VW T4 Trident Autosleeper charger

Hello I have a 1997 VW T4 Trident AutoSleeper that I bought in the summer and I have noticed that the leisure battery never seems to charge when on mains hook up. The red charger light on the control panel by the wardrobe does come on but the battery voltage does not change so I suspect there may be a fault with the charger unit.
I was wondering if anyone would know where this might be located?

Thanks in advance

Chris.

Hi ,well they hide them under the floor.You may find a close fitting panel that you remove.Nothing is marked.
Its like having secret lockers in these motorhomes!!
regards

mike

On our '98 Trident I'm pretty sure it's under the food cupboard. The floor comes up and you can see it. Although I might be thinking of the blown air heating...  

If it's not there, try at the back of the cupboard to the right of the porta potti cupboard.

I'm pretty sure it has a switch on it and a green LED light to show you when it's on.

Steve

Do the 12v electrics all work with no hookup?

Peter

Thanks for your helpful hints, I will go hunting in the day light of next weekend.
Peter, yes the 12 volt electrics work with no hookup provided the leisure battery has first been charged either from running the engine or from clipping an external charger straight onto the battery.

Chris

Hi  

I know you only asked where the charger is located and this is expanding on the question a bit but:

CBeebie wrote: the 12 volt electrics work with no hookup provided the leisure battery has first been charged

Do the 12V electrics work on hookup with the leisure battery disconnected?  If they do the charger/PSU is working and there is something wrong with the circuit that connects it to the leisure battery.

If it still has the original PSU it’s probably a Zig X7. There was a thread about a similar problem a while ago where the X7 had been replaced and wired wrongly.  

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There is a generic wiring diagram here (page 53).

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Brod.

I had a 1993 Trident and it didn't have a charger. Apparently they were an option - not fitted as standard. I'm not sure that this applies to your van (1997), but I think it worth checking. Maybe Autosleeper will have a record of whether one was fitted.

Hi  

DavidT wrote:I had a 1993 Trident and it didn't have a charger. Apparently they were an option - not fitted as standard.

I’ve heard that before (somewhere on this forum).  The original post mentioned a red charge light was lit on the control panel so presumably a charger is fitted. I suppose it could be a red herring (no pun intended).  

Do you remember if the 1993 van had a light?  

Brod.

brodco wrote:Hi  

DavidT wrote:I had a 1993 Trident and it didn't have a charger. Apparently they were an option - not fitted as standard.

I’ve heard that before (somewhere on this forum).  The original post mentioned a red charge light was lit on the control panel so presumably a charger is fitted. I suppose it could be a red herring (no pun intended).  

Do you remember if the 1993 van had a light?  

Brod.

It didn't have a light that was on all the time. It had a battery condition light if you pressed a switch, which I assume would have been red if the battery was discharged. I had a charger fitted to the van, just after I bought it, and this didn't change anything on the control panel.

Hello, Thank you for everyone's help and advice.
I have found the charger under the food cupboard as Scrumpyjack14 suggested.
The charger is a Zig X7. I unwired it from the van and tested in my shed, it still only gives 2.4 volts output the same as it did when in the van, so I guess its had it. I will need to get a new unit.
Do any of you have any recommendations of what to replace it with?

Thanks again,
Chris.

According to O'Learys you can replace it with an X70

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They have them for sale....

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or Ebay about £130 unless you can get a second-hand from a breaker.

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CBeebie wrote:I finally found time to have a go at trying to repair my Zig X7, took the main caps out and tested then also checked the bridge rectifier they all seem fine

Interesting, in that there's probably only the voltage regulators themselves left that might have failed, and they should be standard parts and easy to check/replace.

There's another thread on here in which the Amperor unit is referred to as probably a better (more modern design) replacement than the X70.

Hi 


Another idea.
 
I pulled my X7 out of the van (to check the wiring) a while ago and I’m pretty sure it’s a switch mode unit. It’s too small and light to have a 12 (+) amp mains transformer. This being the case the 2.4V output would be constant with it being in “over current shutdown”.
 
In a nutshell the power supply switches on, detects excess current and switches off again. The current falls to zero and the power supply restarts, again it detects excess current and switches off. The resultant pulsing effect could well result in a reading of 2.4volts on a normal meter.
 
Sadly there are many possible causes but as the output capacitors have already been checked I’d suggest the most likely is a short circuit rectifier diode. It’s well worth looking for any diodes on the circuit board and measuring them before condemning the unit.  



Brod.

New X70 on auction on Ebay... cheap at the moment... (several new ones listed from £129

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also a repair service listed......

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are these 'Zinger' chargers a copy of a Zig?

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OK thanks I will check some more of the output components