Strange Transit batteries wire up . . .

[gasgas]

I've just become the 'proud' owner of a 1999 AutoSleeper Pollensa. It's on a Ford Transit (automatic gearbox with torque cconverter) with a turbo which looks half like it's an add-on (TB Turbos) and half not because some of the turbo air handling manifold has the Ford logo cast into it. I remember that a company called TB turbos was doing expensive modifications to standard engines, and a big market of theirs was motorhomes.
Anyway very strangely I have discovered that although I knew when I bought it that it had three batteries, it turns out that two of them both in the engine compartment are wired in parallel, leaving the leisure battery all lonely under one of the sofas in the hab area.
The mh has a BIG 200W solar panel, an MPPT regulator and a 2000W / 3000W peak mains inverter. The seller left all sorts of junk in it - knives forks spoons, plates, mains TV, mains kettle, mains toaster, hoses, wires and pipes which I know not what they are for, watering can and it wouldn't surprise me if I find a massage machine somewhere. It also has a diesel space heater - Webasto style. The original Carver one has been removed much to my displeasure. I think they were the best possible heater - no complex electronics, the only electrical bit was the sparky and thermocouple. What more do you want?

Anyway does anyone know if a 1999 Transit diesel turbo would have been built with two engine batteries? They are on each side of the engine on top of the wheel arches, each with a proper steel battery shelf to sit on. It's almost as if the Transit was a special version with two batteries for transiting the North Pole. The gurt great fat cable joining them has a Ford label and is properly, factory terminated at each end.
My inclination is to change the config to one engine battery, take the gurt great fat cable to the LB under the sofa and thus have two LBs in parallel rather than two engine batteries in parallel. I have never seen that since the days when I was trading London Taxis - the FX4 ones. They had two batteries, but they were two 6 volt ones, wired in series.

 

[Caz]

Probably nothing to do with what you are asking about - but my two Autosleeper Friskies, which were Transit based, of 1990 and 1988 vintage, had their leisure batteries mounted under the bonnet on the opposite side to the engine battery, in the way you describe. Maybe yours used to be like that but a previous 0wner popped a separate leisure battery in the hab area and linked up the two in the engine bay?

 

[gasgas]

That's the configuration I thought it had when I bought it Caz. However it turned out that one of the batteries in the engine compartment was deadder than a dead thing, in fact it was even more dead than that. More dead than I have ever before seen a dead battery. Zilch, nothing, nowt, zero, kapput. It would hold no volts at all so something was very wrong with it and in the course of my investigating I found that in fact it was in parallel with the other battery. The 'other' battery was definitely the engine starter battery which was easy to see because it had a fat wire running down to the starter motor. There is a 4mm wire from the good engine battery leading to the hab battery. I must check that it goes through a relay activated from the alternator D+ . . . . .

 

[El radge]

That's the configuration I thought it had when I bought it Caz. However it turned out that one of the batteries in the engine compartment was deadder than a dead thing, in fact it was even more dead than that. More dead than I have ever before seen a dead battery. Zilch, nothing, nowt, zero, kapput. It would hold no volts at all so something was very wrong with it and in the course of my investigating I found that in fact it was in parallel with the other battery. The 'other' battery was definitely the engine starter battery which was easy to see because it had a fat wire running down to the starter motor. There is a 4mm wire from the good engine battery leading to the hab battery. I must check that it goes through a relay activated from the alternator D+ . . . . .

Dead [very] battery maybe original starter . Previous owner rewired to , under bonnet , leisure battery ?

 

[trevskoda]

Rip it all out and start again, i detest sorting out other folks ball coxses.

 

[gasgas]

Rip it all out and start again, i detest sorting out other folks ball coxses.

You should have seen the lash up that pretended to be a thermostatically controlled radiator fan. The live wire feeding it was flopping about in the engine compartment, the variable temperature controller 'fixed' to the bonnet scuttle by a zip tie, and the actual fan 'held' in place by precisely one strip of metal to the front scuttle frame. It is all now fitted correctly with three metal brackets bolted in, the wiring is sheathed and secured to the bodywork.
I continue to be puzzled by the batteries, I don't think it was a lash up by a previous owner. There are two original factory fitted battery trays, forming part of the bodywork, and the gurt great fat cable connecting them is professionally / factory terminated at each end, and has a paper 'Ford' label. Anyway I will run it for a bit with just the one engine battery and if that continuously starts the engine properly I will get a new leisure battery and re-route the wiring to have the two LBs in parallel.
I don't detest sorting out other peoples male chicken ups, but I despair that there are such people messing with what was originally OK and making balls up of the job. I've replaced a roof vent which was dripping inside. A previous owner has lashed silicone all over where it need not have been put, and failed to stop the leak. Fortunately the frame inside was not too rotten to be saved. I let it dry out for a couple of sunny days. The habitation step was screwed to a piece of replaced wood, but that replaced wood was not fixed to anything so the step just flopped downwards when I stepped on it. Now it is fixed with metal brackets bolted to the chassis.
The worst appalling inexcusable cock up is that the chap I bought it off proudly showed me his ebay refill-your-own Calor gas bottle adaptor. He and others who buy these abominations have absolutely no comprehension of how dangerous these things are. You car tyre pressure is typically 2.4 Bar, and the pressure of the liquid gas from a pump is typically 70 Bar. No wonder petrol stations are stopping selling LPG if people keep killing themselves and others with these devices. I'll photograph it and cut it in half and send a letter to MMM.

 

[trevskoda]

When i got my van the last chap had tried to make it into a camper, what a bodge, i had to strip it back to the chassis and start from scratch.
He had wired a fridge with telephone wire & all inside was nailed together with thousands of screws with the heads sticking out everywhere.
The charging sys was not working and all batteries were bu--ered, also he fitted household flossie lamps and then drilled a hole through the roof
To bring in a tv cable along with all the rain water, some folk should be locked up for there own good.

 

[davef]

My 1991 Transit twin wheeler also has the 2 engine starter batteries wired in parallel, I think it was standard. Certainly helps start it midwinter as the 2.5di engine is direct injection with no glow plugs, so has to spin the engine fast enough to get the compression heat to fire it.

 

[gasgas]

Aha Dave, that sounds like the reason. Thanks for that, it's a good explanation. I had noticed that there is no glow plug delay and the engine starts instantly. Mine isn't a twin wheeler but it does have the 2.5 presumably di engine.

.....
He had wired a fridge with telephone wire

Well that would be so he could control his fridge from his dial up telephone from the cab to the exchange in the kitchen area then wouldn't it? A Precursor to the modern fad for controlling heating via Truma wotsit? iNet. What a load of rubbish, why can't you just get out of your seat and press some buttons?

& all inside was nailed together with thousands of screws with the heads sticking out everywhere.
................... drilled a hole through the roof to bring in a tv cable along with all the rain water, some folk should be locked up for there own good.

Presumably the screw heads were deformed to the shape of the hammer head he used to insert them. His actual reason for doing that was to combine the two things through one hole. 1) get the TV cable through and 2) to divert the rainwater into the fresh water tank. You should have studied it more closely and you would have found the rain dripping either into the fresh tank or into the kettle. Genius. Not only that but as water conducts electricity, his TV signal would have been improved.

 

[davef]

Your 1999 Transit based campervan will be a Mk 5 - the last of the Transits to use the 2.5di engine. These are known for their simple reliability, if not for their power!. There is a lot of information and help available from the Ford Transit forum -https://fordtransit.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=4&sid=b7787e3ec4d463349dad62728774a51a
The Lucas injection system on the auto Transits does not seem to have the best reputation for reliability though, but if it gives serious trouble, it can be replaced with the Bosch injection pump from a manual Transit.

 

[merl]

Could be either of the above or something else like Ford fitting 2 lower AH batteries instead of 1 big one, I guess the question is does it really matter anyway? Just work with what you have but I'll add that paralleling batteries that are a distance apart costs if you're going to do it properly especially if you intend to draw high inverter currents. I'd personally probably forget about the second bonnet battery altogether, you appear not to need it as in reality because essentially you've only got one battery under the hood right now anyway.
Have you thought about removing the 2nd battery altogether and replacing it with a basket? I say this because I ALWAYS wish I'd got somewhere that's 'no spill' and warm whenever I collect a takeaway.

 

[gasgas]

Could be either of the above or something else like Ford fitting 2 lower AH batteries instead of 1 big one, I guess the question is does it really matter anyway? Just work with what you have but I'll add that paralleling batteries that are a distance apart costs if you're going to do it properly especially if you intend to draw high inverter currents. I'd personally probably forget about the second bonnet battery altogether, you appear not to need it as in reality because essentially you've only got one battery under the hood right now anyway.
Have you thought about removing the 2nd battery altogether and replacing it with a basket? I say this because I ALWAYS wish I'd got somewhere that's 'no spill' and warm whenever I collect a takeaway.

As it does start OK with one battery and a £14k motorhome doesn't warrant spending unnecessary money on, I think I'll stick with the one battery. I doubt if I'll be starting it in sub zero weather anyway.
I completely understand about the problems with paralleling a couple of batteries. If one is less good than the other it will be draining current from the good one. And in 1968 I was at Cable and Wireless training college learning about batteries. We calculated that the internal resistance of a car battery must not exceed a quarter of an ohm if it is to deliver enough current to start an engine. And that would have been a Morris Minor engine of course, not a 2.5 diesel. In exchanges they used to have hundreds of batteries in series / parallel combination to make up the + -80 volts rails. We used big copper bars to join them and had a special copper grease which had conductive grit in it to bite into the joining metal faces.
I may fit a tool box in the space created by losing one of the engine batteries. You need to put a Ginsters pie on, or just above the exhaust manifold to cook it properly, and the second battery position is on the opposite side of the engine.

 

[trevskoda]

As it does start OK with one battery and a £14k motorhome doesn't warrant spending unnecessary money on,

I could have bought 6 vans like mine for that money, any chance of a loan LOL.

 

[gasgas]

Just go and look at the cost of a new motorhome and you'll see what a bargain it was. 'You' - i.e. 'one' can pay well over £100 k for a new panel van conversion camper, and you won't get much of a coachbuilt motorhome for less than that. Used ones under £20k need lots of work as you would expect.

 

[alwaysared]

Transit diesel had two starter batteries and the petrol had one, although you could order a second one as an optional extra or fit one yourself later

Regards,
Del

 

[trevskoda]

Just go and look at the cost of a new motorhome and you'll see what a bargain it was. 'You' - i.e. 'one' can pay well over £100 k for a new panel van conversion camper, and you won't get much of a coachbuilt motorhome for less than that. Used ones under £20k need lots of work as you would expect.

I have always had deep pockets and short arms LOL.
I always look for a bargain, a failed project, wife getting rid of decests car/van, folks giving up driving, or someone out of luck, there is always one to be had if you are sharp.

 

[gasgas]

I could have bought 6 vans like mine for that money . . . . . .

Yeah, but the difference between your six vans and my camper is that my £14k camper actually proceeds along the King's Highway under its own power.