Battery change.

Nekarsulm

The leisure battery in our MH (Auto Roller on a Ducato) won't hold a charge.
So decided to remove the seat and give it a good charge to see if that makes a difference.
Somehow, I was expecting a slightly more professional set-up..........

Quazzie

Nekarsulm wrote: »

The leisure battery in our MH (Auto Roller on a Ducato) won't hold a charge.
So decided to remove the seat and give it a good charge to see if that makes a difference.
Somehow, I was expecting a slightly more professional set-up..........

:eek::eek:

One big bump away from a fire to be honest.

Nekarsulm

Those crocodile clips are connecting the battery to a 220volt inverter.

punisher5112

You should get proper crimps and bolt them on. That's a real DIY.

Is there trip switches and rcd fitted?

Vid Link Clinky

I remove croc. clips with extreme prejudice. ...garbage for taking an inverter to the beach!
Yurp, crimp or lug.
Fuse the inverter positive. Wedge the battery from sliding or strap it, and find a rubber terminal cap for the pos. battery post.

Nekarsulm

Yeah, have that all done now, except to get a good rubber cover for the +.
Swopped in a spare battery out of a Trooper and put that Diamond yoke on the charger.
It took nearly two litres of distilled to bring it up to level .........

I learned about the rubber cover after a bottov spot welding one time I adjusted the driver seat...

2 litres is a lot. Was the water line below the plates when you checked? The fill is usually ~1cm from the bottom of the fill hole. If yer lucky there's a leg inside to mark the level.

Stick the watered battery on an EQ charge cycle or a cold charge setting on the charger to mix the electrolyte.

Something else to watch out for is only fill a battery when it's fully charged. If it's wasn't fully charged when you filled it, charge it very carefully and watch/prepare for spillages because the electrolyte expands at fuller states of charge.

The Sidewards Man

Why hasn't the cvr test center picked up on this issue assuming your testing your MH?

Nekarsulm

Testers test the MH running gear etc, not the operation of the actual sink, taps, heater,shower,oven and fridge.
They may not even realise there is a second battery.

killalanerr

The Sidewards Man wrote: »

Why hasn't the cvr test center picked up on this issue assuming your testing your MH?

Why would you think that the motorhome was not tested ?

Nekarsulm

Sir Liamalot wrote: »

Something else to watch out for is only fill a battery when it's fully charged. If it's wasn't fully charged when you filled it, charge it very carefully and watch/prepare for spillages because the electrolyte expands at fuller states of charge.

Sir Liam, its too late now, but I thought I would have to top it up before charging?
Level was below the top of the plates. I left the caps off while charging over the weekend on the work bench, so if it overflowed, no harm done.

If it's found below the plates just cover the plates, then charge, then top up.
You can neutralise the acid with baking soda and hot soapy water. I clean battery tops with it.

It'll act like a smaller battery when it's over-watered and smaller again for having it's plates exposed. My next course of action would be overcharge the bejaysus outtov it. Three 4 hour EQ cycles over two days or longer to boil away some electrolyte and knock the sulphates off the plates. Then see how it fairs.

Nekarsulm

Well I'm afraid I filled it full on Friday afternoon and stuck it on the charger at the "re-condition" setting, then I headed off in the MH to Kilkenny for the festival untill last night.
So whatever it does, it does!

Most chargers with that feature only add it as a throw away cycle. It doesn't work well to prevent fellars from ruining their AGMs.

Just clean up any mess if there is any and run recondition for a total of 12 hours.
15.5v and 1.5A is what I'd use.
You could stand to recover 10% capacity and lose nothing.