Leisure batteries / electrics dead

[danvan]

First up, I've got a Nugget and not a California (we sold that two years ago), but I think the principles are the same.

The Nugget was sat unused for four months over the winter with the camping electrics still on (the Nugget has a big red kill switch which I forgot to kill). I used it last week for the first time and noticed the battery voltage was 10 something. Nothing was on in the back. Within half an hour this had dropped to 8v, then 6v after a couple of hours of driving. Rear lights just about worked, but the 12v sockets wouldn't charge a phone. I'd have expected the voltage to have gone up whilst driving, even if the batteries were knackered.

By the time I got home, the camping control unit (virtually the same as that in our old T5.1 Cali) was dead. Nothing works in the back.

Initially I'd assumed the batteries were knackered from not being charged for four months, but now I'm wondering if actually something else is going on (i.e. the charger.

FYI, I asked the same question on the Nugget forums and all I got back was "YOU NEED TO CHARGE THE BATTERIES EVERY MONTH", which obviously I know (and didn;t). We live in central London, so charging isn't easy. I may see if I can position the van over the weekend to see if electrical hook-up still works. I have a sneaking suspicion it won't.

Anyone got any thoughts that might help me diagnose the issue?

 

[yossarian]

It sounds like you've blown a fuse. Your batteries are likely shot too. Deeply discharged batteries can sometimes be recovered by chargers with a desulphating function. It takes a long time and the safest is to disconnect them before connecting the charger.

If you don't have the time to mess around you might consider installing new batteries.

 

[danvan]

It sounds like you've blown a fuse. Your batteries are likely shot too. Deeply discharged batteries can sometimes be recovered by chargers with a desulphating function. It takes a long time and the safest is to disconnect them before connecting the charger.

If you don't have the time to mess around you might consider installing new batteries.

I was wondering this.

The batteries are relatively accessible (both are under the driver's seat), but I'm not sure where the fuses are. Westfalia are fairly lean with their information.

I think to get the batteries out, you need to remove driver's seat (which I don't really fancy) but in situ they could be charged with a separate charger. But then I was thinking that EHU should charge then in the same way (if the potential fuse issue could be sorted).

 

[WelshGas]

First up, I've got a Nugget and not a California (we sold that two years ago), but I think the principles are the same.

The Nugget was sat unused for four months over the winter with the camping electrics still on (the Nugget has a big red kill switch which I forgot to kill). I used it last week for the first time and noticed the battery voltage was 10 something. Nothing was on in the back. Within half an hour this had dropped to 8v, then 6v after a couple of hours of driving. Rear lights just about worked, but the 12v sockets wouldn't charge a phone. I'd have expected the voltage to have gone up whilst driving, even if the batteries were knackered.

By the time I got home, the camping control unit (virtually the same as that in our old T5.1 Cali) was dead. Nothing works in the back.

Initially I'd assumed the batteries were knackered from not being charged for four months, but now I'm wondering if actually something else is going on (i.e. the charger.

FYI, I asked the same question on the Nugget forums and all I got back was "YOU NEED TO CHARGE THE BATTERIES EVERY MONTH", which obviously I know (and didn;t). We live in central London, so charging isn't easy. I may see if I can position the van over the weekend to see if electrical hook-up still works. I have a sneaking suspicion it won't.

Anyone got any thoughts that might help me diagnose the issue?

I presume you didn’t try charging on EHU before driving?
If that is the case, with totally flat leisure batteries you have probably blown the Split Charge relay fuse that allows the alternator to charge the Leisure Batteries. On the California this is an 80 amp fuse near the split charge relay.
The built in charger may not be capable of charging the batteries from such a low state and you may need to remove them and charge them separately.
If you find a blown fuse then there is no point in replacing it until the Leisure Batteries have been charged. Having said that you may find that the batteries have been damaged significantly and need replacing anyway, so you could just replace the batteries, replace the fuse - all sorted.

 

[danvan]

I presume you didn’t try charging on EHU before driving?
If that is the case, with totally flat leisure batteries you have probably blown the Split Charge relay fuse that allows the alternator to charge the Leisure Batteries. On the California this is an 80 amp fuse near the split charge relay.
The built in charger may not be capable of charging the batteries from such a low state and you may need to remove them and charge them separately.
If you find a blown fuse then there is no point in replacing it until the Leisure Batteries have been charged. Having said that you may find that the batteries have been damaged significantly and need replacing anyway, so you could just replace the batteries, replace the fuse - all sorted.

This was helpful. Two 60 amp fuses were blown (those allowing the alternator to charge the battery).

After a bit of messing around I managed to get the batteries to charge off the EHU. After a couple of hours the batteries had charged enough for get the lights on. After 7 hours the fridge finally worked. It seems the batteries will at least charge on EHU, such that this weekend's trip will be OK. Whether the batteries will hold charge off EHU, I don't know.

 

[AlistairC]

This was helpful. Two 60 amp fuses were blown (those allowing the alternator to charge the battery).

After a bit of messing around I managed to get the batteries to charge off the EHU. After a couple of hours the batteries had charged enough for get the lights on. After 7 hours the fridge finally worked. It seems the batteries will at least charge on EHU, such that this weekend's trip will be OK. Whether the batteries will hold charge off EHU, I don't know.

To give you an idea of how much damage has been done, get yourself to a Halfords and ask them to do a battery test.

Their Yuasa machines can test in situ and will give you an AH rating to compare with new, it’ll also give you a calculated State of Health% and then the expected ‘Replace battery’ message.

My first port of call would be to charge with a Ctek on recon mode - though from experience, they can’t reverse all damage done.