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Monitoring battery drain (friendica.ginestes.es)

submitted 1 month ago by abeorch@friendica.ginestes.es to c/vanlife@lemmy.world

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- Working on our #HinoRainbow #motorhome conversion we have an issue with occasional drain of the motor batteries. (I guess something somewhere is being left on despte an isolation switch being used when we are parked up) - I' trying to figure out someway of monitoring battery drain on them so we can be alerted.

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[–] fratermus 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

despte an isolation switch being used when we are parked up

Is the isolator a manual switch or does it work automagically ("split charger", relay, diode isolator, dc-dc, etc)?

If the leisure and starter batteries really are isolated then it's a chassis problem. The classical approach is to measure current leaving the starter batteries and pull chassis fuses until the current stops -- that circuit is the problem.

occasional drain of the motor batteries

How long does it take for this to happen? A day? A month? If you have solar on the rig you could leverage it to keep the starter battery[s] charged. This would also work if you are on shore power while parked up.

[–] abeorch@friendica.ginestes.es 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

@fratermus Yeah its taken a day or two to flatten the battery so something is going on - its got an isolatation switch which controls a solenoid. I need to look into this more - will need to check that video.

Our house and engine electrics are completely separate but we had been thinking of using the solar to charge the engine batteries. We dont have shore power connection as such because everything is 12v.

[–] fratermus 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

something is going on

Parasitic drains can be frustratingly hard to find, so don't be discouraged if you don't find it right away. I had a '72 beetle with a slow drain. Took me weeks to find it -- it was the original AM radio, which I never listened to. The volume knob was turned just far enough to power the radio on but not far enough to make any sound. Argggh!

We dont have shore power connection as such because everything is 12v.

Shore power can be used as-is (120v, 240v, whatever the local standard is) especially on larger RVs. On vans it usually feeds a converter/charger that run 12v loads and charge 12v banks.

[–] abeorch@friendica.ginestes.es 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

@fratermus Yeah we converted the bus ourselves and havent bothered with a shore power connection. We will put more batteries and an inverter just in case but almost everything is DC now days anyway..

[–] abeorch@friendica.ginestes.es 1 points 1 month ago

@fratermus Bit of a setback as we have discovered today our califont is leaking but hopefully we will be road legal on Monday (without hot water)