trickle charge

[dunnah01]

My CBE DS450-RA distribution unit is supposed to trickle charge the starter battery when on EHU. I'm pretty much on permanent hook up but the starter battery has always been a bit laboured when starting between trips out. I changed the battery but this made no difference. It was very sluggish today after not being started for a few weeks. Is there a way to test if the starter battery is being trickle charged by the distribution unit?

 

[Lenny HB]

Measure the voltage of the starter battery if its being charged it should be around 13.5v if not 12.9v or less.

 

[RogerIvy]

It’s also possible that you have a parasitic drain, maybe just more than the trickle charge. This is where a clamp-meter is handy to debug.

 

[dunnah01]

I'll do some measuring tomorrow

 

[Raul]

Also any starter cable corrosion or loose, including grounding.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[AdrianChen]

All our DS470 does is connect the leisure battery to the starter battery via a relay, it does this when the leisure battery voltage is above 13.5v so if the leisure battery voltage is not high either because the battery charger is off or on float with a few loads, then it may be the trickle is down to a few drips or nothing! The max charge is 6 amps on our CA version.

Not sure what display you have, but with ours I can see the two batteries voltage, and the amps passing in or out of the leisure battery, my display badly needed calibrating and because the system acts on the values displayed that made a difference. (ours was under reading the leisure battery - Gels at that time)

I would measure both batteries with loads off, once with the main charger off (and solar if you have any sun), and again with it on - Voltages should be similar/as per Lenny HB.

How old is the starter battery?

 

[dunnah01]

Well proper confused now - 13.0v at both batteries on and off hookup. I think I’ll give the batteries a couple of days to calm down after doing 100miles yesterday

 

[Just smiffy]

I had this last year and bought a new battery and was still a bit hesitant, then shortly after my starter motor kept jamming so got a new one and it’s starts fine now… not saying it’s your problem but be prepared…

 

[AdrianChen]

Think the link is working, and the batts have been getting a charge from the EHU, voltage will drop down if left off charge, or go up to whatever the charger is set to if on EHU, hopefully higher then 13v?

 

[BouncyBoatFolk]

How old is the starter battery?

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[dunnah01]

Well did some digging and prodding and everything is doing as it should now

I jumped the hook-up relay in the battery separator to test it and I think this may have freed up the main contacts and sorted things. The batteries now link on hook-up to provide charge to B1 from B2 so I'll just have to see how things go over the next few days to see if the relay stays working..

 

[PeterCarole29]

Well did some digging and prodding and everything is doing as it should now

I jumped the hook-up relay in the battery separator to test it and I think this may have freed up the main contacts and sorted things. The batteries now link on hook-up to provide charge to B1 from B2 so I'll just have to see how things go over the next few days to see if the relay stays working..

I had a lazy starter motor did everything i could think of when i eventually was bothered to change for a new one i found that the starter motor face that was in contact with the gearbox was corroded cleaned it up put it back on started like a dream