12v not working

I've had my leisure battery on charge for a couple of days and all the 12v bits were working while the battery charger indicator light was on.
Having turned off the battery charger the 12 v is dead !
I've checked the 30amp fuse (the usual culprit)under the drivers seat next to the leisure battery (I'm now fully double jointed and can see in the dark ....) and its OK. The 12v was working OK before Christmas but not after the Harmony was under-sealed (coincidence ?).
Where do I look next, I know the leisure battery is getting on a bit but as I said earlier was working fine.
Can a 30amp fuse look OK but be knackered anyway !!

All suggestions welcome, as usual.

firstly a fuse can look good but be blown.

If all was working before underseal I would look to check you still have all earth wires connected to a bright metal part of the chassis.

Either way, a multimeter is your friend.

I had a strange episode with that fuse on my van last year, 3 fuses blew one after another, i tried to trace the fault but couldn't find anything and the fuse never blew again and iv'e still no idea what the problem was.

Dave

Thanks Dave(s)
Both of these make sense, I'll replace the fuse and when it stops raining have a look at the earthing.

Any idea where the 12v earthing connection might be on the chassis and is it separate to the base vehicle earth ?

Think it goes to the zig charger, if you go on the, VWT4camper.info, site you can download instructions and wiring diagrames for most zig chargers.
Hope this helps a bit.

Dave

I've dug out my Harmony instruction manual and the leisure battery is earthed to the chassis but there's also glass fuses up by the control panel so I'll check them out too. They appear to run back to a 20amp fuse on the vehicle battery positive.
The problem with tracing the leisure battery earth is the battery being under the drives seat with virtually no clearance or access.
At least with your help I can now start checking stuff out.
Thank you.

If you still want zig wiring diagrams its. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Dave

Cheers Dave.

Check the fuse holders in the ZIG as the small rivets holding the connectors and holders together are... Trying to use another word.... No good, * Inappropriate Word *. They break off. Remove the ZIG to check with the multimeter

S far I've checked-

The glass fuses, all OK as well as clip holders.
Replaced the 30amp fuse and found a loose connection on one of the incoming cables meaning that only one half of the fuse blade was doing it's job.
I've traced the earth from the leisure battery onto the metal seat plate bolted to van floor.
I've been underneath and can't see any earth connection or anything out of place especially now its undersealed !

Same as before, all 12v working while hooked up and battery charger turned on.
Switch the battery charger off and no 12v -back to the drawing board.
The van is due for a habi service so I'll get him to check everything as I'm now out of my depth.
It all ties in with the underseal as far as I can tell.

Good news/bad news update-

Good news- My mobile Habitation Engineer/Magician (Ollyvan, Hampshire) finally traced the 12v issue to a faulty 5 pin relay and he also moved the 30amp fuse holder to a more accessible location nearer to the front of the driver seat base. During the rest of the habitation service there was -

Bad news- my muppet brain forgot to do a winter drain down and the water heater is frost damaged (FBR'd, ... beyond repair, you work out the 'f') Cost of replacement and fitting- £600 approx using a Henri.
While I'm saving my pennies I'll see if I can find a Rapide as I'd like to remain authentic if possible.

In mitigation I've been dealing with some vandalism to our property and I've had to spend time capturing my CCTV footage of the little darlings for the police.

Hi terry sorry to hear about your water heater, im pretty new toall this lark, i understand how to empty the heater for the winter but before you had the hab check done could you tellthe heater had frost damage? Or was it just through the test? Any tell tail signs etc? Im paranoid now as iv forgot several times, cheers

Thanks for your concern, I'm cross for allowing myself to be distracted from my usual routine.
I didn't know that there was frost damage as I couldn't use the heater anyway without the faulty 12v. The last time I used it was back in October on Southsea seafront. I had used the van since but just for parking up and watching the world go by as I couldn't even light the hob with no spark (and my matches were damp!).

I only use the Harmony for half day respite breaks while Mrs H is at her day centre.

My Habi service man didn't know it was frost damaged either until he was checking an apparent leak in the waste pipe and realised it was coming from the busted heater. He reckoned that as I have to park across my garage door I'd unwittingly created a dead cold spot.

So, when the weather gets cold the moral is- 'if in doubt, let it out' especially where you are!

ps We had a 2003 Dorset before we got the Harmony back again.

Thanks for your quick reply, yeah i get you now regarding the 12v, atleast you have that sorted out now tho right? One step at a time ha.
I only purchased my dorset on the 19th of last month and have not been any where as yet, hoping to this weekend tho. As im fairly new to it all im still ironing out a few things and trying to get myself into a routine with maintenance etc.
Also the odd little niggle with the engine while its under warrenty. Did you like your dorset when you had it? Or did you just mis the harmon? Starting to feel like this could be a expensive hobby, glad i found this site tho plentyh elp on here just wish i could help others more, will come in time i guess

This forum is a fantastic source of help and I've learnt so much since being on it.
We originally had the Harmony from 1999 to 2002 and then moved to an Executive for my 6 months long leave with JLP. That took us to the Arctic Circle in Norway ad the Tour de France in the Alps.
We downsized to the Dorset in 2004 which had the unique 2+2 sleeping and ES 4th seat which was never repeated to my knowledge.
We sold the the Dorset in 2008 in anticipation of downsizing to a 2 bed bungalow on retirement.
After we moved our original Harmony turned up on forecourt near our new location in 2011 and the heart overruled the head !!!!
Following Mrs H's stroke in 2010 it was always going to be a daytime 'tea wagon' rather than overnight breaks.
The new water heater will have to wait in the £ queue and I'll just have to make sure I've got dry matches on board for the hob.

Yeah iv stumbled across some great info on here already, sure il get the hang of it before long, that certainly is a sign to buy the van back with it turning up near your new location, tea wagon or not im sure youl have plenty fun out in it enjoying the retirement, certainly nothing better than just packing up and getting away in the vans

Just to keep this on topic, I time my habitation services to coincide with the small mechanical service in year 1 which alternates with a major mechanical service in year 2 to even out the costs.
Often the fridge service gets overlooked so that's next on the list as that needs a separate engineer.
I'm fortunate that as a carer I can get all this done at home (now including e-tyres for new rubber) and my garage collects and t=returns the van when they've finished.
I made sure my man changed the gas hose as I had one leak a whole bottle of gas last year.
From the top of my road I can see across to the Isle of Wight so the choices of sea views within 30 minutes from here are many and varied.
At Southsea I can watch the sea traffic which includes ferries, hovercraft and Navy stuff so lots going on.
I found you don't need to go far to get away from it all.