The resurrection of Doc, bringing a 20 year old neismann Bischoff Flair back to life after 12 years off road.

[Poutie57]

Tam My van has CBE electrics it will be low voltage of the battery that shuts down the control even it says 13.1 now last night the battery would have dipped below 12v and as nothing was on over night voltage has gone back up. Basically your battery is knackered and not holding charge once you replace it all should be ok

 

[Northernraider]

New control panel and distribution unit will sort it only about £800 - £1000

I don't think it's that severe . Must be something simple.
Am I right in thinking the voltage displayed for the leisure batteries won't be correct as they're connected to the starter battery ?

The only other time everything went off was the night the batteries got down to 11.8v but I had lots of the halogens on that night.

The batteries I borrowed to get it up and running but they are 6 years old lead acids so we know they are not the best . Weird that the battery charger was still running at the time though .

I'm going to take some photos of that today as it's a strange looking charger on this . I thought it was an inverter at first but it doesn't have very heavy cables on it.

 

[Northernraider]

Tam My van has CBE electrics it will be low voltage of the battery that shuts down the control even it says 13.1 now last night the battery would have dipped below 12v and as nothing was on over night voltage has gone back up. Basically your battery is knackered and not holding charge once you replace it all should be ok

Yes I think both Just smiffy and i's initially thoughts are it's the batteries causing the issue.

I'm still undecided whether to go for 2 Gels or fit a lithium battery in it.

I'm kinda holding off till I see how much the other repairs are going to cost first lol.

My thought is IF the generator does work and provides me with a back up then 2 gels , a b2b and at least 400w of solar through a victron mppt may remove my need for lithium .....or do I just fit Lithium now so its done and dusted.

 

[funflair]

Been on hookup since last night , batteries were showing 13.4 volts all day. But the charger is weird it's like an inverter charger . I've switched that off for now as seems to be constantly on

Page 29 of the manual, https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1115928/Cbe-Pc-540hy.html?page=29#manual the display "SOS lights" should only really be showing when a 3 amp fuse has been inserted into position 3 in the fuse box, the function of this is to give you some emergency lights if the panel has shut down on it's battery protect programme, my understanding is that there should be nothing in the fuse position 3 so worth checking.

 

[Poutie57]

Just fit lithium’s and be done with it, so many times I’ve gone the cheaper route only to go the ‘proper’ route in the end

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[davidroxburgh]

Hi Tam - you want this as a keeper (ha ha) so IF correct lithium must be the logical choice despite the cost consequences?

 

[Northernraider]

Page 29 of the manual, https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1115928/Cbe-Pc-540hy.html?page=29#manual the display "SOS lights" should only really be showing when a 3 amp fuse has been inserted into position 3 in the fuse box, the function of this is to give you some emergency lights if the panel has shut down on it's battery protect programme, my understanding is that there should be nothing in the fuse position 3 so worth checking.

Yep position 3 is empty and despite it saying sos lights on I never had any

 

[Northernraider]

Just fit lithium’s and be done with it, so many times I’ve gone the cheaper route only to go the ‘proper’ route in the end

Yeah had I been able to get the fogstar eco 300ah lithium battery it would be a no brainer but the drift 300 is a lot more expensive. Looking at issues others are having with balancing etc I think I'd prefer one big lithium than 2 smaller ones.

But yes I don't want to fork out 400 quid on gels only to change them next year to lithium

 

[Northernraider]

Hi Tam - you want this as a keeper (ha ha) so IF correct lithium must be the logical choice despite the cost consequences?

I do yes but I'm always wary of "just in case " lol . I thought moby was going to be a keeper at first. And I spent a fortune on him in a year only to now be selling it at a possible loss.

I'm still contemplating stripping most of the new electrics I put in him back out if he doesn't sell near my current asking price

 

[JockandRita]

Actually I should have said light as I think it is just the one in the step, they call it the "dog light" I believe, but yes it would be relatively power hungry hungry as it was about the only one not changed to LED in yours, the fairy lights around the top of the cupboards might be a bit on the hungry side as well I think.

Changed to LED some moons ago Martin. It is a really handy little light in that position.

Cheers,

Jock.

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[Langtoftlad]

I'm confused [easily done with electrics]
Why no 12v last night if on hook up?

I have CBE and when I had no leisure batteries recently, I still had 12v when plugged in.

 

[Northernraider]

Does anyone know if we still get our funster discount from fogstar over and above their current sale prices?

At the minute the fogstar drift 230ah is £596 and the 300ah is £722 both on sale

If we get 10% off that I'd be more tempted .

As the 300ah would work out around £650

£109 for a victron solar controller and domestic 400watt solar panel from city plumbing is £56 ...if I have space I'm going to fit 2 of those ... so I'd maybe need a second controller. ( possibly removed from moby )

 

[Northernraider]

Changed to LED some moons ago Martin. It is a really handy little light in that position.

Cheers,

Jock.

I forgot about that one .. Will need to have a look and see what bulb it is

 

[Northernraider]

I'm confused [easily done with electrics]
Why no 12v last night if on hook up?

I have CBE and when I had no leisure batteries recently, I still had 12v when plugged in.

Beats the shit outta me batman


Aka I've no idea

 

[funflair]

Yep position 3 is empty and despite it saying sos lights on I never had any

I had a feeling that was going to be the answer, to try to understand it you really need to know the battery voltage at the point it all went off but if it was on mains and the charger was on it should have been OK.

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[Northernraider]

I had a feeling that was going to be the answer, to try to understand it you really need to know the battery voltage at the point it all went off but if it was on mains and the charger was on it should have been OK.

Yes according to the panel all batteries were 13.1-3v

Been that way all day yesterday.

I had been removing cables yesterday and I had hoovered all under the floor areas etc so I did think maybe I'd disturbed some wires or something but I don't think that's the case . I'll have a look at the batteries today in daylight and I need to check all the fuses in the fusebox as I've a couple of lights that worked when I first viewed the van that weren't/aren't working since I collected it.

When I first put these batteries In up in Wales I did blow the fuse for the panel as I touched the spanner off the bike securing bars while tightening the battery terminals ...but once fuse was changed all was well.

Is this the original charger ? And is it an inverter too?

Need to give all that a hoover and clean today too.



Can't say I'm impressed by how untidy the wiring is if that's all original

 

[Dutch 68]

Yes I think both Just smiffy and i's initially thoughts are it's the batteries causing the issue.

I'm still undecided whether to go for 2 Gels or fit a lithium battery in it.

I'm kinda holding off till I see how much the other repairs are going to cost first lol.

My thought is IF the generator does work and provides me with a back up then 2 gels , a b2b and at least 400w of solar through a victron mppt may remove my need for lithium .....or do I just fit Lithium now so its done and dusted.

I would do everything right first time Tam, don’t skimp on things, in that way you only have to do it once, lithium makes you a lot more flexible

 

[Miggs]

Tam, if you put all this on a YouTube channel you'd have everything thrown at you for free lol!

On another note, maybe consider letting a broker deal with Moby and let you crack on with no distractions?

 

[intokenny]

That's why they call it elec trickery Tam!!!! Mind you most things to do with motorhomes is trickery for me!!!

 

[Lenny HB]

I don't think it's that severe . Must be something simple.
Am I right in thinking the voltage displayed for the leisure batteries won't be correct as they're connected to the starter battery ?

On the control panel you should be able to select which battery is displayed Hab or Starter.
As I said before CBE panels are known for reading a bit high (I think they can be recalibrated).

I agree it's low voltage on the batteries that is causing the shutdown, the shut down will be controlled by the distribution unit so if the battery volts are low it will shut down regardless of what the panel says.

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[Just smiffy]

I had a feeling that was going to be the answer, to try to understand it you really need to know the battery voltage at the point it all went off but if it was on mains and the charger was on it should have been OK.

When we picked it up sos was empty but I think the one next door to it the lights also a 3amp but had a 5amp fuse in it was blown, replaced with a 5amp as we didn’t have a 3amp at the time… I’m saying this for info only…

I too think the batteries are old and not playing ball, I have a fairly good lead acid in the shed so will change them for just that one and see how we go…

 

[Northernraider]

Tam, if you put all this on a YouTube channel you'd have everything thrown at you for free lol!

On another note, maybe consider letting a broker deal with Moby and let you crack on with no distractions?

Aye only if I had several thousand followers and subscribers sadly.


I've had motorhome depot emailing me wanting to sell moby for me but I'd rather sell it myself for a bit less than give them commission to sell it . I know the van inside and out and any buyer would be better dealing with me than them .

I've just put it to the back of my mind for now and if I get any serious interest I'll deal with it then. Jackie said I can leave it there as long as I need even if that was till next spring so I'm not stressing about it anymore. If I can get everything sorted on this one for the funds I have available at present that'll be fine .

Of the fridge turns out to be knackered ill have to try and source a second hand one as that looks like a high cost repair otherwise.

But the solar , batteries etc I'd planned to do anyway

 

[Lenny HB]

As for the Lithium/Gel debate as you are now full timing in it I would think Lithium is the way to go.
The Fogstar Driff has better cells although the Bluetooth may not always give accurate results it's not bad if you understand whats going on.
If you go for the Eco you will need to spend £100 on a Shunt as with Lithium no other way of knowing the state of your batteries, the voltage curve is too flat to get an idea of state of charge by reading the voltage.

 

[Just smiffy]

When we picked it up sos was empty but I think the one next door to it the lights also a 3amp but had a 5amp fuse in it was blown, replaced with a 5amp as we didn’t have a 3amp at the time… I’m saying this for info only…

I too think the batteries are old and not playing ball, I have a fairly good lead acid in the shed so will change them for just that one and see how we go…

Sorry the fuse was this one…

 

[Northernraider]

On the control panel you should be able to select which battery is displayed Hab or Starter.
As I said before CBE panels are known for reading a bit high (I think they can be recalibrated).

I agree it's low voltage on the batteries that is causing the shutdown, the shut down will be controlled by the distribution unit so if the battery volts are low it will shut down regardless of what the panel says.

The control panel on this seems very basic lenny , it doesn't show battery ah or percentage etc like previous vans I've had .. the only battery display I get is this

There's no other battery information.

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[Lenny HB]

When we picked it up sos was empty but I think the one next door to it the lights also a 3amp but had a 5amp fuse in it was blown, replaced with a 5amp as we didn’t have a 3amp at the time… I’m saying this for info only…

3amp/5amp sounds low for the SOS fuse as it normally powers several lights and the water pump, may also power the heating circuit.
My mates E line it was 15 amp.

 

[Northernraider]

3amp/5amp sounds low for the SOS fuse as it normally powers several lights and the water pump, may also power the heating circuit.

The fuse box tells us the fuse ampage though it's hard to see in the photo but there's a raised number beside each fuse with the ampage I've currently got a 5amp in the control panel holder as we didn't have a 3amp to hand but I think I have them in another box I just have to find them .

 

[Lenny HB]

The control panel on this seems very basic lenny , it doesn't show battery ah or percentage etc like previous vans I've had .. the only battery display I get is this

View attachment 942853


There's no other battery information.

It is showing both Starter and Hab batteries and it looks like it works like a gauge with the black infill going up and down so you can estimate percentage.

 

[Northernraider]

It is showing both Starter and Hab batteries and it looks like it works like a gauge with the black infill going up and down so you can estimate percentage.

Yes that's it ..so going by that the leisure battery it's full.

 

[Lenny HB]

Yes that's it ..so going by that the leisure battery it's full.

Have you got it on EHU if so that will be the charger voltage.

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