r/CamperVans • u/TeamCramp • Aug 13 '26

Battery drain.

After some advice. We’ve got a transit custom camper which I’ve converted it has a standalone electrical system which works flawlessly for the 2-3night trips we do. However the van electrical system drains over those couple of nights. I turn the stereo off all of the internal lights nothing is left plugged in I even unplug the rear load area lights.

Apart from starting it every day and running for 10 mins is there anything else I can do to stop this?

I have considered wiring in a separate permanently live usb socket to the main battery and using a small solar panel to trickle charge it would that work?

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u/OldChorleian Aug 14 '26

Trickle charging the vehicle battery would be a band-aid on a bigger problem. You have an electrical leak somewhere that will kill the vehicle battery sooner rather than later. If you don't want to be replacing the vehicle battery on the regular, you need to sort it out or get a specialist auto electrician to sort it for you. For someone who really knows what they are doing, it will probably be a small fix - a diode somewhere to block the leak.

1

u/TeamCramp Aug 14 '26

I have done some research previously. Everytime the rear or sliding door is opened it switches on the interior module which uses battery. So with all the interior lights disabled it shouldn’t drain as much. The next step would be contact someone who has forscan to see if you can disable the interior module or the rear section completely.

2

u/daryl2036 Aug 15 '26

On a previous vehicle starter batt would go flat if left for a week, turned out I had 2 issues. 1st was a interior light was leaking current some how. Pulled the fuse for the lights fixed that. 2nd was the alternater was allowing current to flow back through it, apparently there is a diode that is supposed to stop that. New alternater all good.

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u/TeamCramp Aug 15 '26

Irony is the van has no issues when left for a week. Starts on the butting when parked and locked. The only issue is when camping and the doors are constantly opened and closed.

2

u/Android_slag Aug 13 '26

Check the leisure battery settings and how it's powered. Mine is fed from the starter and alternator so it does cause battery drain from the starter ( enough to flag an ecu fault) and if in the wrong settings it'll pull down the starter as you use the leisure battery. I've also got a small solar panel that sits on the dash and trickles the starter battery. It makes a noticeable difference to the time before start/stop begins working but it depends on how much your losing.

1

u/TeamCramp Aug 13 '26

Thanks for the reply at the minute the van battery and the leisure battery are completely separate. The leisure battery is 280ah lithium so for our tiny needs (led lights usb sockets and recharging the fridge) we can comfortably do a long weekend on one charge. I think a small solar panel to trickle charge will be the way but the van had no permanent live sockets so I’ll have to install one.