Electrical Problems - Majestic 125
All changes involve teething problems but I found it disconcerting when I went to unplug the orange cable ( sorry Merve) of the MH on the driveway. The battery was red hot. The caravan had a set of three rocker switches on the PSU, water, heating and charger.
The MH panel does not appear to have a separate switch for the battery charger, so I assume it operates from the master switch. Not that this relates directly to the problem. I'm not too good on electrics. Any suggestions folks?
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I'd have this checked out CY. I had the same problem with my Elddis van a couple of months after I bought it. On your van I'm certain the charger works when it's plugged in, you don't need the master switch on for it to charge the battery. When on hook up only your Lesuire battery will be charged, NOT your engine battery. My van is Sept 2015 Reg.
My lesuire battery kept going flat and one day whilst away camping we'd gone out for a few hours and when we came back the battery was almost on meltdown. The smell was awful too. At first Marquis blamed a faulty battery and replaced it FOC but a couple of weeks later I got a recall on the van from Elddis. It was due to the water tank frost 12v heaters going on and flattening the battery. Elddis had wired them in wrong and they didn't go off with the master switch. Anyway, they took the van back and rewired the heaters putting an extra switch for them in the wardrobe. I've since been under the van and disconnected them both so they now can't come on at all. I also had a solar panel fitted to trickle charge both batteries as the cab battery runs down after 3 weeks of no use in the winter due to the drain caused by the alarm. Since I've sorted those little problems out I've had no further battery issues in over 18 months.
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a good point raised above....many vans dont charge the vehicle battery as well as the leisure battery when on ehu....you need to check this.
vans with Sargeant PSU/controllers generally DO manage this....both our Swifts did it OK....
if the van stays on the drive and the vehicle battery cant be charged by plugging in, or from a solar panel, it will run down and you will need an external charger to top up....an ongoing pain...
a relatively simple solution is to fit a Battery Master (or similar) that will charge the vehicle battery from the charged leisure battery....
OR.....find out if it can be wired 'properly'.....unfortunately, this is ommitted to keep costs down, but is blooming annoying of trying to keep a battery topped up, especially with more and more trickery dragging it down.
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I've since taken the leisure battery out and put on a charger in my garage. Started out at just under 5amps, dropping to 4.5 amps after two hours, but 14 hours later was still charging at 4.5amps. After disconnecting it showed a voltage of 12.7v but half an hour later it has dropped to 12.5v. It therefore seems that it is not taking a full charge which would tally with the readout from the solar controller. The controller, before the van was connected to mains hookup, was showing it as charging, rather than float charge despite the voltage showing 12.75 which suggests that the battery is not accepting the charge properly and which tallies up with the overheating when connected to EHU. Whilst not completely kaput, it seems that the battery is heading towards Norwegian Blue Parrot status so I'll have to bite the bullet and buy a new one.
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Cy, surely a call to the dealer will see them changing it....or, if its a bind to return, get one locally and bill them....obviously not fir for purpose as you only had the van a few days...
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