battery charge problems

I`m no sparky, But just a thought . When you say you connect the battery up and car is running I assume that is via an anderson plug at rear or similar. If so now you have two batteries connected and checking voltage will average them out. Perhaps your vehicle battery is stuffed ?

G`day mintrax,
I am only a back yard Tinkerer with this 12 volt stuff but I reckon
more info is required.
What is the A/H capacity of the battery?
What was the combined load on the battery?
Did you charge it during the 16 days ?
If so for how long with what type and size of charger?
How long after charging did you take readings?
How is the battery connected and to what, i e from the starting battery direct, or through an isolator, or from the alternator, or joined to the 12v system somehow???
What is the size and length of the cable from vehicle to camper and how are the two connected?

The people on this forum who are good at these type of problems may even require additional info.

If you still have a problem perhaps an Auto Lecky might be a good place to start.

If it's showing full voltage without the battery connected and 11 with iy connected you most likely have a high resistance in the charging circuit somewhere.

If so you'll feel it heating up, so check all your connections, fuses etc and see if any of them warm up whilst the battert is on charge.

If so then you'll need to remake the joints.

Hi Michael
The sypthoms you have are typical of a high resistance joint. Burnt or Dirty ]
. You may detect it by leaving the battery connected with engine runningleave for about 5,10 minutesthen see if you can feel any local hot spotswhere ever thre is ajount or connection including any plugs.
If you cannot find any that way you will need a mutimeter or a 12v test lamp[ any 12v lamp will do just connect a couple leads to it some how]
Then, with engine running, starting @ the van battery start testing back towards the main bat @ at some point you will get 12v indicated by a brighter glow if you are using test lamp or ajump in voltage if using a multi. THE FAULT WILL BE BETWEEN THE POINTS LAST TESTED & @ THE ONE WHERE THE VOLTAGE INCREASED..
ENSURE YOU TEST BETWEEN POS & NEG @ EACH POINT NOT POS & FRAME.
You should have a neg cable running between both bats if the installation has been done correctly.
Running your battery down to 11v is not good for ANY battery , IT WILL SERIOUSLY SHORTEN IT's .LIFE [ NO MATTER WHAT TYPE OF BATTERY
IF you have done this regularly the battery may already be kaput

Michael,
Can we review the situation.
You went away camping for 16 days (excess of 2 weeks) some time ago and the battery was working perfectly, then last week the Fullriver battery went flat, even after driving 6 hours it was still flat (11v)

However, when disconnected it shows 14v, (indicating it has VERY recently been receiving a very good charge) so we 'assume' the vehicle is fully charging the battery by the numbers you've indicated.

However, you also say "as soon as I connect the battery up the reading drops to 11v (flat reading) ... the car is RUNNING when I do this"
So (theoretically) it can't possibly be charging the battery as I thought ?

The battery does charge when on a 240v charger!

I think more detailed information is required :-)

Mainey . . .

Thanks to all who have replied, much appreciated.

I guess I should make it clear that my knowledge of this stuff is very limited. A man with little knowledge and a multimeter can be dangerous!

When I bouight the Jayco CT all the electrics were installed (12v and 240v, fuses, 12v plug...the works) and there was a place for a 12v battery if you wanted to put one in. The connecting wires were sitting there waiting to be connected to the battery.

So I installed the battery, checked that voltage was being supplied (around 14v) and left it at that. I only used the CT for 3 days with it in the original position.

After that I decided to re-locate the battery over the axle as the original position at the front of the CT was causing ball weight problems with my Forester.

I got some 50amp cable and joined it (twisted together and taped with the smaller cable that went to the original battery position) and ran the cable. I then tested that the correct voltage was present with it connected to the car and with the car running.

I then obviously incorrectly presumed that all was hunky dory, especially as I had been on the road from the 2nd Jan till 16th jan before it went flat.

Thinking about it now. I did spend 3 days in a row at a powered site in the middle of the trip. I would presume that it probably got charged correctly when connected to the 240.

The battery is a FR 100ah battery. It is connected to the car via pin 2 on the tralier plug, as is the fridge for running on dc while travelling.

Usage is fairly low, a light for an hour or two, charging mobile's and charging aa batteries through a 300w invertor once or twice and running a laptop say 2 hours a day.

Don't be too tough on me!

Regards

Michael

The standard Jayco installation is extremely poor for recharging deeply discharged batteries. It is more for running the lights off the mains power or supplying the lights with from your tug on overnight stops. The Setec power supply is only designed to maintain charged batteries, it is not an efficient battery charger. The standard wiring from your tug through a 7 pin connector does not have enough copper to charge your battery in a reasonable time. The power supply, converter (or what ever you like to call it but please don't call it a transformer) in your camper is of the same type as described in this article Site Link

If you wish to use your battery for several nights before recharging you need to reconfigure your battery system. The first thing is to replace the Setec (or did they install the Centurion) with a quality battery charger - 3 stage type. If you want to charge your battery from your tug then you need to upgrade your 12 V wiring with much heavier cable. You will also need to change your 7 pin plug for a 12 pin one or an Anderson connector and also install a battery booster like the RanOx battery booster

PeteD

Recently had similar problems with a new Jayco.

ORIGINAL WIRING ON THE CARAVAN
2 circuits
1st - Battery charging circuit direct connection to the battery
2nd - Feed to the fridge.

ORIGINAL WIRING ON THE TOWING VEHICLE
One circuit from the battery – bridged out at the vehicles plug to supply the 2 circuits on the caravan.

PROBLEM (Towing vehicle incorrectly wired)
The fridge current was causing a large enough volt drop to stop the caravan battery charging from the towing vehicle.

SOLUTION
Install 2 circuits on the vehicle to suit the 2 circuits on the caravan.
I installed separate heavy cable from the vehicle battery to the caravan battery.

Cheers Dennis Ellery

I to have been thru the Jayco Outback Penguin charging fiasco.

First thing I found was wiring thru the 7 pin plug was totally useless so modified wiring using 6 B&S wire and anderson plugs.

Basically I found 3 scenario's that exist.
1. Bush camping - no power, charge batteries with ctek xs2500 from generator or solar panels.

2. Caravan park - power available. Plug in to power and use Centurion or Setec inbuilt power unit (13.2v 30amp). This has worked for me for over 2 weeks continuous, no battery problem as fridge _Affordable_Storage_Drawers.aspx only 2.5 - 3 amps and the inbuilt power supply will float the batteries at 13.2v and supply up to 30 amps for lights etc....

3. Daily drive and overnight camp. This has been ok for me if I camp and run the next day. The problem is that the cv batteries can never be charged to 100%, if you get 85% charge you will be lucky. Not much good if you have 100ah and a 12v absoption fridge running continuously drawing 10-12 amps. Ok for compressor type fridges with Danfoss or engel motors etc.

The Centurion power supply works fine whilst it is working, I have had it fail twice, from offroad vibrations I suspect. A capacitor vibrated out and a filter inductor disconnected itself from fatigue. Both easily fixed with a bit of soldering and a heap of silicone sealant to stop it happening again.

I have wired from a Redarc isolator in the vehicle to caravan batteries using 6 B&S wire via Anderson connectors. I can still never get 100% full batteries. The only way would be to use a DC-DC booster with built in smart charger (RanOx or similar). I looked at using a sinewave inverter driving the ctek but there would probably be an issue with the charger dropping back from float to absorpton mode when the fridge switches on and hence overcharging the van batteries. I have replaced the standard 3 way fridge with a Vitfrogo compressor fridge. This happend because the Dometic has leaked gas twice and at $500 to repair each time it was time to use something else. Lost the 240v and gas but have a 12v fridge that uses 2.5 amps instead of 12 amps. Batteries now last 3 - 4 days between charges when in the bush.

Van setup
2 x 12v 100ah Fiamm AGM batteries flooded cell type, not Gel.
NASA marine battery monitor
6 B&S wiring to batteries
ctek xs2500 charger
replace 3 way absorption fridge with Vitfrigo compressor type.
Will be upgrading the charging circuit to a RanOx to look after the batteries a bit better.