Beach Leisure Battery - Charged on Hookup?

benji · Jul 13, 2018

WelshGas said:
I could be wrong but the Engine Battery is Only trickle charged, once the Leisure Battery is fully charged. The Chargers in the Beach and SE/Ocean are the same. So unless your Leisure Battery was fully charged you might not see a rise in voltage on the Engine Battery when on Mains Hookup.

This does not appear to be the case. After 24 hours+ charging the starter battery voltage is a stable ~13v with and without the hookup connected while the leisure battery is ~15v and ~13v respectively.

WelshGas · Jul 13, 2018

benji said:
This does not appear to be the case. After 24 hours+ charging the starter battery voltage is a stable ~13v with and without the hookup connected while the leisure battery is ~15v and ~13v respectively.

Which vehicle and year? I think older T5’s didn’t but later ones do. So if yours is later then there is a problem.

kave · Jan 11, 2019

On my T6 beach I am quite sure the mains charger does not charge the engine battery. I have the van connected to 230V every now and then but the engine battery can be quite low ie 12.2 V so now I connect a Ctek to it to make sure its charged.

WelshGas · Jan 11, 2019

kave said:
On my T6 beach I am quite sure the mains charger does not charge the engine battery. I have the van connected to 230V every now and then but the engine battery can be quite low ie 12.2 V so now I connect a Ctek to it to make sure its charged.

Must have downgraded the Charger for the T6 then. On my T5.1 the Mains Charger definitely charges both the Leisure and Starter Batteries although the Starter battery is only trickled charged once the Leisure Batteries are fully charged.
On Mains Hookup I can run the vehicle entertainment system repeatedly, even watch DVDs and the Engine Battery remains fully charged.

Loz · Jan 11, 2019

kave said:
On my T6 beach I am quite sure the mains charger does not charge the engine battery. I have the van connected to 230V every now and then but the engine battery can be quite low ie 12.2 V so now I connect a Ctek to it to make sure its charged.

Do you have this 5A fuse?

kave · Jan 12, 2019

The manual is quite clear on this subject and matches my findings quite clear. Ie the mains charger does not charge engine battery, just leisure batteries.

Loz · Jan 12, 2019

Unless I missed read, the only difference in the beach is the location of the charger. So if the manual is to be believed then only the leisure batteries are charged on both beach and ocean.
However the wiring diagram and my test yesterday shows an additional feed from the charger to fuse SD3 in my previous post.
I put a meter on the starter battery whilst it was on hookup and measured the battery at 12.6v. I pulled out that fuse and immediately the voltage slowly dropped, 12.58, 12.56, 12.54 when it got to 12.52 I put the fuse back in and it climbed back up to 12.6.
The beach may not charge the starter battery, but you cannot rely on the manual as it is not always technically correct (ofter translation changes the meaning) like operations of the alarm and deadlock. Also that is the 2015 manual.

So, the reason I suggested checking for the fuse was to see if your beach is wired the same.

WelshGas · Jan 12, 2019

Well I must have a magic Engine Battery.
The longest I’ve been on Hookup was 9 days. Repeated use of the RNS510 for music and DVDs + Cab lights and the Engine Battery showed 12.8v via the “ definite “ dashboard socket run off the Engine Battery just before starting the engine after 6 hrs off Mains Hookup.

It was a cheap plug in Voltmeter, so may not be totally accurate but does show 14.4v when engine running.

Loz · Jan 12, 2019

Just to add, SD3 is a 5A fuse and SH16 is a 30A fuse so it is only a trickle charge to the starter battery, but charged none the less.

zeratul · Jan 21, 2019

My Beach, a T5.2 MY 2015, also does not charge the engine battery on hookup. Did many tests and I'm 100% sure of this.
But there may be differences across model years and even UK / continental Europe.
In winter time if I don't use the car for a month, the battery cannot start the engine anymore. I use a trickle charger once a month if I don't use the car, to keep the battery in shape.