Charging problem

[Kamperkev]

Hi, can someone help with a charging problem with my van, we bought a sunlight motorhome new in January had a 160 watt solar panel fitted, came home from a few days away and the battery was reading 12.9v it's been sat outside our house not connected to electric hookup and the volts have been slowly dropping down to 11.9 this morning despite that we have had a fair bit of sunshine.the controller is a epever dual mppt this is reading hab battery 13.4 van battery 13.1, which one is correct.
The sunlight panel is very basic starting at 13.5 down to 11.6 with a series of lights from green down to red.
The mppt controller is fixed under the passenger seat and see the readings I have to remove the table and the rear seat base cover.
Please keep any answers simple as electrics go straight over my head
Thanks Kev

 

[Richard n Ann]

First thing I would do is check the battery voltage with a multimeter.

More long term I'd fit a good battery monitor, very handy to have.
I fitted the NASA BM2

It also gives starter battery voltage and estimated time to charged/discharge

 

[berni109]

You need to use a multimeter to get the actual battery voltage at the battery terminals(top of battery). Do both batteries - every thing switched off for at least 30 mins
Do it when it's dark or else disconnect the feed from the solar panel. There should be a switch or a fuse just before the solar controller.(But maybe not fitted).
Then take readings again when it's sunny and all connected back up.
Tell us what you find.
Aldi had a cheap multimeter last week.

 

[Kamperkev]

You need to use a multimeter to get the actual battery voltage at the battery terminals(top of battery). Do both batteries - every thing switched off for at least 30 mins
Do it when it's dark or else disconnect the feed from the solar panel. There should be a switch or a fuse just before the solar controller.(But maybe not fitted).
Then take readings again when it's sunny and all connected back up.
Tell us what you find.
Aldi had a cheap multimeter last week.

Thanks for your reply, I think it will have to wait as we are going on our six week tour of France, Spain and Portugal on Wednesday, and to get to the batteries I have to remove the driver's seat, we will be moving every couple of days so that will keep the batteries top up .
I am planning to upgrade to lithium next year but might get that sorted when we get back
Kev

 

[Jev88]

If you have access to the solar controller (battery can be awkward we know) - put simple multimeter on solar input (17+ volts average) and the output to battery - should be over 13 volts to show it is charging. Could be a simple fuse near leisure battery that has blown.

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[autorouter]

If you can't get at the actual battery terminals with a multimeter, then there should be something accessible very near the battery that will be the next best thing. For example there may be a fuse or an isolator switch.

Sometimes you can touch the fuse terminals themselves, through small holes in the fuse. If not, you can remove the fuse, and one of the fuse slot terminals will be connected directly to the battery terminal. The other fuse slot terminal will be the voltage coming from other things including the solar controller.