Monday, Feb 09, 2015 at 17:11
Tom and Peter,
Going by Tom's OP if I understand correctly, with 2 exceptions, my system is much the same.
When I first took delivery of my van I discovered by the failure of my breakaway battery that the charging circuit for that battery had in fact not been connected. I removed that battery and connected the 2 105 AH DC house batteries to the breakaway unit.
As said, I am not recommending anyone else do this, but to me I now have 2 much larger and
well charged batteries always on line to make an emergency application of the caravan brakes in the instance of a breakaway event. I do of course
test the system periodically with the
test button and by pulling the activation device out of the breakaway unit.
The other difference is that here in WA there is currently no requirement for an in cab monitoring system although I do have a method of monitoring all my batteries which may or may not meet NSW requirements.
Tom, if I interpreted your OP correctly, you are charging your house batteries and the breakaway battery in parallel. Could it be that because of the vastly different capacities, and maybe battery types, the little 7AH job is not receiving it's appropriate share of charge? What I'm trying to say is if you have 2 fully charged house batteries are they telling the battery charger that no more charge is required and the charger is ignoring the 7AH breakaway battery's plee for a top up.
Peter, the
test sequence that occurs when a service brake application is made, does this
test, as
well as testing the brake lights, make an actual van brake application, or just an internal
test of the breakaway unit? I have only ever made sure that the brake lights operated with the
test button and that there was a full brake application when the breakaway activation device is pulled out.
Cheers
Pop
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