12v electrical system problem (I think)

Hi all. Sorry if this has been asked before, but I've been unable tofind anything searching the site to help me (in my panic..) We are touring in our 1996 trident and we have now twice lost all the internal lights etc after a few days parked up on site (with mains plugged in) . The zig panel confuses me entirely but from what I remember there's normally a red light on it that I havent seem on for a while. I'm wondering if its a problem with the mains not charging the leisure battery?? I've checked the fuse panel to the right of the steering wheel and the 6 fusses on the zig but all look fine.. Sorry for lack of detail - I'm not particularly technically minded at the best of times but with current health problems am even more useless.. Any advice would be much appreciated. Many thanks, Jon

When you say "lost", do you mean that the lights suddenly went out,  or they just faded away? You say it happened twice - what action caused them to start working again?

Unfortunately there probably won't be that many people here now that will remember exactly what the Zig panel on a 1996 Trident looks like, so you may need to remind us.

At that age, some Zig panels had a meter which was dual-purpose, in that it could be made to display either water level or leisure battery voltage. If yours is one of those, you can use the meter to do a bit of detective work. Disconnect the EHU and check the leisure battery voltage. Then reconnect the EHU and confirm that the voltage rises. If it does not then the charger is either switched off or not functioning.

No doubt you will already have checked the MCB that powers the charger, but worth double-checking anyway.

The lights went dim first both times and faded away. They starting working again as we were driving to our next site (we'd left one on by chance and spotted it was working again when we stopped  for a cuppa..)

I'll try to attach a pic of the zig unit

On the meantime, I'm not actually sure what an MCB is..

And when you say check the voltage, do you mean it'll show on the panel (or using a gizmo that I almost certainly havent got..) Thanks, jon

Hmmm, it's not good is it when I can't even work out how to attach photos on here..

jon5743 wrote:Hmmm, it's not good is it when I can't even work out how to attach photos on here..

Hover over the toolbar icons and you will find one that says "host an image" which will let you upload up to 3 pictures I think. There may be restrictions if you are new, not sure.

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Hi  

jon5743 wrote:The lights went dim first both times and faded away. They starting working again as we were driving to our next site (we'd left one on by chance and spotted it was working again when we stopped  for a cuppa..)

Almost certainly the Zig power supply is not working for some reason.

The Zig system is in two parts, the bit you can see (the control panel) and the bit you can’t (the power supply). When on EHU the power supply should run the 12V gear while keeping the battery charged.  It will run the 12V gear even if no leisure battery is present.

How far was the next site? If it was only a few miles there wouldn’t have been time for the leisure battery to charge from the alternator. If it was several hours away the leisure battery is suspect as well as the power supply.

It’s worth checking that the power supply is switched on. To do this you’ll have to find it. I’ll be hidden behind a wall or floor panel somewhere, probably not far from the EHU inlet. On the side is a switch and a green light should show (both on the unit and the control panel when it’s on).

There is normally a cut-out in the panel to get at the switch.

jon5743 wrote:On the meantime, I'm not actually sure what an MCB is..

On the thing that looks like a small domestic consumer unit you’ll see two or three small “switchey” things. They should all be UP!


Brod

Hi  

jon5743 wrote:And when you say check the voltage, do you mean it'll show on the panel (or using a gizmo that I almost certainly havent got..)

To go any further you will need a "gizmo" but they are quite cheap and there are lots of people on here that can tell you how to use it.   Other than that you'll need to take somewhere to get it fixed.  

Brod

Thanks for all your replies and tips so far. 

So.. I've checked the MCB and all three switches are definitely up..

Still not been able to add pics and  not sure how to hover over the toolbar on my phone. But hopefully will have access to a laptop later
 
RE the lights coming back on when travelling betwren sites - we noticed after about 45 minutes/an hour when we stopped for a break, but it could have  come on earlier and we just didn't notice

jon5743 wrote:
Still not been able to add pics and  not sure how to hover over the toolbar on my phone. But hopefully will have access to a laptop later
 

You can’t hover, but look for the same icon, and it would still work. This forum software isn’t great on a phone. It’s ancient in tech terms. It predates the invention of the smartphone with touchscreen.

On an Android phone, just tap the icon - on the left of the bottom row. 

Then select file, send all, insert all. Job done.

Really the only reason why I suggested that you post a photo of your panel is to figure out whether it has a meter on it that is capable of displaying the battery voltage - but you can tell us that without uploading a photo. If not, there is nothing to be gained from adding a photo.

From what you say about the lights fading away, it seems clear that the mains charger is not working. With a bit of methodical working it should be fairly easy to find out why.

It's quite important that you find out and fix it as soon as possible, because the longer the leisure battery stays in a fully discharged state, the more damage it will sustain - lead/acid batteries do not like being fully discharged, and the plates accumulate lead sulphate while they are deeply discharged.

Whare are you, with it been a bank holiday weekend and great weather there may be someone from here near to you

On our 1998 trident the charger was under the panel at the bottom of the locker next to the sink. There was a little hole you could poke your finger through and under that was the switch on the charger. Took me ages to find it!
could be worth checking to see if it has got switched off by accident.

My guess was something to do with the charger from the off , but not sure what to do to check it.

We're currently on a site near the Westbury White Horse in Wiltshire, but are moving on to Cirencester tomorrow (Monday 31st)

Have looked in the locker suggested for a switch for the charger, or for a hole through which to get at it but no luck finding anything

And finally, here's those pics.. 

Continued thanks, Jon[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]in

Ok - no voltage display on that! By coincidence it's the same panel as I had in my Flair. Yes, the fact that the "Charger On" red LED is not on means that the charger is not on! So... now to find out why it's not on... It's possible that it may simply have failed, but a good starting point would be to find it first. If the Trident internal layout is like our Trooper, the charger will be under a false floor in one of the driver's side cupboards. Ours doesn't have an access hole to reach the switch on it, as by the time they had built ours, they had stopped fitting the switches!

So.. Thanks for all the assistance - much appreciated. Turned out to be 2 loose wires behind/going into the zig panel.. All sorted now!

jon5743 wrote:So.. Thanks for all the assistance - much appreciated. Turned out to be 2 loose wires behind/going into the zig panel.. All sorted now!

     

Thanks for the update - nice to have a (relatively) easy fix!