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had our van a few weeks. went away last night for first time over night. leisure battery had run down a bit through previous use but seemed to fully recharge while driving. hooked up at site and all well. fridge running. had hot showers, lights on. then at 2am, the little light we had on went off. thought trip had gone outside but no joy. then realised we couldnt use water either. the fridge was still running of hook up. 16amp. we could not get the lights to work independantly of the leisure battery. which was now completly flat. please tell me what we have done wrong! we have a baby and a special needs child and the went mad when they woke up in pitch dark. little girl autistic. not happy camper last night! thankyou, gillian.
It sounds very much as if your van is not fitted with a mains leisure battery charger. The leisure battery will charge through the vehicle's system when the engine is running, but with the engine turned off the leisure battery will run down as current is drained from it by using 12v lights, water pump etc.
The fridge is likely to be a 3xway unit (running off mains, 12v and gas) and will continue to operate if plugged into the mains, even if you leisure battery is 'dead'.
Fitting a mains charger to the vehicle will allow the leisure battery to be charged on hook-up, thereby solving your problem.
Perhaps the van supplier can fit a charger?
Hope this has reasurred you that there is not a serious problem, and that motorhoming really is the enjoyable experience you first imaged.
I assume your fridge is mains powered (or 3 way) then from the symptoms the on board battery charger is not working. (There could also be other problems). First thing is to check that the charger is switched on, it probably has a switch somewhere on the case and is fed from a miniature circuit breaker (mcb) next to your residual current device(rcd). I presume you have returned home and that has charged up your leisure battery a bit now. Just to add to your woes note that running the battery completely flat almost always ruins a battery pretty quickly.
Regards Frank
______________________________________________________________ Regards Frank - - please follow me on twitter @FrankieBryant
Denn wir haben nichts in die Welt gebracht; darum offenbar ist, wir werden auch nichts hinausbringen.
RIP Peter and Fiona Our thoughts are with you Chris and Graham. Fighting with Mavis and Ray
Plusnet, Safari 5, G5 PowerPC iMac running OSX 10.5.8, Salisbury UK : Get behind early - it gives you more time to catch up.
when we bought van the man did say to only run the fridge off the leisure battery while driving or it would go flat really quickly. what he probably meant was that it would then need to charge while van running. didn't even think he may have meant it would only charge while van running and not on hook up. if this is indeed our shortfall, then would the light and water run off the leisure battery while the electric mains hook up topping it up? we may have to think about getting another leisure battery to join our little lonesome friend as support and back up! thankyou for your very quick reply. i feel happier now! gillian.
Sorry for your problems, Gillian. It must have been a nightmare.
If you've got hookup, you've almost certainly got a charger for the leisure battery. Only the fridge will work off 240V - everything else is 12V, and runs exclusively off the leisure battery. You should have a readout somewhere of the state of the leisure battery - usually a small, horizontal dial. This can help to show you when it needs charging up.
Good luck. Once you get this sorted, I'm sure you'll have a much happier time.
Your Carioca is probably a fairly recent van, I would guess.
Your fridge (if it's a 3 way, as they usually are) runs off 12V, gas and 240V. The 12V it uses is the engine battery, and therefore ONLY works when you're driving. It uses a lot of power, and would flatten a battery in a few hours. You cannot run the fridge off the leisure battery.
The water pump runs off the leisure battery, as well as the cabin lights. They can only run off the leisure battery, but this is charged while you're driving. If you had showers, and the lights on until 2am, then it's possible you ran the leisure battery flat. It depends how much it was charged before you drove, how long you drove for (and how much charge the engine battery needed, because it has 'first call' on the charge while you're driving along), and how much of the 12V (everything electric, apart from the fridge, uses 12V) you used when you were parked up. Did you use a TV? Was it mains or 12V
I wonder if, since the van is new to you, the batteries weren't that well charged anyway, and needed a proper charge from mains before you went away.
van is year 03. the leisure battery was fitted brand new three weeks ago. we did also have a little portable dvd player and tv on for children for about an hour, so the leisure battery has probably done quite well! it has fully recharged on the way home, but i understand the point that it may have ruined the battery running it flat. we live and learn, as they say! we did really enjoy our little jaunt and are going away in 2 weeks with about 50 people who work with my husband so lucky we got this little mishap out of the way! they have tents so we are in for sick anyway! gillian.x.
The system that charges your battery when you drive typically can only charge your battery to about 85% charged - no matter how long the run is. The battery should receive a 'proper' charge from a three or four stage charger periodically and many vans with hook ups have a suitable charger fitted. Some only have a float charger which produces a similar charge state to the split charger powered when you drive. I think it is very rare for there not to be a charger at all.
Regards Frank
______________________________________________________________ Regards Frank - - please follow me on twitter @FrankieBryant
Denn wir haben nichts in die Welt gebracht; darum offenbar ist, wir werden auch nichts hinausbringen.
RIP Peter and Fiona Our thoughts are with you Chris and Graham. Fighting with Mavis and Ray
Plusnet, Safari 5, G5 PowerPC iMac running OSX 10.5.8, Salisbury UK : Get behind early - it gives you more time to catch up.
you have been so helpful. we will have a good look tomorrow and see if we can find out whats going on. luckily, our friend is a mechanic so he may be able to help too. no doubt i will be back for more help at some point in the very near future. please be patient. gillian.x.
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had our van a few weeks. went away last night for first time over night. leisure battery had run down a bit through previous use but seemed to fully recharge while driving. hooked up at site and all well. fridge running. had hot showers, lights on. then at 2am, the little light we had on went off. thought trip had gone outside but no joy. then realised we couldnt use water either. the fridge was still running of hook up. 16amp. we could not get the lights to work independantly of the leisure battery. which was now completly flat. please tell me what we have done wrong! we have a baby and a special needs child and the went mad when they woke up in pitch dark. little girl autistic. not happy camper last night! thankyou, gillian. 
Our thoughts are with you Chris and Graham. Fighting with Mavis and Ray 
you have been so helpful. we will have a good look tomorrow and see if we can find out whats going on. luckily, our friend is a mechanic so he may be able to help too. no doubt i will be back for more help at some point in the very near future. please be patient. gillian.x.
