Help! Sorry this is a bit long!
Went away this week for 3 nights to a site with no leccy hookup. It's the first time we've been to a site with no hook up. We wanted to see how long the fridge would run (it's a Waeco 'drawer' type - not sure of the model no). The leisure battery is 75ah. It lasted about 48 hours before the battery condition went to red (it's got a PMS3V panel). The real issue came when we got home after a 2 hour drive and the battery was still on red. Doesn't seem to have charged at all. We also have a problem with the fridge.
My OH has had a bit of a look - he's checked the voltage on the leisure battery when we plugged in our leccy hook up at home and says that's ok and it should charge fine when on hookup. He did the same with the engine on and the voltage at the leisure battery didn't increase at all. He's looked at the manual/wiring diagrams which came with the PMS3V unit (van was bought converted) and we've spent a while trying to follow cables through from the engine. OH doesn't think the circuit which charges the leisure battery from the alternator has been wired in
There are 2 cables going from the +ve on the van battery into the cab - we can see where they have been routed in on the passenger side but then they go under the floor trim and we don't know how to get the trim off to get a better look (bit nervous about breaking bits of my van!). We can just see one cable running round the pillar on the drivers side on the floor (where the seat belt is) and to the back of the fitted unit. Not sure if the other one has been routed elsewhere. OH thinks it might be routed somewhere else and should have a relay connected somewhere and the connection to the alternator to provide the charging.
He's checked the fuse which is on the cable from the van battery - that's fine.
OH took the PMSV3 out to have a look at all the connections on the back and was a bit surprised to see that the 'fridge in' and 'fridge out' had no cables going into them. We 'thought' the fridge was cooling when we were driving around but OH said, looking at the diag. and how it was actually wired up - there's no way it could be. Looking back, we weren't 100% sure it was actually cooling while driving so we went out for 45mins (have got a thermometer in the fridge) and it stayed at a cool 25C H: When we got home we plugged leccy in and checked after 45mins and it was a much cooler 7C. So - the fridge doesn't cool when we're driving around. For some reason the fridge has been wired into the PMS 'aux1' instead of - fridge!
OH is a bit suspicous now - because the fridge isn't wired up to run when driving around he thinks maybe the circuit which charges the leisure battery from the alternator hasn't been wired in either He said it would be weird to do all the work to put the split charge stuff in and not sort the fridge out while you're there! He's keen to trace the 2nd wire which is coming off the battery incase it's floating around somewhere and not connected to anything (he's going to take the fuse out for now).
We're a bit unsure what to do next. OH is happy doing electrical stuff and now he's had a look at the manual and a few things online he's confident he could put in a split charge system. But - I bought the van converted and (I thought) ready to go (it's a new convertsion) because we just don't have the space to do substantial work on the van and due to various reasons we really wanted the van 'now' because we have the chance to use it a lot this year. I wasn't expecting that we'd have to start ripping out bits of my newly converted van to fix the split charge system Already planning to do our next van ourselves!
I have tried to get hold of the company which did the conversion today to talk to them but no luck. We were hoping to get away again in a few days so wanted to try and sort it - but OH thinks it might be a bit of a job taking stuff out to find out where (and indeed IF!) the relay is and if it's wired up properly. I'm confident he can do it but it's more that he doesn't know his way round the engine & how to take the trim off/dashboard out etc. and where to tap into the the ignition warning light. Nevermind that we'll have to work out how to dismantle the furniture to get behind that too. Argh - feel like crying now! It's so frustrating.
Don't really want the van out of action for ages so we might have to live with it only working on EHU and OH said we can get a solar panel and use that to charge the leisure battery when we're on site (we might go for one fixed to roof - but again, depends if we can wire it up without having to dismantle too much of the van).
So, erm - any suggestions/thoughts/advice?! Please?!
Went away this week for 3 nights to a site with no leccy hookup. It's the first time we've been to a site with no hook up. We wanted to see how long the fridge would run (it's a Waeco 'drawer' type - not sure of the model no). The leisure battery is 75ah. It lasted about 48 hours before the battery condition went to red (it's got a PMS3V panel). The real issue came when we got home after a 2 hour drive and the battery was still on red. Doesn't seem to have charged at all. We also have a problem with the fridge.
My OH has had a bit of a look - he's checked the voltage on the leisure battery when we plugged in our leccy hook up at home and says that's ok and it should charge fine when on hookup. He did the same with the engine on and the voltage at the leisure battery didn't increase at all. He's looked at the manual/wiring diagrams which came with the PMS3V unit (van was bought converted) and we've spent a while trying to follow cables through from the engine. OH doesn't think the circuit which charges the leisure battery from the alternator has been wired in
There are 2 cables going from the +ve on the van battery into the cab - we can see where they have been routed in on the passenger side but then they go under the floor trim and we don't know how to get the trim off to get a better look (bit nervous about breaking bits of my van!). We can just see one cable running round the pillar on the drivers side on the floor (where the seat belt is) and to the back of the fitted unit. Not sure if the other one has been routed elsewhere. OH thinks it might be routed somewhere else and should have a relay connected somewhere and the connection to the alternator to provide the charging.
He's checked the fuse which is on the cable from the van battery - that's fine.
OH took the PMSV3 out to have a look at all the connections on the back and was a bit surprised to see that the 'fridge in' and 'fridge out' had no cables going into them. We 'thought' the fridge was cooling when we were driving around but OH said, looking at the diag. and how it was actually wired up - there's no way it could be. Looking back, we weren't 100% sure it was actually cooling while driving so we went out for 45mins (have got a thermometer in the fridge) and it stayed at a cool 25C H: When we got home we plugged leccy in and checked after 45mins and it was a much cooler 7C. So - the fridge doesn't cool when we're driving around. For some reason the fridge has been wired into the PMS 'aux1' instead of - fridge!
OH is a bit suspicous now - because the fridge isn't wired up to run when driving around he thinks maybe the circuit which charges the leisure battery from the alternator hasn't been wired in either
He said it would be weird to do all the work to put the split charge stuff in and not sort the fridge out while you're there! He's keen to trace the 2nd wire which is coming off the battery incase it's floating around somewhere and not connected to anything (he's going to take the fuse out for now).We're a bit unsure what to do next. OH is happy doing electrical stuff and now he's had a look at the manual and a few things online he's confident he could put in a split charge system. But - I bought the van converted and (I thought) ready to go (it's a new convertsion) because we just don't have the space to do substantial work on the van and due to various reasons we really wanted the van 'now' because we have the chance to use it a lot this year. I wasn't expecting that we'd have to start ripping out bits of my newly converted van to fix the split charge system
Already planning to do our next van ourselves!I have tried to get hold of the company which did the conversion today to talk to them but no luck. We were hoping to get away again in a few days so wanted to try and sort it - but OH thinks it might be a bit of a job taking stuff out to find out where (and indeed IF!) the relay is and if it's wired up properly. I'm confident he can do it but it's more that he doesn't know his way round the engine & how to take the trim off/dashboard out etc. and where to tap into the the ignition warning light. Nevermind that we'll have to work out how to dismantle the furniture to get behind that too. Argh - feel like crying now! It's so frustrating.
Don't really want the van out of action for ages so we might have to live with it only working on EHU and OH said we can get a solar panel and use that to charge the leisure battery when we're on site (we might go for one fixed to roof - but again, depends if we can wire it up without having to dismantle too much of the van).
So, erm - any suggestions/thoughts/advice?! Please?!
