Caravan drained towcar battery?
Hello! We're just back from a lovely weekend but the car died on us and I wondered if anyone has any thoughts on what might have caused it.
We'd arrived at the site after an uneventful 1hr drive. I reversed the 'van onto the pitch, switched off the engine and unhitched the caravan. When I came to start the car so I could move it from the front to the side of the 'van it wouldn't start. The battery was dead.
The car started fine with a jump before setting off back home (I didn't use the car all weekend - I just pushed it out of the way when it wouldn't start), but the battery was completely dead by the time we arrived home again.
I charged the battery back up last night and it seems to be working fine this morning.
The voltage of the freshly charged battery read about 12.6V and when the engine was running solo this morning I measured about 14.2V, so assume the towcar is working as it should be and the issue must be with the caravan?
I haven't a clue what/where to start checking, so any pointers would be greatly appreciated!!
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I'm no expert on this, but here is my understanding.
When towing with the caravan connected to the car via the twin sockets (or the single 13 pin socket) this makes the caravan lights work and the car also charges up the caravan battery (as well as the car battery).
The caravan lights etc do not run off the car battery, so the car battery should not be discharged while towing.
The car battery will charge up while the engine is running, just as it does when you are not towing.
In the caravan you will have an electrical 'fuse box' with a number of trip switches and a mains power switch. There is also usually a small black rocker switch with three positions - 'Car', 'Caravan' and a central 'neutral' position.
As an aside - I always used to leave ours on the caravan position and everything worked fine. Our service engineer always tells me to put it in the neutral position when stored, because this closes a relay and stops the caravan battery from draining.
However, I understand that the 'car' position is used for running the caravan 12 volt system off the car battery, by leaving the black cable plugged into the car - something that people apparently did in the 'old days' before electric hook ups and solar panels etc. I gather it often left them with a flat car battery.
As I said, I'm no expert, but I wonder whether leaving this switch in the 'car' position while driving would drain your battery?
Alternatively, maybe your tow bar electrics haven't been wired correctly (not uncommon, I understand).
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MM You do not state how old your battery is,but I too would be surprised if it is the van causing the draining of the battery.
The only issue I can think of is the fridge "running" with the engine off.You can easily tell by looking at the indicator light on the fridge.
When you look under the bonnet again make sure there is no "white calcium "build up on the terminals.Otherwise have the battery drop tested by a garage or a battery dealer.
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Thanks for your answers, I'm feeling a bit more relaxed now it's sounding like my caravan isn't likely to be the culprit!
The car is 10 years old but we've only had it a couple of years so it could well be due a new battery. I'll see how we get on during our (luckily) short tow for our next holiday in April, but will pack a battery charger just in case
Unfortunately I'm not able to hook up on the driveway without loads of rigmarole so haven't been able to check the draw from the caravan. I'll test it just before departing on our next holiday though, and fiddle with all the switches if the readings look dodgy!!
Thanks again all and hopefully it's something as simple as the battery.
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Have you been running the car since you returned, or did it get pushed out of the way again?
Sounds like you don't use the car a lot and the battery and possibly also the alternator are faulty. While neither are difficult to replace if you throw money at the problem they are not going to be fixed in 10 minutes right before you set off, so take the car to a garage and find out the problem.
Even if through wrong wiring or relay faults there just isn't enought 12v stuff in the caravan that running all of it at once would overload the alternator in a one hour trip.
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