Caravan electrical problem

[mooney3]

Hi,
I have recently acquired an Abbey County 1997 caravan and have begun to test all the normal services before goiny on holiday. I have come across a couple of problems one of them being electrical.
With 240v lead connected to van and powered up I cannot get any 12v power and I am wondering if the charger is actually working and providing the charge to the battery. I have all the switches in the correct position, charger is switched on and light illuminated, car/van switch in middle position. I was told to remove the battery connecter terminals with 240v connected and test with a multimeter across the terminals to check that the charger is working but on removing the battery terminals it trips the charger MCB.

Any help appreciated

Paul[/img]

 

[luminaire]

I'm not familiar with caravan set-ups, but have you tried testing the battery with the battery disconnected to see what voltage is showing.
If you have a DMM (digital multimeter) that shows AC current you should be able to check the charge going into the battery by placing it in series across the + terminal. I.e. with meter switched to highest AC current range, disconnect charger on + battery terminal. Connect test probes in series with removed lead and battery. That should show how much current is going into battery.
HTH

 

[mooney3]

The battery is a brand new leisure battery showing 12.3 volts on the meter.
The 240v electrics trip out at the charger mcb if I disconnect the terminal to put the meter into series.

Paul

 

[luminaire]

It looks as though your charger could be faulty then.
I can only suggest you get it checked out.

 

[tim west]

I'm not familiar with the caravan but there must be some form of fusing on the output from the battery have you checked for a blown fuse or trip?

 

[timtheenchanter]

hi, have you checked the car/van switch is in the right position. some vans need it to be in the van position to run from the van battery, some the centre

also pop over to www.ukcampsite.co.uk theres alot of info from other van owners to be had.
by the way, 12.3V is less than 1/2 charged, 11.9 is dead, and 12.9 pwards is fully charged.

to check the charger, check the battery voltage, turn on the charger, the voltage should rise to anyhting from 13.5V to 15/16V