Autosleeper Topaz Charging Main Battery

HI there,

Does anybody know if a Topaz, from 1998 charges the main battery when connected to an Electrical Hookup or just the Leisure Battery?

Having just called the AA for a flat battery I need to take better care to keep it charged.

Hi RoadRunner
The simple answer is - It all depends whether you have a built in battery charger. I seem to think they were an optional extra. It took me a while to find mine on my Trident and then I had to ask a few questions on here on how to use it properly.
It may help to look at this thread

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Cheers
Stevo

I have checked the circuit diagrams and the charger only charges the leisure battery.

I checked the battery voltages with and without hook up and the leisure battery goes up when hooked up, but the main battery stays at 11.67 volts! That probably means that I need to either condition or replace the main battery soon.

Will purchase an Optimate 4 charger and cigarette lighter adapter for charging when not in use.

My last van a T4 conversion by Leisure Drive had no facility to charge the leisure or van battery via hook-up so whether on site or wild camping I had to run the engine for a time to charge both!!
"H"

RoadRunner wrote:Will purchase an Optimate 4 charger and cigarette lighter adapter for charging when not in use.

Having been researching chargers myself recently (see earlier thread on the subject) I believe the Optimate 4 is primarily for motorcycle batteries as it is only suitable for 2ah-50ah batteries. You would be better off with the Accumate 6-12 which is suitable for up to 75ah. and is in fact cheaper. All parts are inter-changable with the Optimate.

Does anybody know if a Topaz, from 1998 charges the main battery when connected to an Electrical Hookup or just the Leisure Battery?

On my Trident, the starting battery for the 2.4 diesel is on a separate circuit & is only charged from the alternator when the engine is running.

The leisure battery can be charged separately from an on board charger via the 240v electric hook up when the engine is off or via the engine alternator when the engine is running.

Trust this is of some use.

Spook69


Thank you, you configuration agrees with my investigation into my Topaz.

Roadrunner

spook69 wrote:

Does anybody know if a Topaz, from 1998 charges the main battery when connected to an Electrical Hookup or just the Leisure Battery?

On my Trident, the starting battery for the 2.4 diesel is on a separate circuit & is only charged from the alternator when the engine is running.

The leisure battery can be charged separately from an on board charger via the 240v electric hook up when the engine is off or via the engine alternator when the engine is running.

Trust this is of some use.

Hi,
I know my base vehicle is a Peugeot, but this is the same configuration as mine. The meter is purely a battery voltage meter and the change-over switch selects which battery you want to read the condition of. ie It does NOT select which battery you are charging.
-If you get my drift!
Mike D