Twin 110Ah leisure batteries fitted, seats back in the van and everything now works as it should. I bought some quick-release battery clamps, and what a faff they were - not worth the money. I had to dismantle 3 of the 4 in order to get them to work. A set is £11.99, which is rather steep for something one has to dismantle to get it to work. Didn't look at the packaging, but they were probably Chinese, despite being purchased locally in a car parts emporium.
Didn't use the conduit in the end - I merely taped the battery cables together for about a foot to stiffen them and fed them into the underfloor channel I'd made between the seats.
Didn't use the conduit in the end - I merely taped the battery cables together for about a foot to stiffen them and fed them into the underfloor channel I'd made between the seats.
It transpired that the old 85Ah leisure battery wasn't even working and the 12v supply was being drawn from the 110Ah engine battery. I thought it was a quirk of the van wiring when I first noticed that the 12v supply only worked with the supply switch set to cab (upper position), rather than caravan (lower position), as all the batteries are actually in the cab area. It didn't help that the previous owners had never used the 12v leisure supply, as they always went to caravan sites and exclusively used the hookup, so they had no clue as to how the 12v supply worked. The manual is next to useless at explaining the setup too.
Another project I'm considering is to convert the 240v AC TV I bought for £25 to 12v DC, as most of them use DC internally anyway. It would save me about £100 on buying a 2nd hand 12v DC TV, but depends if the TV uses more than 12v for anything - some of them can use up to 30v for some peripherals. As I'll only be using screen mirroring from my phone to watch TV, it might be more prudent to simply use a cheap-as-chips PC monitor that has a 230v AC ~ 12v DC in-line rectifier and remove the rectifier, replacing it with a 12v plug.
Another project I'm considering is to convert the 240v AC TV I bought for £25 to 12v DC, as most of them use DC internally anyway. It would save me about £100 on buying a 2nd hand 12v DC TV, but depends if the TV uses more than 12v for anything - some of them can use up to 30v for some peripherals. As I'll only be using screen mirroring from my phone to watch TV, it might be more prudent to simply use a cheap-as-chips PC monitor that has a 230v AC ~ 12v DC in-line rectifier and remove the rectifier, replacing it with a 12v plug.
Just the advisory wheel bearings and cam belt to replace now. I discovered that the water pump isn't driven by the cam belt on the Fiat Ducato, so there's no need to replace that as a package.
We were going to take the van for its first outing this weekend, but the weather forecast has put paid to that. Probably just as well, given the cam belt needs replacing.
We were going to take the van for its first outing this weekend, but the weather forecast has put paid to that. Probably just as well, given the cam belt needs replacing.
1 comment:
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