Hi everybody towed me caravan for the first time with me sport and after changing the 2 plugs for a single 13 pin electrics had a few problems with the car going in to limp mode which as soon as I turned it off and restarted was fine for a while but ce back when I got to site after a little Bit of delving I found my van battery was knackered when on charge with caravan battery charger it was getting warm and started to leak o assume that may have been
My problem as the car has been fine when not attached to caravan has any one else has this or does anyone know of this
Thanks
Well i think my caravan battery was goosed by being overcharged by caravan charger and my towing socket took battery out of loop and it towed sweet as a nut on way back
Unless you have an unusual caravan battery 'charger' then the usual fitted types are actually a very poor charger due to it's power supply mode voltage which is lower than a charge voltage, so unless you charge your battery on return home with a correct type charger (Ctek and the like) then you are slowly destroying the battery. Charging a battery from a low state of charge with a normal caravan charger is just asking for trouble.
I have my caravan 'charger' left permanently off, even when on sites as before I fitted solar I used my Ctek MXS10. Now with solar installed I use a Ctek D250S Dual as this supposedly gives correct charging from the solar panel and also I altered the wiring so the car charge also routes through the D250S dual input pin. If solar isn't installed then the caravan charge connection could be connected to the solar input which would then give good battery charging from site 240v and also prevent overcharging like you may have found with yours.
Unfortunately I'm not home so cannot check the caravan power supply voltage for an example, and I cannot remember exactly but I think around 13v - too low for good battery charging (will prevent excessive drop though, but must charge properly on return home).
These Cteks are not cheap, but I went through a spate of spending a fortune replacing batteries (4x4's & motorhome) so thought it cost effective to just get proper chargers and it seems to be working.
Dennis
13MY Range Rover Sport Autobiography SDV6 - mine
14MY Range Rover Evoque Dynamic SD4 Black Pack - wife's
99MY Defender 90 TD5, Soft Top Conversion - my toy, and bairns favourite
Thanks for that i was thinking of going down the ctek route as i did check the caravan battery and it had only 5.4 volts so i took that out and put my meter across the positive and negative in the van and there was actually 14.2 volts across them i have had caravans for a few years and have never seen a charger boil the battery like it did and to give me so many problems while towing it i did use the van for the rest of the weekend without the battery and the charger was powering the 12 volt system
14.2v does sound a bit high for a caravan power output. But depending on your useage it could still be used for charging along with a D250S Dual (assuming no solar installed), and I'd guess a Ctek D250S Dual is probably cheaper than replacing the caravan charger - assuming it's just running high output voltage and not actually unsafe.
Connect the permanent 12v from the car to the D250S alternator input (I disconnected the fuse output wire to the caravan power panel at the trailer plug fuse panel, and ran a wire from the fuse output to D250S). This means you cannot power the caravan from your car, but who ever does that anyway? It has the added advantage that once your caravan battery is fully charged then you have the capability of charging your car battery if it were still connected, ideal if parked for long periods.
Connect your caravan charger 12v to the D250S solar panel input.
You will then have full 5 stage charging for your caravan battery along with backfeed charging to car capability. Although I have a 150W solar panel installed I have the car wiring part like this and it works very well, when the car is running and sun shining my caravan battery charges from both sources but won't overcharge (according to the Ctek blurb...).
I'd guess that the vast majority of caravan owners don't actually need a battery as they use site hookups, just as I assume you were doing for the weekend. Having a battery still connected in this circumstances is not clever at all EDIT - except of course for any high load appliances which may need to draw from the battery if higher draw than the caravan 'charger' supplies.
Dennis
13MY Range Rover Sport Autobiography SDV6 - mine
14MY Range Rover Evoque Dynamic SD4 Black Pack - wife's
99MY Defender 90 TD5, Soft Top Conversion - my toy, and bairns favourite
I'm in the shed, I'll be back in the real world in a minute.
I'm in the shed, I'll be back in the real world in a minute.
