# Vehicle battery drain



## RichardD (Sep 14, 2009)

Hi, we've just returned from our first ever trip with the MH to France and have been concerned with the ability of the vehicle battery to turn the starter motor.

We were away for 13 nights and the MH had been on EHU on our drive since we bought it last November. By day seven the starter motor was starting to sound sluggish so we headed off for a day at an Aire which had EHU. At no time whilst on EHU did the voltage on the CBE panel get over 12.6 volts, but the leisure batteries were showing 13.4 volts which is what I would expect when a battery is being charged. Three days later the performance was even worse (voltage on CBE panel was now down at 12.2 volts) but did start the engine so we headed off to another Aire with an EHU. The final three days did have greater engine running time per day so we did not experience any further problems.

I've been lead to believe that the onboard CBE charger gives priority to the leisure batteries so even when we go on EHU the vehicle battery is getting charged. Is there anyway to give priority to the vehicle battery as I have an Energy Cell which monitors the leisure batteries and cuts in when needed.

Spoke to Highbridge who we bought the MH from and their reaction was a battery drain issue!! They asked whether the reversing camera was being left on!! How would I know if this was the case!!! Also was the Pioneer unit switched off! I have no idea how to switch this unit off. I assumed that when the ignition switch turned off it also switches the Pioneer off. I have to switch on Aux 2 to make the unit work when the engine is off.

We are off to France in 3 weeks for a further 4 weeks and have concerns about the ability of the vehicle battery to hold a charge or is it being killed by some mystery drain?

Any advice?

Richard


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## gaspode (May 9, 2005)

Hi Richard

As you know, we've had similar problems to yourself with the CBE panel and I have to say that they're not yet fully resolved. One thing I can report however is that the Pioneer unit was draining our cab battery rather alarmingly. My solution was to put a physical switch in the supply to make sure that it couldn't drain the battery. If you read the Pioneer installation instructions you'll see that it states the unit can only be fitted to a vehicle which has an "accessory" position on the ignition and of course the X250 does not have such a position. There are two live feeds to the unit, one is the permanently live feed to maintain the unit memory and the other is the switch wire to detect when the ignition is in the "accessory" position. On my van they were both permanently live which is what I suspect was causing the cab battery to drain. I've modified the wiring so that the pernament supply now feeds from the leisure battery and placed a switch in the cab battery circuit. I was blaming the dealer who sold me the van, by their own admission they had removed the Pioneer unit while the van was in storage and weren't sure they'd re-connected it correctly but it may be it was never connected correctly from new.

I've also changed the solar controller wiring which on the advice of CBE now passes through the CBE panel instead of going direct to the batteries via the pre-installed Rapido wiring.
I still get inaccurate current readings from the CBE panel but I can live with this ATM as I've confirmed by use of seperate meters that the CBE panel shows current drains that don't exist.
Hopefully I'll get to the bottom of it eventually but in the meantime it's now a perceived problem rather than an actual problem.

One other thing I would recommend is to calibrate the CBE panel against volt and ammeters connected directly to the batteries terminals (instructions in the CBE manual) as mine was well adrift.

I didn't buy from Highbridge but did speak to them at one stage hoping they could offer specialist Rapido knowledge. I have to say that I was somewhat underwhelmed with both their technical and product knowledge. So far the only Rapido dealer that has impressed me as having expert knowledge of their product has been Rapido Motorhomes at Wokingham.


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## pete4x4 (Dec 20, 2006)

For information the AVIC series of Pioneer head units only sense the acc/ign line, it takes no current.
All the current is drawn from the main power feed.
I connected the power feed to the leisure battery and installed a switch to turn it on but also took a feed via a diode from the ign to turn it on when I started the engine.
I always found that without then ign feed the pioneer was never on when I needed to reverse, the ign feed cured that.

The diode was used to stop the switch from feeding the ign.

Pete


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## fdhadi (May 9, 2005)

Hi Richard,

Sorry I cannot help with with your electric problem.

Just 1 point but then I could be wrong on this. I am sure on our Burstner when on EHU the vehicle battery gets priority. This seems to make more sense.

Hope you get sorted.


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## rayc (Jun 3, 2008)

gaspode said:


> Hi Richard
> 
> As you know, we've had similar problems to yourself with the CBE panel and I have to say that they're not yet fully resolved. One thing I can report however is that the Pioneer unit was draining our cab battery rather alarmingly. My solution was to put a physical switch in the supply to make sure that it couldn't drain the battery. If you read the Pioneer installation instructions you'll see that it states the unit can only be fitted to a vehicle which has an "accessory" position on the ignition and of course the X250 does not have such a position.


Ken, On our Rapido the Pioneer unit was powered from Accessory 1 supply of the CBE panel when engine not running i.e. it was powered from the cab battery when engine running and the habitation battery when engine not running. In any event I swopped it for my Blaupunkt which runs only on the cab battery with no perceived problems. Ray


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## gaspode (May 9, 2005)

rayc said:


> On our Rapido the Pioneer unit was powered from Accessory 1 supply of the CBE panel when engine not running


Hi Ray
Def not the case on ours. I did trace where the leisure battery feed came from but can't remember now (old age). It definitely wasn't from AUX1 as if that had been the case it would have been switched from the panel and easily turned off.
As I said before, because the dealer had removed the Pioneer for safe storage and wasn't sure whether they had re-installed it correctly I can't say whether mine was connected as per makers spec or not.
It'll be interesting to compare notes at Newbury.

PS: Have you got any idea if the AUX2 control does anything in your van? Doesn't seem to do anything in ours.

Ken


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## RichardD (Sep 14, 2009)

Hi Ken,

My AUX2 button definitely switches on the Pioneer with the ignition off.

I did have the Pioneer out recently but didn't bother to check out the wiring. Will take a look in the next few days to see if there is a similar problem as you had. 

Richard


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## rayc (Jun 3, 2008)

gaspode said:


> PS: Have you got any idea if the AUX2 control does anything in your van? Doesn't seem to do anything in ours.
> 
> Ken


Ken, My book says that with the CBE panel fitted there is nothing connected to the Aux 2 output whilst if a Scheiber panel Aux 2 is for the "dealers / car radio socket".

The Aux 1 output on both make of panel is taken to a 'Auxilary Accesories socket" which is a green strip and in my MH located in a wardrobe.
A: Auxilaries 12v 5 amp max
B: 12v signal after start up (out D+)
C: Earth

As far a I can make out the only things fittted to A are the TV antenna booster and the now unused radio feed.
Ray


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## gaspode (May 9, 2005)

Hi

The AUX1 outlet on mine is inside the TV cabinet so useful for the TV, Satellite, Aeriel booster etc. AFAIK there isn't anything else connected.

Sounds as if AUX2 is just a figment of the imagination. Strange it should have a working switch on the panel. :?


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