Flat vehicle battery

Hi

I have a 2019 Burford Duo and found my vehicle battery was flat.
The van is not connected to mains power, I had all internal electrics switched off.
Any ideas as to what is running my vehicle battery down ?

Many threads about this. 
I’ll start with the Tracker and alarm (if you have one fitted). 
Internal electrics are generally taken care of by the leisure battery.

How long since you were last on EHU?

I won’t even start about the solar....

Welcome to the forum Jim 

When you say all internal electrics switched off do you mean lights, pump etc or do you mean the power supply (ec500 or Ec700) is switched off and not just the panel?

Hi Jim
Welcome to the forum from Bridlington 
Boaby

Welcome to the forum

The black isolator switch needs to be off on the habitation electrics when being left for a while

As Dbvwt has said there has been a lot of posts about this on different model vans, worth a look.

Dbvwt wrote:......

I won’t even start about the solar....

Oh, Please Do, Pretty Please:

No gassy, NO!

It does make me smile though when, as often happens, someone comes on here and asks a question.
Then after people have taken the time to respond and welcome them... Nothing.

Maybe it’s just me that gets wound up by this 

Dbvwt wrote:No gassy, NO!

It does make me smile though when, as often happens, someone comes on here and asks a question.
Then after people have taken the time to respond and welcome them... Nothing.

Maybe it’s just me that gets wound up by this 

No it happens all the time, where has Jim gone?
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Richard

Checking Jim's profile it shows he has visited forum since that post, last visit Sunday 26th. 
It winds me up when people don't respond but it happens so often these days.

I wouldn't get too wound up about the lack of actual answers Paul. I could welcome someone new and I know a bit about electrics, but I know very little about a 2019 Burford other than I can make an assumption that it has a tracker and modern electricity-consuming engine components. Therefore if it is left for several months without running the engine or charging the battery, it may well discharge. I also think I am right in saying that if it goes below some voltage or other - perhaps 10.5, then the engine won't turn over.
So we have to wait for someone who knows the Burford to answer.
Or perhaps Jimthetim has gone off and put a mains charger on the battery, the Burford is now running and he is happy.

To all members who replied to my original query, thank you.

FYI The reason why I ‘ve not replied until now is that I’ve been stuck offshore Ghana for a very long time only returning to the UK last Thursday. Since my return I used jump leads from my Honda CRV to at least start my van and let it run for a while and took it out for a short drive, so at least the battery is good.

I now have my van connected to EHU, I still have no idea what drained my battery so quickly

Welcome back Jim, hope you got home safe and sound and you have your vehicles running.
Boaby

As I have said before on here. My  van hasn't  been off the drive since October. Ec700  turned on still. Vechile  starts first time when I try (2 weeks ago last time) I plug it in to the mains once a week for 24 hours  this keeps  everything nicely  charged. Have a solar  panel  as well.

Mids wrote:As I have said before on here. My  van hasn't  been off the drive since October. Ec700  turned on still. Vechile  starts first time when I try (2 weeks ago last time) I plug it in to the mains once a week for 24 hours  this keeps  everything nicely  charged. Have a solar  panel  as well.

That is exactly the same routine that works 100% for me when laid up for the winter.
Obviously many don’t have access to EHU and have had to upgrade the solar setup but if EHU is available then this is all that is generally required to keep both batteries fine.

Welcome back Jimthetim, that sounds pretty ghastly being stuck offshore off Ghana! At least we could look out the window and see some sort of civilisation, I am guessing that your view was of the sea, the horizon, and eating the rest of the ship's galley remains. I hope you didn't have to suffer Baldrick's Stewed Rattatouille!

Jimthetim wrote:Hi

I have a 2019 Burford Duo and found my vehicle battery was flat.
The van is not connected to mains power, I had all internal electrics switched off.
Any ideas as to what is running my vehicle battery down ?

I don't have a MB conversion but I do have the EC700.  The vehicle battery will discharge over time through self-discharge and drain from the vehicle electrics and a vehicle alarm if you have one.  On the Peugeot conversion there is a red button on the ignition which can turn off the vehicle electrics when the vehicle is being stored which slows down the rate of discharge but it will stop the central locking and vehicle alarm from working.  If your Burford was stored in the open with the EC700 shutdown, all the solar power should have gone to the vehicle battery providing the vehicle electrics were not also shutdown.  This should have been enough to stop the vehicle battery from going flat.  If you did not shutdown the EC700, the EC700 would have consumed up to 10Ah of your daily solar charge which is a lot if your solar charge is low.  It could then depend on how you set up the solar charge - vehicle, leisure or both (smart charging).  If you had it set to leisure your vehicle battery will have received no charge.  There is also a possibility that you had the vehicle battery set up as the active battery with the EC700 CP on, in which case if any of the habitation electrics had been inadvertently left on, e.g. the amplified TV antenna or the internal light in the wardrobe, it would have flattened the battery.  So there are many reasons why your vehicle battery could have gone flat.

Fortunately as my van is parked next to house and easy to connect up to mains power. 

Looks like easy fix is to connect up once a week for 24 hours as suggested, to keep both leisure and vehicle batteries fully charged and ready to go whenever needed.

Again thanks for all replies.

Jim, in addition to the above, I usually put it on EHU the night before a trip and turn the fridge on.
That way I’m sure the batteries are at 100% and the fridge is down to temperature before I put the food in next morning before we leave.

Me also, even for a half day trip to the beach, never had a problem yet.
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Richard

Hi Just been to check my battery on 2017 Broadway having had ehu connected for 24 hours. Found leisure battery battery fully charge vehicle battery showing 6 volts. Very surprised as I thought both batteries should have charged and I have not had this before having owned van for 18 months but it has never been laid up for 5 months before. Any thoughts?

PJN wrote:Hi Just been to check my battery on 2017 Broadway having had ehu connected for 24 hours. Found leisure battery battery fully charge vehicle battery showing 6 volts. Very surprised as I thought both batteries should have charged and I have not had this before having owned van for 18 months but it has never been laid up for 5 months before. Any thoughts?

Have you got "Smart Charging" switched on? otherwise the charger will only charge the battery selected on the control panel.

This pdf explains how to access advance menu on control panel and set "smart charging".

http://autotrailusers.nz/ForumFiles/1010/EC500%20Dealer%20Guide%20Issue%201.pdf

Why do they call it "smart Charging"?
It should be called "bloomin' obvious charging"

Hi Plouglin,
I have been through the menu and found that the smart setting was on so the vehicle battery should have charged. Any how I have set it again to smart and hope that has reset it and it works properly.
Thanks again for the very helpful response.
Have a good day
Peter