BillV wrote:Dirk, The picture is a little deceptive with the wire on the manifold, but I do have one more cable tie to add to the wires running to the starter motor. As to your other points, entirely agree. This old girl has been refitted at least twice in her career as a motorhome and there are wires everywhere! I envisage much of my time in the near future will be nutting out what was, what is and what should be. I have a sparky mate who is keen to have a look...he will probably remain keen right up until he actually has a look then I am thinking he will run the other way at 100mph! I am hoping he can sort out the 240v for me in the 1st instance so that at least we can go caravan park camping in it sooner rather than later.
Bruce, where the isolator switch confuses me is the impact of switch position on charging and what amps are available for cranking etc etc, I will work it out eventually im sure! I am anticipating that Redarc might be a beneficiary of my venture into motorhomes!! The seem to have quite a bit of handy gear.
Everything is 24v, except for a 12v setup for radio , uhf etc. the lifter is 24v. ...not too worried by that at this stage its either the controller or the motor on the power pack ( i hope)
The 2 x 12v that are fairly new don’t seem to have enough cranking amps, they are deep cycle, so not sure of thier suitability for cranking.
who is T1?
As far as start batteries for the 3208 Cat, stay with 4 v 6v batteries, the load is shared across all 4 batteries as is the charging as they remain in series but a higher cranking capacity can be housed in the same sized area. Power the wheel chair lift from these batteries as well unless you decide to go lithium with the house batteries, then power the wheel chair lift from the house batteries as lithium batteries can handle a much higher load than lead acid batteries.
T1 Terry
A person may fail many times, they only become a failure when they blame someone else John Burrows
Those who struggle to become a leader, rarely know a clear direction forward for anyone but themselves
Thanks Terry, will do re the lifter.
Only reason I was thinking of going for 2x12 for cranking was that my more modern starter motor apparently is more efficient than the old original one and although I haven't done the numbers yet, I was thinking that 2 x 12 would be cheaper than 4x6. I got the 6v checked out, they were charging but not holding the charge.
You say the batteries are not holding charge, I have a cut off switch on my Isuzu to stop this happening.(had the same on the Leyland) Maybe you need the same.
If I leave the switch on I get about 2/3 days before not enough left to start, I obviously have a short somewhere but as yet I have not looked for it.
You also may have a short, quick easy way to check if you don't have a multimeter is to disconnect the earth wire for a while then reconnect if you have a zzz type of sound and maybe a spark you have a short or at least some thing is on and using the battery.
Hope this helps.
Bernie.
Keep your 3 way battery switch, with a bit of rewiring it makes a very handy control device for using an inverter to drive a mains charger for start battery to house battery charging, a link for start assistance from the house battery and a load sharing method when dragging very big loads with a big inverter, like for split system air cond while driving.
A person may fail many times, they only become a failure when they blame someone else John Burrows
Those who struggle to become a leader, rarely know a clear direction forward for anyone but themselves
