Flat Battery after one night off grid, why and how?

R

Ruby2

Joined
May 30, 2022
Posts
85
Likes collected
89
Funster No
88,990
MH
Autotrail Savannah
Morning Funsters

Well it was going so well, parked at the Lakeside car park Newby Bridge last night and all seem to be a success, until we had a warning beep to sat vehicle battery was low??? We have leisure battery wired into solar and definitely weren't using the vehicle battery for power. Hubby accidentally left ignition on with radio for no more than 15 minutes, would that have discharged the vehicle battery or is there something else going on. We're not engineers but not stupid either so any advice would be useful. We should be off grid again tonight in Ambleside but now thinking do we find a site instead? BTW currently waiting for recovery to jump- start us, fingers crossed, cheers everyone
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
You need to tell us about the vehicle, how old are the batteries, is the alternator working and I'm sure someone will have an answer.15 minutes with the radio on wouldn't drain a good vehicle battery.Are you running anything else while driving such as an inverter etc
 
Upvote 0
andykim said:
You need to tell us about the vehicle, how old are the batteries, is the alternator working and I'm sure someone will have an answer.
Click to expand...
Autotrail Savannah on ducato engine. Alternator had never been a problem before, battery about 3 years old, started up this morning when we had to move van to another part of car park, so didn't expect this to happen
 
Upvote 0
Its possible your cab battery was being used to power the Habitation services, hence the drain. On our Autotrail you van select either battery to use for habitation services.
 
Upvote 0
If ,as you say, you have been using only the leisure battery for the habitation electrics ,I would suspect a starter battery that is faulty , the recovery agent should be able to confirm that it is being charged ok when the engine is running , and if so , perhaps it would be worth getting the battery tested and replaced if required .

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Upvote 0
I hate to be a conveyor of doom and gloom - but that dreaded Airbag ECU might pop up! Our battery went flat during lock-down and hey presto - Airbag ECU light went on a month before MOT due - and over 3 months wait for a new one from Fiat ‘Professional’ - so van had to sit there unusable 😱
 
Upvote 0
Ruby2 said:
M BTW currently waiting for recovery to jump- start us, fingers crossed, cheers everyone
Click to expand...
Always carry jump leads and you will probably be able to connect the habitation battery to the cab battery. An hour or so should put enough in to get it to start. Not sure I would want to jump it directly, but that will be dependent on the state of your hab battery.
 
Upvote 0
PhilandMena said:
On our Autotrail you van select either battery to use for habitation services.
Click to expand...

I can never understand why vehicles are built like this but it sounds as though there’s a fair chance that this is the cause of their problem. It’s the first thing that I’d be checking.

Ian
 
Upvote 0
Ruby2 said:
Morning Funsters

Well it was going so well, parked at the Lakeside car park Newby Bridge last night and all seem to be a success, until we had a warning beep to sat vehicle battery was low??? We have leisure battery wired into solar and definitely weren't using the vehicle battery for power. Hubby accidentally left ignition on with radio for no more than 15 minutes, would that have discharged the vehicle battery or is there something else going on. We're not engineers but not stupid either so any advice would be useful. We should be off grid again tonight in Ambleside but now thinking do we find a site instead? BTW currently waiting for recovery to jump- start us, fingers crossed, cheers everyone
Click to expand...
How did you get on?

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Upvote 0
PhilandMena said:
Its possible your cab battery was being used to power the Habitation services, hence the drain. On our Autotrail you van select either battery to use for habitation services.
Click to expand...
Hi, we definitely weren't using vehicle battery for hab, We've had the AA out ( luckily we had recovery on our insurance) and all the tests showed the battery was end of its life. New battery fitted now so 👌. Re our Auto Trail. On the control panel we have four buttons, power, pump, battery, aux. We've always been told never to select the battery button unless we want to use vehicle battery. We never have and never had a problem before. Thanks anyway
 
Upvote 0
Ruby2 said:
Hi, we definitely weren't using vehicle battery for hab, We've had the AA out ( luckily we had recovery on our insurance) and all the tests showed the battery was end of its life. New battery fitted now so 👌. Re our Auto Trail. On the control panel we have four buttons, power, pump, battery, aux. We've always been told never to select the battery button unless we want to use vehicle battery. We never have and never had a problem before. Thanks anyway
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0
GeoffnDee said:
If ,as you say, you have been using only the leisure battery for the habitation electrics ,I would suspect a starter battery that is faulty , the recovery agent should be able to confirm that it is being charged ok when the engine is running , and if so , perhaps it would be worth getting the battery tested and replaced if required .
Click to expand...
New battery fitted, old one knackered apparently (that's how I feel now lol)
 
Upvote 0
Teedubyaa said:
I hate to be a conveyor of doom and gloom - but that dreaded Airbag ECU might pop up! Our battery went flat during lock-down and hey presto - Airbag ECU light went on a month before MOT due - and over 3 months wait for a new one from Fiat ‘Professional’ - so van had to sit there unusable 😱
Click to expand...
New battery fitted now, feel very poor 😆
 
Upvote 0
Ruby2 said:
New battery fitted now, feel very poor 😆
Click to expand...
At least its put your mind at rest. You should fit a battery master or similar which charges your vehicle battery with excess solar power and keeps it in good condition .

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Upvote 0
Headrush said:
Did you accidentally leave the fridge on 12v?
Click to expand...

andykim said:
At least its put your mind at rest. You should fit a battery master or similar which charges your vehicle battery with excess solar power and keeps it in good condition .
Click to expand...
Yes we have that but apparently the battery was so bad it wasn't getting the boost
 
Upvote 0
Headrush said:
I guess that depends on the age. Our 2007 Cheyenne appears to run on 12v whether the engine is on or not. It's not an automatic fridge.
Click to expand...
Mines a 2014 and its manual change but wont go on 12v unless the engines running.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Upvote 0
Tribute615 said:
Mines a 2014 and its manual change but wont go on 12v unless the engines running.
Click to expand...
I'll be checking it out. But I never use it anyway as the fridge stays just as cold without it running while driving. We only do a maximum of 4 hours between sites.
 
Upvote 0
I think it's a legal requirement that the 12v goes off in the hab apart from the fridge?? I'm sure I read that somewhere??
 
Upvote 0
andykim said:
I think it's a legal requirement that the 12v goes off in the hab apart from the fridge?? I'm sure I read that somewhere??
Click to expand...
I've just been reading and found out it's more of a uk thing to isolate the 12v and not a legal requirement and you can bypass it through the relay. Personally I wouldn't bother as I'm never in the two places at the same time.
 
Upvote 0
Perhaps its better that its the battery rather than an alternator at fault. Cost aside, to replace the battery is possibly easier than replacing the alternator, and the battery change allows you to carry on touring rather than seeking a garage repair for an alternator.
We have a faulty alternator being replaced under 3 yr warranty. Symptoms were that the battery showed 76% or 62% or 55% etc rather than near 100% after a two or three hour daytime run. When we parked up, the solar recharged it to 100% so we never really knew the alternator was letting us down until I started monitoring it each time we stopped.
 
Upvote 1
I always thought the Cab radio was powered by the Habitation Battery?
 
Upvote 0

Join us or log in to post a reply.

To join in you must be a member of MotorhomeFun

Join MotorhomeFun

Join us, it quick and easy!

Join us

Log in

Already a member? Log in here.

Latest journal entries

Back
Top