Skip to main content


Monitoring battery drain


!VanLife - Working on our #HinoRainbow #motorhome conversion we have an issue with occasional drain of the motor batteries. (I guess something somewhere is being left on despte an isolation switch being used when we are parked up) - I' trying to figure out someway of monitoring battery drain on them so we can be alerted.

VanLife reshared this.

in reply to abeorch

despte an isolation switch being used when we are parked up


Is the isolator a manual switch or does it work automagically ("split charger", relay, diode isolator, dc-dc, etc)?

If the leisure and starter batteries really are isolated then it's a chassis problem. The classical approach is to youtube.com/watch?v=G7BvKNfY6h… and pull chassis fuses until the current stops -- that circuit is the problem.

occasional drain of the motor batteries


How long does it take for this to happen? A day? A month? If you have solar on the rig you could leverage it to keep the starter battery[s] charged. This would also work if you are on shore power while parked up.

in reply to Frater Mus

Yeah its taken a day or two to flatten the battery so something is going on - its got an isolatation switch which controls a solenoid. I need to look into this more - will need to check that video.

Our house and engine electrics are completely separate but we had been thinking of using the solar to charge the engine batteries. We dont have shore power connection as such because everything is 12v.

VanLife reshared this.