Hi

Left Coober Pedy this morning after 3 nights of absolutely no problems. Battery power was fine, used water during the trip meaning the pump used the battery no problem.

Arrived at Marla Caravan Park, tried several of their power outlets, no power.  Maintenance chap took a while to get to us, he virtually shrugged his shoulders as he had no idea why we got no power.  Every time we plugged the van in, their circuit breakers tripped.  He said that it must be a problem with our van.  We started our generator and everything works no problem.

Now we find that our 12v system is not working in the van at all ... the batteries are fully charged ... all fuses are intact ... terminals all secure ...and we have 13v at the inverter.

Any idea as to what our problem is???

Hi;

   Sound like some thing is not right with the power inlet in your caravan, maybe the active, neutral ,or earth transposed. what about when you have the caravan at home ??. If i were you, the triping of the caravan park's ELB sound's like a major overload with the caravan electrical circuts OR some thing more sinister. Take the caravan to a electrican ASAP and have him do a full safty check on the electrical integrity of the wireing in the caravan. What about the 15 Amp power lead, have that checked out as well.

Maybe a storm in a tea cup, but not worth mucking around with. Get it checked out. PLEASE, if only for your own safety. 

GrahamnJacqui wrote:

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Thanks for that.
We've decided to do to the long haul tomorrow morning and get up to Alice Springs to have someone there check it out.

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 Hi

Have you tried just plugging YOUR extension lead into the CP supply [not plugged into the van?}?

It could be just a faulty extension lead

But it is quite possible you have an earth fault in the van wiring or an appliance

But that does not explain your apparent 12V problem.

 IS the van under warranty ??

PeterQ

edit

you could also try by unplugging or switching off all 240v devices fridge battery charger air con etc then see if the park power holds in

If it does switch the devices back on one at a time

You may find which one is faulty & simply leave it unplugged until you get near a repairer for that type of device

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-- Edited by oldtrack123 on Tuesday 18th of February 2014 10:24:34 PM

oldtrack123 wrote:

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GrahamnJacqui wrote:

---

Thanks for that.
We've decided to do to the long haul tomorrow morning and get up to Alice Springs to have someone there check it out.

---

 Hi

Have you tried just plugging YOUR extension lead into the CP supply [not plugged into the van?}?

It could be just a faulty extension lead

But it is quite possible you have an earth fault in the van wiring or an appliance

But that does not explain your apparent 12V problem.

 IS the van under warranty ??

PeterQ

 

edit

you could also try by unplugging or switching off all 240v devices fridge battery charger air con etc then see if the park power holds in

If it does switch the devices back on one at a time

You may find which one is faulty & simply leave it unplugged until you get near a repairer for that type of device

---

 Oldtrack has given you the right starting point. These are tests to try and isolate the problem. If for example it is the extension lead, you buy a new one or  have a qualified electrician repair the old one. If you test each appliance one by one and find a faulty one, discard it or have it repaired. If none of these tests reveal a problem, have a qualified electrician check your van. You must not do it yourself. Electricity is dangerous and I've seen many a handyman amateur come to grief.

The 240 volt system in your van and the 12 volt system are completely independent of each other. Have your electrician look at it also. 

Looks like the OP has headed off to Alice..

I would bet on a faulty extension lead and/or a bad earth on the 12v side maybe even both..

We ended up finding a switch in the front boot that may be a safety switch for the battery power. It needed to be flicked and all is now good with the lights and all other things that use the battery power! =D
We are at Kings Canyon now (having discovered the switch at the SA/NT border) ... found a problem with the power inlet ... one of the wires was being pinched, not allowing us to connect to power ... friendly sparky found problem and fixed for us. He's fixed quite a few of these over his years working in Alice Springs and Kings Canyon.

Thanks to all those who replied, will keep all those for future references!

All is great now ... perhaps we should be the green nomads having only been on the road since June last year! Loving it! =D

Hi ;

    Glad to here that you finaly had the problems fixed and all good, now take two beers out of petty cash......and injoy. At leased you know that you can sleep at night. It just goes to show that caravaning can be a BIG learning curve. Good Luck.