Ford Transit Forum

by **Scooby999** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 10:42 am

Hi i have an electrical problem,i have a leisure battery on my transit(it is charged by a solar panel)and i have a 12v socket running off it .
I noticed the other day this is not working so i replaced the earth wire and thats fine,changed the 5amp fuse thats ok but still no power to the 12v socket.
So changed the live feed and the 12 v socket and nothing.
Tested it with a volt meter and have 12.38 volts to the 12v socket but as soon as i plug something in (car phone charger with an on light ,that doesnt light) i only get 0.689 volts.
Can someone please tell me how to sort this out or am i just making a simple mistake
cheers jason

by **bazw** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 1:29 pm

have the battery tested it may be dead or give it a full charge with a mains charger to see if its getting enough from the SP

what are you getting off the SP btw? is it making power as well as volts to charge the battery

by **Scooby999** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 1:59 pm

i have tested the battery with the volt meter and that came out as 12.38v which i thought was ok
the solar panel is just 1 of the small dash mounted ones from maplins( Solar-Powered 12V 1.5W Battery Trickle Charger) the solar panel only charges the battery and everything is allways turned off(it only runs a couple of lights and a coolbox but not used the coolbox yet)

by **MrMPuk** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 2:14 pm

You need to get the battery drop tested, failing that try putting some load on it and then checking the voltage.

by **Scooby999** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 2:47 pm

ok think i will put the battery on charge overnight then get it tested

by **fortyeight** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 4:19 pm

hi i had a simler problem i found the sowlor pannel chargers were draining the batterys this happend on my bike and a camper van,try without the solar pannel and see how you go on

by **angeleye** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 4:56 pm

i would find another way to charge battery ,as soon as you use that coolbox, battery will be flat very quickly,have a look on forum on how to wire it up plenty advice on here

by **Scooby999** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 7:15 pm

think i am going to get the second battery wired up to the alternator and see if that helps :mrgreen:

by **APH** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 7:57 pm

Scooby999 wrote:think i am going to get the second battery wired up to the alternator and see if that helps

That would be the far better option, using a split charge relay of course. However this comment from "fortyeight" could also be quite true:

fortyeight wrote:hi i had a simler problem i found the sowlor pannel chargers were draining the batterys this happend on my bike and a camper van,try without the solar pannel and see how you go on

Most of theese panels (epecially the budget / low cost ones) tend to just have the photovoltaic cells connected to a Cigarette plug, or a pair of croc clips. This is fine on bright sunny days when they provide a good 12v output at several hundred milliamps to trickle charge, but on dimmer or overcast days, the cells actually draw a current FROM the battery, slowly discharging it. I don't tend to use these panels very often as they are rather inefficient, however when I have fitted them, I always put a small diode such as an "IN4001" also available from maplins, in series with the posative lead (cut lead before plug / clip, the solder or crimp diode in place, silver / white striped "cathode" end towards the croc clip/plug) thus preventing the current being drawn from the battery by the cells. Ok the didoe will drop 0.6 of a volt so you will only charge at about 11.5 - 12 on a really bright day, but that is still better than nothing :wink: