# Elektroblok question on a ford transit base.



## mikkistash (Mar 27, 2010)

Hi guys, As usual i am need of your expert advice again.
I have the Elektroblok EBL 99G in my motorhome and i believe if i have read the manual correctly it will charge my leisure battery 1st and starter battery once the leisure is full?? The transit has 2 battery's in the cab part one Aux for the radio, alarm etc and one Starter.
The Aux battery goes flat after around 3 weeks of none use even when on hookup.
So am i correct in thinking that the Elektroblok is doing the Leisure and starter and does not charge my Aux battery?
My leisure and starter both show full on the panel.
Thanks guys.


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## rayc (Jun 3, 2008)

mikkistash said:


> Hi guys, As usual i am need of your expert advice again.
> I have the Elektroblok EBL 99G in my motorhome and i believe if i have read the manual correctly it will charge my leisure battery 1st and starter battery once the leisure is full?? The transit has 2 battery's in the cab part one Aux for the radio, alarm etc and one Starter.
> The Aux battery goes flat after around 3 weeks of none use even when on hookup.
> So am i correct in thinking that the Elektroblok is doing the Leisure and starter and does not charge my Aux battery?
> ...


Are you saying you have three batteries in total?

A starter battery, a habitation [leisure] battery and a third one you are calling Auxillary which powers just the radio and alarm and etc??


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## 747 (Oct 2, 2009)

On 240 volt hookup it should charge the leisure battery at up to 16 amps and give the starter battery a float charge of around 2 amps.

Because you seem to have 2 batteries in the cab area, I would definitely think they are linked and would both therefore get a charge. You can check them to see if there is a connection between them ie: positive to positive terminal.

Alternatively, check their voltage with a meter and then connect the hookup and check that the voltage has risen on both of them.


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## rayc (Jun 3, 2008)

Is yours aTransit which has the cab [starter] battery under the driver seat?


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## mikkistash (Mar 27, 2010)

Hi guys, thanks for the speedy replies.
Yes i have 3 in total, 1 leisure, 1 stater and 1 aux.
The starter and the Aux are under the drivers seat. According to the transit manual the Aux is for the radio, alarm, central locking and that sort of thing and the stater is just to crank the engine. acording to the manual they are seperate until the engine is started and then the spilt charge relay kicks in. 
This is so the starter one shouldnt go flat and always have enough to turn the engine over. I cant get to them to check for voltage as they are under the swivel seat and it is a job i havent got the tools for. The leisure and starter are fully charged as this is displayed on the panel in the hab area but it seems the Aux Battery is flat as the Radio has lost its code, the central locking wont work etc etc.


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## CliveMott (Mar 10, 2008)

Also under the seat towards the back of the drivers seat box is a cover over some fuses and some heavy duty relays. One of these relays is a latching relay and its contacts are used to connect the auxilliary battery in parallel with the starter battery when the ignition is turned on. Some converters simply connect the leisure battery directly in parallel with this auxilliary battery and this system works well. When the leisure battery gets charged via hookup then so does the auxilliary battery. ALL batteries will share engine starting so 25 or 35 sq mm cable is necessary if you do this. This way the split charging is already taken care of by Ford. You would need to disable the split charging in the EBL 99 if you did this. I would !

C.


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## clive1821 (Mar 27, 2010)

Thats an interesting setup.... its seems quite unusual to me, If it were me i would have the starter battery and the aux battery conected togeather and that way you would be able to see the state of all the batteries on the control pannel, and yes as already mentioned, when on mains hook up you will get a charge to the leasure battery of about 16amps and at the same time the starter battery will have a float charge of around 2 amps....

or as my name sake has just mentioned conect the aux battery to the leasure battery and increase the leasure capacity.... in any case which ever you do you will be able to montor the battery state of the batteries.... i would just make sure if you do conect up the aux to either battery its good practice to have the same type and capacities conected togeather... just my view


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## bigtree (Feb 3, 2007)

Your alarm must be drawing a lot of current or the auxiliary battery is quite small.I would parallel up the starter and auxiliary batteries so that they are both charged when on hook-up and driving.


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## mikkistash (Mar 27, 2010)

Thanks guys, It sounds like mine are not in parrallel then as the Aux is the only one that doesnt get charged up whilst on hook up and will only charge by driving around? unless there is somethiong i missing like a blown fuse or stuck relay?? I am not very electricaly minded as you may have guessed 
The van is still under warranty should i be taking it back ffor the dealer to look into it or do you think is it doing as it should? If it is doing as it should then how much roughly would it cost to set it up so they all get charged when on hookup? or should i buy a ctek charger and plug that in when on my drive and hooked up? Thanks and sorry for all the questions on a Friday night ;-)


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## bigtree (Feb 3, 2007)

If it is still under warranty take it back,you should not be trying to figure out what is a very obvious fault.


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## mikkistash (Mar 27, 2010)

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the all the info.
I am going the Newark show at the weekend so i will speak with Lowdhams whilst is am there and see what they say about it.
Hopefully they wont try and fob me off and will agree to take a look at it. Is it a big job to link the two batteires under the seat so they both charge via the hookup? just a rough idea incase i need to get an auto elctrician to carry out the work?
cheers.


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## clive1821 (Mar 27, 2010)

mikkistash said:


> Hi Guys,
> Thanks for the all the info.
> I am going the Newark show at the weekend so i will speak with Lowdhams whilst is am there and see what they say about it.
> Hopefully they wont try and fob me off and will agree to take a look at it. Is it a big job to link the two batteires under the seat so they both charge via the hookup? just a rough idea incase i need to get an auto elctrician to carry out the work?
> cheers.


I'm also at Newark next weekend please feel free to look me up and ask any questions.... Linking the battery is a straight fordward job


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## mikkistash (Mar 27, 2010)

Thanks Clive i appreciate the offer, i will PM you if thats ok and give you my number so we can meet up and have a coffee and a chat about it if you dont mind? Cheers.


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## jhelm (Feb 9, 2008)

From what I read it doesn't seem like a fault in the system, just the nature of how they built it. Since the two batteries are right by each other under the seat it should only take someone a few minutes to wire them in parallel. But I think I would tend to wire the aux battery together with the leisure battery otherwise it will also discharge the starter battery. There may be an issue of them being different amperages, seems it's best if they are the same when connected together.


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## clive1821 (Mar 27, 2010)

mikkistash said:


> Thanks Clive i appreciate the offer, i will PM you if thats ok and give you my number so we can meet up and have a coffee and a chat about it if you dont mind? Cheers.


Yes no probs, I'm one of the rally marshals with mhf so feel free to contact me over the weekend


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## mikkistash (Mar 27, 2010)

jhelm, I was not sure about linking the two under the seat for the reason you put, i like the idea of the starter battery not being conected to anything other than the starter so it wont draw power really, i just dont understand why they linked the starter batt and the leisure to the charger? surely it would have been better to link the aux and the leisure as these are the two that draw power?  
Clive thanks very much, i will PM you and seek you out in the rally section, i am not sure if we are going to stay over or come home as its only 25mins away?? Cheers guys.


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## Jezport (Jun 19, 2008)

I cant understand why 2 batteries for the Starter/aux. What age and model is the Transit? My 2006 Tranny only had one cab battery and never had a problem.


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## rayc (Jun 3, 2008)

Jezport said:


> I cant understand why 2 batteries for the Starter/aux. What age and model is the Transit? My 2006 Tranny only had one cab battery and never had a problem.


I believe the MK7. I was confused by the original post and found this on a forum:

" I have a Globecar Trendscout. 
I have recently discovered that, apart from the leisure battery, there are two batteries in the new Ford transit (under the driver's seat). One battery is exclusively used for starting the van, the other one is for the electronics and the Ford ancillary equipment. The batteries are NOT in parallel ie they are isolated from each other. This arrangement is unique for the UK and Ireland. 
Dethleffs, who built my motorhome, connected the static motorhome charger to the services battery only (they could not have connected the charger to both batteries as they must remain isolated). 
As a result I was left with a flat starter battery after the winter although I had the motorhome connected to the mains for most of the winter. The panel in the motorhome showed a healthy voltage on both the vehicle and leisure batteries! 
I have now installed an additional static charger to charge the starter battery sparately. 
It took me a considerable amount of time to diagnose the problem as the Ford transit handbook does not mention a second battery and the Globecar handbook just mentions that the static battery charger maintains the vehicle starter battery. This is of course correct for all European countries except for the UK and Ireland.

Another word of warning NEVER park your Transit van/Motorhome with the driver's door close to a wall as the new Ford Transit has only one conventional lock on the driver's door. All the other doors have to be opened with the remote key fob which can only be charged in the vehicle. After a winter the battery in the key fob will definitely be flat and you can then only enter the vehicle via the driver's side door. This happened to me and I had to crawl under the vehicle and contort myself to get the key in the door. It took me a number of attempts to get the door open, by then I was filthy. Another couple of centimeters closer to the wall and I would have had to break a window. 
I asked Ford for help, absolutely useless!"


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## CliveMott (Mar 10, 2008)

I can confirm that Transits of recent years have had this twin battery system I described earlier in this post. The batteries are in parallel ONLY when the ignition is turned ON. BOTH batteries provide starting current. But when the ignition is turned OFF the second battery which poweres auxilliary circuits is isolated from the main starter battery. To asertain this myself and one other removed the drivers seat from a my mates new tranny, took off the covers and spent a couple of hours with a multimeter to ensure we had sussed it correctly.

C.


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## jhelm (Feb 9, 2008)

It seems that Ford recognized that all the aux stuff was going to run down the starter battery when parked so they added a second one isolated from the starter. Probably works fine in a truck. But a motor home tends to sit around for longer periods. Then you have the Electroblok which is set up to charge a leisure battery and give a minimum charge to the starter battery. There wasn't an easy way to make the three work together so they just ignored the problem when setting up the motor home.


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## mikkistash (Mar 27, 2010)

Thanks guys, I did read about Clive tinkering with his friends new transit that is how I realised that I had two batteries under the seat  so am I correct that the best option for me is to fit a ctek permantley to the aux and plug into that when on my drive and also when on hook up if needed? I really appreciate all the advice and help. Ps it is a new transit but I think you have worked that out.


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## mikkistash (Mar 27, 2010)

Hi guys, following on from the great advice I have so far been given I was just wondering if I could utilise Clive motts bridging fuse in my case? Am I correct in thinking that with the fuse in place the hook up would charge all 3 of my batts and when it is removed it will just charge my starter and leisure batt? Thanks guys.


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## 113016 (Jun 5, 2008)

rayc said:


> Jezport said:
> 
> 
> > I cant understand why 2 batteries for the Starter/aux. What age and model is the Transit? My 2006 Tranny only had one cab battery and never had a problem.
> ...


Before reading this thread, I had never heard of two batteries for the base vehicle so I had a look in ours.
It was new pre registered in Germany in October 2011 and first registered in the UK in January 2012.
We got it as used but in actual fact it was still new and just pre registered. The Hymer build plate is 2012 model.
Anyway, I am pretty sure that ours only has one battery, I can't see a second and only the rear half of under the seat has a battery.
It is impossible to see behind this battery without removing the seat, which having already removed the other side to enable solar connections to the leisure battery, I don't need or want to do this removal at this time. I did manage to push my hand over the battery and I could not feel a second battery. If it is there, it must be very small.
Maybe as our van came via Germany, it only has the one.
My question is, if and when you have the two base vehicle batteries, if you look under the front of the driver seat, does it look like there is room for another battery? Ours does except for the big I think 50 amp fuse and a smaller one.
I forgot to say, our van is RHD and built to UK spec as it was originally destined to Brownhills, but due to financial or dealer issues, it never went there.


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