just temporarily disconnect the two leads on your leisure battery terminals. Connect your home charger and see what happens.

Morning

So, find your power supply unit, which is the box under the seat somewhere with 12 volt fuses and mains trips. Looking at the electric side you'll see (probably) a yellow trip with a test button. That's the main rcd. Next to it will be two or maybe three smaller trips, these are mcb's. One of those will send power to the charger. Find that one and flip it. Usually up is on and down is off.

I know you mentioned that you have a new hook up lead and it might well be good but back in the day when we did site shop we sold loads of leads (kerching!) and we did have a few that had a loose wire brand new in the bag.

Good Luck

JK

I’ve had a few problems with duff EHU leads over the years and now always keep one of these Mains Tester Plug on board plus adaptor.  Don’t take up much space and really useful when you need it.

The first thing I would be doing is check connections, especially the main battery terminals. Are they clean and secure. You could be getting false idea of the battery’s condition. There could be enough of a connection to get a voltage reading but not enough to pass current. As soon as a load is put on it, it would show a dramatic voltage drop and not supply the current to actually make anything work

Thanks again. The trip for the charge is also the same one for the heater, not something I want to do without at the moment really. I also have a spare mains lead so will sell them over and see what transpires.

If you need to charge the battery using a separate charger it may be easier for you to disconnect the existing leads on the battery and then connect the charger to the power socket and then put those leads on to charge it up.

If the sockets and heater are working then the EHU cable is fine. However, if the battery is gradually falling then it sounds like the charger has failed (or the battery is completely gone)...use a multimeter across the battery terminals (set to DC voltage of 20v and you should be seeing between 13.8 and 14.2 (if charging, or 13.5 if on float...

all these things 'could' be fine but the panel is reading incorrectly, hence the need to confirm this with the meter.

if the meter and the panel match, ie the voltage is 12.5 (or even lower now) then the charger is not charging battery...for whatever reason.

you could swap a battery with someone on site (for a few minutes) and check the level again...if the same symptom then it's the charger not the battery. Easy solution, get stand alone CTEK type charger in the interim.

you could even borrow a CTEK and connect up and check voltages..if it all seems to be working better than it confirms must be the charger.

However, if the voltage on the swapped battery rises quickly to 13v plus, then it's the battery. Easy solution, new battery. 

That's what I did, and think that is what I'll continue doing occasionally for the rest of this trip. We do carry a small electric heater which we can use while the battery leads are disconnect.

Thanks, B&B for your comments. I've yet to find someone with a multi metre to check it all out. I guess I'll have to get one for myself, learn how it works, and then check the links. Cheers.

OH says they are easy to use and as he is ex electronics he has one in the vehicle and said he has got two more in his shed and has used them for over 50 years as he said an extension of his arm!!

But glad you are still able to keep caravanning NTH.

As they say, there’s never a daft question.

Apart from the low voltage readings, does everything work properly? If so, then there might not be a major problem.

From the age of the caravan and my memory of similar Bailey models of that year, I take it that the readings are being taking from the on board panel, which is possibly a old needle type gauge. These are are not always accurate and do deteriorate over the years. At college we were told unless it’s a mirrored scale like a AVO, then it should be regarded as an indicator not a meter. 

Getting it checked with a digital or tested meter is by far the best course of action. In the meantime, if it’s not affecting anything, carry on caravanning and don’t worry.