AutoSleeper Rienza vehicle battery issues

roli wrote:Under your drivers seat, you will see two batteries if they are both original one will have a Ford label on and in ours its at the front - thats the starter battery the other is the auxilliary. If you are not going to top up you can see them by pulling the plastic cover out from the front, if you are topping up then fraid its a seat off jobby (not difficult)

Feel like a real dummy now (it's been a really bad day at work), but if the two batteries under the driver's seat are the vehicle and auxiliary batteries, where is the habitation battery? There's certainly nothing in any of the bed boxes .

Tony

Well ours is under the offside seat base between the front panel and the inner wall of the gas locker (hope the gas locker is safe) It was originally fitted with a little 85AHr battery, not a lot of good for ralliers ok if you spend your life on hook ups.

You have me wondering if yours is done like some of the Rienzas where A-S didnt actually fit a habitation battery they used the auxilliary battery. Its no good Tony we shall have to see your van on a rally or somewhere and see the differences.

Hmmm. Thanks - as ever - for the response Roger. Ours is on a 56 plate and is the last of the Mk6s, actually first registered in 2007. The handbook that came with it shows a Mk7 on the front cover, and is where I've read that there are three batteries. I haven't looked specifically under the o/s bedbox for a battery, and certainly don't recall seeing one there, so I'll have a look when I get home tonight. There's not a lot of space under there, what with the water tank and the gas locker intruding, but I can't recall what's in the space you describe (other than the fact that I don't think there's a space there at all - perhaps it is occupied by a battery after all...).

Confused of Ormskirk.

Tony

Hi Tony,
If all else fails ring Mark at AS I have done this several times and he has always been able to help. give him the job number of your van, to be found in the cab glove box, he has details of most if not all vans on his computer, and apart from that he is a font of knowledge on all things Autosleeper.



Brian

The under bench battery is covered with a wooden battery box/cover Tony

I recently replaced all three batteries on my mk 7 Transit based Eaton and found that AS had connected the auxillary battery in parallel with the habitation battery with a 20 amp inline fuse in the connecting positive cable, the two batteries giving a total of approx' 170 ampere hours for habitation use.

I don't know if this system is used on other models but it may be worth bearing in mind when renewing batteries, also ensure you have your radio code available as it will be required to get the radio working again if it is disconected from the 12 volt supply.

John.

Ok - definitively - there is no battery under the offside bed box. Apart from the water tank, there is the back of the gas locker (fibre glass [?] covered in carpet type material) and a gap of about four inches or so between that and the front end of the bed box. I presume this means either the auxiliary battery doubles as the leisure battery, or there is no auxiliary and the leisure battery is under the driver's seat. Looks like, as Murph suggests, I'll be ringing AS.

Why oh why did they supply a handbook for a Mk7 with a Mk6 based vehicle? This is not the first detail difference that I've come across; the hab door is supposedly connected to the remote locking; not on our van it's not!! It's really, really annoying that manufacturers of such expensive items can't get the details right, despite their good reputation!!

Tony

Hi Tony

Regarding the hab' door remote locking, on some models there are contacts on the door and the door frame which make the close /open circuit when the door is in the closed position.
If these contacts are dirty or tarnished the remote close/open may not operate, cleaning the contacts sometimes fixes the problem, not sure if your model has this system if it does the contacts look like smallish silver coloured studs on the frame and door.

Cheers John .

Johno wrote:Hi Tony

Regarding the hab' door remote locking, on some models there are contacts on the door and the door frame which make the close /open circuit when the door is in the closed position.
If these contacts are dirty or tarnished the remote close/open may not operate, cleaning the contacts sometimes fixes the problem, not sure if your model has this system if it does the contacts look like smallish silver coloured studs on the frame and door.

Cheers John .

Nope, no contacts. According to the handbook remote locking is fitted to our van, so when I took the van in to have stuff fixed after our first trip away, I asked that this be sorted too. Turns out that, whatever the handbook says, RCL wasn't fitted any more than than the third battery - which the handbook also says we have - was fitted. That's what I mean about the frustration at A/S who couldn't even supply the right handbook with the (very expensive) van. It's INFURIATING that they can't get the little things right!

T ny

Hi Charles/Anybody Else Interested,

I am also new to this forum and don't yet know the ropes but here goes.
I recently had problems understanding the battery systems on my Rienza with a Transit Mk 7 Cab.After much confusion I concluded the following.
Of the two batteries under the drivers seat the Front 90 Ah Varta powers the Transit electrics.
The rear 60 Ah Ford battery powers the starter.
The power for the habitaion unit CAME from the STARTER battery via a red cable,30A fuse and relay ??
The only cable from the Varta battery WAS a Red/Blue cable used for charging only.
Therefore the charger switch on the control panel charged the Ford battery when switched to Hab and the varta when switched to vehicle.
The Test battery switch only ever monitored the Ford battery.
I suspect that this vehicle was incorrectly wired as it defeats the object of having a seperate starter battery.

I have now swopped the cables from the two batteries so that the Varta now powers the Transit electrics and the Hab unit,and the Ford is used only for starting.
I have also added a switch so that either battery can be individually monitored from the battery test switch.
Maybe somebody has experienced similar problems .
Also the manual states that there are 3 fuses under the seat,a 15a Fridge,30A Hab and 25A Charger but I have an additional 2 Fuses ,5A and 15A and I would appreciate it if anybody knows their purpose.

Apologies for the long windedness but I would be gratefull for any comments

Regards

John

roli wrote:Well ours is under the offside seat base between the front panel and the inner wall of the gas locker (hope the gas locker is safe) It was originally fitted with a little 85AHr battery, not a lot of good for ralliers ok if you spend your life on hook ups.

You have me wondering if yours is done like some of the Rienzas where A-S didnt actually fit a habitation battery they used the auxilliary battery. Its no good Tony we shall have to see your van on a rally or somewhere and see the differences.

Roli - I was just wondering what you do for battery power at the rallies please? The reason we are looking at horizontal underslung gas cylinders is to free up the gas locker for a generator as we only have the small battery under the driver's seat, not much good for the Mrs hairdrier

I replaced the standard AS fit 85Ahr hab battery with an Exide 120 Ahr one after about 3 years when it failed.

I have an 85w Solar Panel that feeds through a regulator and battery master switch which charges a) The habitation battery, b) the Ford Auxilliary Battery and the c) the Ford Starter Battery

This is normally ok to keep us going without mains power. We have just returned from a trip where 4 nights without mains power at Peterborough Lakes (oops sorry Show) we then went on to a CL 4 nights and then a no power rally at Newark 2 nights and whilst there has been little sunlight during this period there has been sufficient light to keep the habitation battery topped up.

We dont overdo the TV and I run my Amateur Radio equipment from a 5in1 Power Pack Battery. This can also be used to charge the lappy and shaver via its invertor function

You are quite right to be cautious regarding the bosses hair dryer on battery I would steer my bosses via the pwer pack

As a matter of interest on the gas side I took out my 2 x 6 kg cylinders and fitted a 13kg refillable (GasIt)cuts off at 11kg and it has given me half the gas locker for storage without the expense of an underslug tanks

Firstly I would like to thank you for all the advice you are giving me. To give you a little background, it's nearly 20 years since I sold our caravan, which we used when the boy was a baby and we only went to sites with electric hook-up, so I have no experience at all on how long batteries will last and how much power I need for various things. I'm learning fast by using the websites, reading numerous magazines and, of course, the Forum. The locker on our Rienza is tight for the 2 x 7kgs gas bottles so I'm not sure if a bigger one would go in but worth a try. You mention that you have 3 batteries whereas I can only find 2, which are both under the driver's seat, being starter and habitation batteries. Would you mind letting me know where your auxiliary battery is please, I have looked under the lounge seats but there isn't anything under them, not even the pump, which I still have to locate! I have just had a look at Maplin's 5 in 1 power pack jump starter (as I didn't know what a power pack was) and it says 11 amps max for 12v socket whereas a 12v hair-dryer said it needs 15 amps so I don't think that would work - is yours a different power pack? Thanks again, Colyn

The third battery Or 2nd on some models (fitted by Ford) on the Mk 7 Transits is under the drivers seat.Regarding the Rienza / Hampshire, there has been extensive posting on here and other forums over the fact A-S seem to have used this Ford fitted battery as a habitation battery. If you are using 7kg cylinders you are using Butane most motorhomers use Propane (6kg) as this allows use most of the year and not just in the warmer weather.
My power pack is the Maplins 5in1, and to be honest I have never looked at its rating but it will run Liz's 12 hair dryer and also my 100watt Tranceiver (not at the same time!!)
A small generator if you feel you need additional power is ok but get a decent one that isnt too noisey and dont use in the evenings if you wish to remain popular (Honda are quiet and also market leader in compacts)

Hi Roli - we have had a chat and it looks like we're back to solar panels, our original idea, and not a jenny. We thought of these first of all but was thrown off by the hair dryer. Jill has always worried about the noise of a jenny as the reason we would be going to cl sites ourselves is for the peace and quiet. After looking on the net and reading what people have said about 12v hair dryers Jill is going to forego the vanity, have her hair cut and let it go au naturale I am now also going to look into having 2 habitation batteries so as not to run low if solar cannot top up quick enough if it's a dull day.

We were going for propane gas but they wanted £30 odd deposit per bottle where we bought the van so went with butane because someone else had given us a couple of empty bottles free of charge. As we no longer need the gas cupboard for the jenny we no longer need to go for the underslung gas bottles so we will look at the refillables when ours run out.

We're off to France in 5 weeks time, just for a week, but will probably go some somewhere with a hook up as we won't have time to get it all sorted before then! We realised this year was going to be a learning year but just didn't appreciate how much there is to learn so thanks for your help Colyn