Urgent help needed please

Helen Abdullahi
Helen Abdullahi Forum Participant Posts: 5
edited July 2017 in Caravans #1

Problem with Avondale Dart 525-4 2007. I'm no expert so I will explain the problem as best I can. We are meant to be going away in the morning. We collected our van from storage and brought it back to the house. Now to start with, I'm very confident that out leisure battery is knackered and has been that way since we bought the van. We always use the van when hooked up to electric so the battery has never caused us an issue.

I plugged the van into the elec socket in our garage and all seemed well. Lights, heaters all checked and seemed to be working fine. Also the fridge was starting to cool down so all good.

We have a "Battery condition" gauge on the wall and when hooked up to elec, this always points to the green section of the gauge. I left the van plugged in for a couple of hours and then noticed that the gauge had dropped to half. I looked at the RCD unit and noticed that the light on top had gone off and one of the MCB switches had tripped. I reset the MCB and switched the RDC unit back on. The light on the top came back on and all looked like it was back working. However gradually over the next hour i noticed that the light in the van started to dim until gradually not working at all. Also the radio is not switching on. I have checked that elec is still coming to the van as I can still use sockets to charge phone.

Does this sound serious?? I was wondering if replacing the leisure would help but I thought that when plugged in to the mains I was bypassing the battery.

Any help would be appreciated.

   

Comments

  • Madmax 2
    Madmax 2 Forum Participant Posts: 62
    edited July 2017 #2

    Absolutely replace: dont just ignore because your on hook up as the charger is working overtime & eventually the battery will just give up the ghost & could damage you charger:

  • crusader
    crusader Forum Participant Posts: 299
    100 Comments
    edited July 2017 #3

    as madmax says replace the battery and get the charger unit checked out. measure the battery compartment HWL and buy the largest amp battery to fit

  • Simon100
    Simon100 Club Member Posts: 666 ✭
    500 Comments 100 Likes
    edited July 2017 #4

    As far as I am aware 12volt equipment always takes the power from the battery. The mains power charges the battery which smooths the output to the 12v equipment. Therefore you should have a decent battery in the van at all times. 

  • Bakers2
    Bakers2 Forum Participant Posts: 8,196 ✭✭✭
    2,500 Likes 1000 Comments Name Dropper
    edited July 2017 #5

    This appears to be another duplicate thread. Last night there were lots of answers about 20. 

    What is the matter with this site?? 😤😭😤😭

    Poster so off to Henley to take part in a marathon.

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