Break-away brake battery

deverall11 · Guru

Break-away brake battery

patrol03 · Senior Member

Hi Larry, As a general rule the battery in the breakaway unit is not usually charged by the battery charger in the van.It should be charged however by your tow vehicle 12 volt auxiliary line which is normally Pin 2 and a black wire. If you take the cover of the break safe unit the colour coding of all the wires is quite explicit,also if you purchased your van new you should have received an information sheet concerning the breakaway unit which will give you all the information for correct operation. Ian

Footprints · Senior Member

Hi, it is just a guess but it sounds like the wire that you have connected to is the one which 'services the brakes' if that is so it would show an amount similar to 6 amps and overload after some time. Jack up one braked wheel to allow it to spin freely then reconnect the wire and check that the brake is not on. Just a thought.

Cheers Allen

JandJ · Member

Not quite sure of my wording, but thought our exp might be useful. We have a ford ranger and a break safe breakaway. the in car indicator was going into alarm but our batt was charged. We were apparenlty drawing battery when braking and the car was not recharging sufficiently... Hence to alarm. We ended up getting a dc to dc unit put into the Ford which helps the ford decided where and how much charge to send to the van and therefore our breakaway battery. We have had loads of probs with the Ford electics due to us getting an after market towing kit. But after numerous auto electricians, we seem to be right now. not sure if this helps.

deverall11 · Guru

patrol03 wrote:
Hi Larry, As a general rule the battery in the breakaway unit is not usually charged by the battery charger in the van.It should be charged however by your tow vehicle 12 volt auxiliary line which is normally Pin 2 and a black wire. If you take the cover of the break safe unit the colour coding of all the wires is quite explicit,also if you purchased your van new you should have received an information sheet concerning the breakaway unit which will give you all the information for correct operation. Ian

Thank you to all that have responded. Ian, I will try Pin 2. We never got an information sheet given to us. On the casing that holds the battery, as well as the usual lights, there is a switch to allow you to choose OFF, 12v or 240v. One would assume that the 12v is for when towing and 240v is for when connected to power. The 240v side is not operational at present. I have never understood why the break-away battery is not charged by the house battery charger. Also, if you are new to caravans and the dealer does not explain this, and most don't, your break-away battery goes flat for no good reason. Now that I know this has to be done separately I will take appropriate action. One cannot assume that most/all vans will be towed on a regular basis and hence charge the battery. It is only because of a NSW regulation that I realised that battery was flat.

Larry

rockylizard · Guru

Gday...

Larry, I am a little confused. I assume you have a BreakSafe break away system installed.

If so, I am not aware of having any 240v anything on it. hmm It runs on a 12v 7Ahr or 9Ahr battery which is supposed to be charged from the vehicle.

See the attached PDF files which are the Owner Operating Instructions for the 5000 Series and also the 6000 Series - I don't know which you have.

Like you, I was concerned that when in van parks (or free camping) for extended periods, there was no charge going to the battery. So I bought a small 3-stage 1.6A 'smart' charger which I have set up as shown in this pic which runs on 240v either from park or generator. (ignore the wound up 'extension' cord - it has nothing to do with the BreakSafe). As you can see, there are dedicated terminals on the BreakSafe to charge the battery.

Breakaway Charger 001.JPG

Cheers - John

deverall11 · Guru

rockylizard wrote:
Gday...
Larry, I....
If so, I am not aware of having any 240v anything on it. It runs on a 12v 7Ahr or 9Ahr battery which is supposed to be charged from the vehicle.

Cheers - John

Hi John, what I meant with 240v was a reference to the house battery charger being 240v input. I have had another go at it now. Using the black wire (Pin 2). I now have a 'Charge' light on the casing. Rather then introduce another charger, I have connected a +ve and -ve wire to the house battery and run this to the plug hence using the house battery charger. Is what I am doing OK or is it going to cause problems?

Larry

rockylizard · Guru

Gday...

confuse Sorry Larry, but I must be missing something confuse

Given the photo you have provided, that switch (arrowed) on the top of the unit seems to be switchable between "Car Alternator" ... "Off" ... and "Battery Charger".

When you are not driving, would it be that you would simply move that switch to the "Battery Charger" mode and that the Van's "house charger" (or another charger) would then charge the unit?

And then when driving, you would switch that switch to "Car Alternator" mode?

This is 'snipped' from the attached PDF document (Owner Operating Instructions) for the CAMEC -

I hope that helps in some way.

Cheers - John

-- Edited by rockylizard on Friday 12th of February 2016 05:28:07 PM

deverall11 · Guru

John,
Thank you for your effort and helpful information. Whilst I may not have used the correct terminology, as mentioned in my original post, the 'Battery Charger' side of the switch is NOT connected to the charger. Hearsay has it that is connected to the 12v supply. In other words, no matter where the switch is, it will look for a 12v supply hence the 'oversight' from the manufacturer. My reasoning is: if there is a position that allows fro the battery charger to be used, this should be connected as such unless otherwise advised. This is why I lost the original battery as I did not realise the battery charger side was not connected. Now I have taken steps to over come this small inconvenience.
John, the house battery charger is as I understand it a 'float charger'. It is a Projecta IC2500. Do you think what I am doing is OK and will not damage the break-away battery?
Thanks, Larry

rockylizard · Guru

Gday...

These specs (from the attached PDF doc) show the Projecta IC2500 has a 'variable' output of 2, 6, 12, 25A. It says it is adjustable. However, you would usually have it set on 25A to properly charge the 'house' battery - I would imagine.

To 'adjust' it to only output 6A, which is what the CAMEC BreakAway battery requires (25A charge would overcharge the CAMEC battery - "kill" it) is a lot of mucking around and when set on 6A would not have sufficient output to charge/maintain the 'house' battery.

Projecta Charger.JPG

Someone else, far more knowledgeable than me in these things, could provide better advice. Hopefully they will stick their oar in the water soon.

However, the CAMEC Owner Instructions I provided previously, suggests connecting the "charger" to the black/white wire.

As I showed in the pics from my "solution", I simply purchased a 12v 1.6A 3-stage charger and have it dedicated to the BreakSafe battery. There are terminals on my one which makes it easier.

How you would connect the CAMEC battery to the 'house battery' so it could draw its power (charge?) from there is beyond my knowledge.

Cheers - and sorry for not being able to fully answer your predicament - John

-- Edited by rockylizard on Saturday 13th of February 2016 11:33:04 AM

deverall11 · Guru

rockylizard wrote:
.....
How you would connect the CAMEC battery to the 'house battery' so it could draw its power (charge?) from there is beyond my knowledge.

-- Edited by rockylizard on Saturday 13th of February 2016 11:33:04 AM

John, i have connected the CAMEC battery in parallel. Therefore as the house battery receives power from the charger, so should the CAMEC. The 'charge' light is ON.

Larry