In built <span class="highlight">Battery</span> Charger for 2004 Jayco Freedom Poptop

Hi Isa Nomads

I do not have a Jayco. I have a Kimberley Karavan with a large battery capacity.

When the KK is in the shed I leave it connected to the mains power. This ensures that the battery system is never discharged. This way the batteries remain as they should, fully charged. A total discharging does not do the battery any good and reduces the life markedly.

Obviously, in your Jayco there is something that is drawing the battery down. You may need to find that.

But my suggestion is to leave the mains hooked up when you are not using it. That way any small discharges will be met by the charger.

Cheers
DW

Hi, your brief description of your van sounds like it might be identical to one we sold earlier this year. You are correct, it does have an inbuilt battery charger which is located under the frig, near where the fuse box is.This same bit of equipment also has an Automatic cut-out whichshould prevent the battery from being fully discharged. I'm not able to comment on how much charge it puts out but you could find out by contacting Jayco technical.

Our van storage area was not near mains power so my practise was to remove the batteries from the van & store them on my work bench connected to a smart charger which kept them fully charged.

If you do not have another charger, maybe take the battery out and take it to an Auto electrician & get them to fully charge it for you and at the same time have them check to see if any permanent damage has been done to your battery.

Just as a matter of interest and if your van is the same as the one we had, are you aware the hot water system will run on 240V. The switch is located in an almost impossible to see location which is external to the van and located in where the gas ignition etc is behind the removable vent panel on right hand side of van.
Good luck & cheers

Isa nomads, the setec, I plugged in from the box that its encased in, will keep battery charged. I turned my setec off and installed a ctek as I have a bank of agms. Factory setec does not charge high enough for agms, and if I continued to use it, it would never get batteries up to the right level and thereby shortening the life.
You need to check the battery's needs and if it requires more then 13.8 boost and 13.6 float (the specs for the setec), then you need to think about that.
BW.

Hi Nomads,

Don't know about your specific Jayco, but my 2006 Jayco Eagle Outback camper has a switch alongside the 12 volt fuse panel which allows a user (as well as I can describe it)to toggle between the Setec's power supply (runs off 240 volts whether a battery is fitted or not) and 12 volt charging and power modes which you'd use away from a 240 volt power source if you had a battery fitted. Everything apart from the 240 volt electric stove element, works on 12 volts in either mode.

So far, so good.

However, you have to have the switch flicked to the mode I call the "12 volt mode" [yeah, I know someone is going to tell me it's called something else :-) ] to charge any battery that's fitted, BUT if you don't switch it back to the 240v power supply mode when your battery is charged, it will DEFINITELY drain your battery. I KNOW! At least with your van you can get into it easily to make that changeover, but it's a fair pain to access the switch when you're nearly 6' and the Eagle is in travel mode.

Oh, and one other trick - 90+% of the time, if you plug into the 240v circuit at home with the switch I've been discussing turned to "my" 12 volt mode, you can expect the main circuit breaker to switch off all power to the van. That way nothing works, except the battery you want to charge, so, while you may think you're charging the battery, it just ain't happening. Of course, just to keep you on your toes, the other 10% of the time the breaker won't break and the charger will work. Go figure! And, also of course, when it breaks the circuit, the circuit breaker is at the opposite end of my camper so there's a right angle bend and a six foot tunnel I have to negotiate to turn it back on if the camper's closed. Oh, joy, oh happiness!

I'm not saying that this is necessarily your issue, but worth investigating further in my view.

Regards,


Charlie

The Setec is only a trickle charger. It will not bring up your battery as quick as a good charger. With your battery in its present state that will be an advantage. Batteries that are dead flat are best charged with a low current initially. Apply power to your van and get the Setec going. In a few weeks time take it to a battery place and have fully charged and tested. That will see if you have left it flat for too long and killed it.