Leisure battery discharging

You say 'first trip', is this new vehicle to you? What make and model is the van? Also what charging system is fitted?

you are going about your problem solving in the right way....checking and eliminating fault areas....

here are a few checks you can do....

1) check the battery is still viable.....charge the battery with a separate charger (disconnecting from anything else) and it should reach 12.7v....remove the charger and wait 24h and rem easier the voltage....it should be steady at 12.7v....if lower then battery losing charge on its own....

2) check the vehicle charging sources.....mains, solar and alternator. plug in the mains and check if there is a raised charge (around 14.4v) at the leisure battery...(remove fuse from solar panel so as not to be measuring that...) if not, the mains is only charging the vehicle battery.

repeat for solar panel, this time with mains off...

repeat for alternator.....engine running, solar fuse removed, mains disconnected.

the above should isolate the problem, is the battery duff or is there a source not supplying charge when it should.

good luck.

Hi

Thanks for replies.

Sorry haven't replied sooner but have been away for a day or two closer to home to see how much battery was used and have been back to garage!!..

Van is a majestic 105,bought new in December.

Haven't really tried to much as don't want to negate warranty but have measured with multimeter etc in most situations hence noticing the drop when we went away.However,does seem to hold its charge when away closer to home. Hook up at home puts 14.4v into it.Solar panel puts up to the same depending on sun/light.

As for garage they tested the battery with a gadget that printed a read out and said that there was nothing wrong with it.They apparently tested everything and could'nt find anything?...Answer was to go away again and use it!!.. if battery goes dead..they'll replace it!!!..Which to me doesn't solve the problem if there is one??..

Regards

so, even if the battery is fine, it will go flat if its used and not being properly replenished by EHU/alternator/solar panel.

I do have a suggestion based in your observation about the difference when being closer to home...

perhaos the issue is with the alternator and it's not charging the battery. when your going a long way away, the battery is without charge for a good while yet it's probably being asked to charge the fridge?.. and therefor draining.

perhaps on a short trip, the draining process is much shorter and the battery arrives in better health?

you can check this easily...

pull the fuse in the solar panel...to remove it from any readings...and then start the engine...now measure across the leisure battery terminals as before...you should be seeing around 14.4v of the a.ternator is working.

if it's only 12.3 - 12.7v this is the battery level.

good luck.

Hi

Again,sorry for delay in replying.

Thanks,have done as suggested and readings came out at 14.2 and 13.2 so would seem as if problem is with alternator?

Would that be a motorhome or Peugeot dealer visit required?

Regards

both those readings are higher than the battery level alone, so sounds like all is working...

difficult to offer any more advice remotely....

Hi

Thanks for all your advice,seems as if I'm just going to go on a long trip again and see what happens??...Maybe stop at a site to charge up nearer to destination if it still discharges whilst travelling?.

Thanks again

There could be any number of reasons for the problem. Just to give you an example, shortly after we bought our new motorhome I found that the battery had suddenly gone flat with the van on our our driveway but the EHU disconnected. Turned out that I had a tank heater on and didn’t realise that it ran on battery not mains. No way could the solar panel cope with that level of discharge. Somehow it also managed to blow a main fuse so when I took it into the dealer for the free initial inspection the whole electrical system failed.

Probably nothing to do with your problem but it just demonstrates that is unwise to jump to conclusions.

Your alternator output varies because modern vehicles are fitted with so called smart alternators which have a variable output depending on load and cab battery capacity switching off when the cab battery has approx 80% charge. This causes a problem charging leisure batteries from the vehicle alternator which can be overcome by fitting a battery to battery charger allowing the alternator to charge the leisure battery despite the smart feature. If your m/h is fitted with such a B2B system then it may be faulty and allowing reverse current flow. Whatever, it’s a problem for your dealer to sort.

Hi

Thanks both for your replies.

Hitchglitch,I had turned off tank heaters as was wondering whether that was part of problem,but was waiting for a trip away to see if it helped..

Dave29,that sounds more like what I think is the problem but you have explained what might be causing it so thanks again for that.I will go away again and if it does the same I will have a better understanding of it when I go back to dealer.I take it that the leisure battery is not charged directly from the alternator but through the vehicle battery?Therefore the B2B charger that you mention is between the 2 batteries to stop the overcharging of the leisure battery much like the charger from the solar panel?

Not overly impressed with dealer,never seem to fix problems straight away!!!!...It took them 2 visits to sort a fault that was on the van when I took delivery and 3 visits to sort a faulty control panel that hopefully works now!!!...

Regards