jayco silverline

gazza018 · Member

jayco silverline

ants_oz · Veteran Member

There are two ways in which the battery in your van is charged.

The first way is from the (standard) solar panel and the solar regulator. Your batter is receiving charge whenever the panel is exposed to light.

The second method is via the Setec unit which is probably mounted beneath your refrigerator (and looks like a black plastic panel with a couple of fuses below it). The Setec unit charges your battery whenever the van is connected to mains power.

While the Setec unit may not be the best charger on the market, it is not simply a trickle charger - it has float, equalise, store and trickle modes. The user manual for the Setec unit explains it all, and also has a diagram showing an example of how it charges over time.

gazza018 · Member

cheers ants oz I am down in perth at the moment so I will check under the fridge when I get back to Paraburdoo on Monday hope there is one there and maybe an easy fix
Thanks Gazza

ants_oz · Veteran Member

Cheers mate. Hope its there so I don't look like so much of an idiot :)

Oh, and this is what the front of it looks like:

s.caravanrvparts.com.au/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/p/o/power_supply__59544.jpg

gazza018 · Member

OH lovely I have that fuse box on the side of my bed so maybe the setec is under my bed I will have to move more stuff my wife thinks is important to take I'm sure one day she will realize ITS NOT thanks ants oz Cheers gazza

ants_oz · Veteran Member

Yeah, under the bed.....just where I said it would be ***COUGH***

:)

gazza018 · Member

Cheers mate

Muddy · Veteran Member

The setec charger incorporates battery protection and will not allow it to connect to a load below a set voltage. This is because discharging AGM deep cycle batteries way below 50% charge shortens their life. At very low voltages, a chirping alarm may sound to warn you that the battery voltage is low. Ignore this for too long and your setec charger no longer recognises your battery as a 12V battery and will no longer allow it to charge. The trick here is to pull the main battery fuse out for a few seconds with mains power connected and then replace it. The slight rise in terminal volts while the battery is momentarily disconnected from the van is normally sufficient to silence the alarm and commence normal charging via the setec. If you have a drifter control panel in your silverline take a look at it now and then and manage your power. If you have a slide out you cant afford to allow your battery to fall to such low levels in future or you will be truly stuck!!!

PeterD · Guru

ants_oz wrote:
While the Setec unit may not be the best charger on the market, it is not simply a trickle charger - it has float, equalise, store and trickle modes. The user manual for the Setec unit explains it all, and also has a diagram showing an example of how it charges over time.

And if you know the requirements for charging a battery you will realise that the Setec is not really a battery charger. The local Jayco mob take some of their lead from the Yankee mob and this is one case where they should not. The Setec is designed along the lines of the equipment used in the USA.

There are a couple of good papers on these converters Electrical converters in RVs and Electrical converter problems in caravans

I would suggest that if you are going to use your battery for off power camping and expect to be able to recover your battery overnight in a caravan park then add a quality multi-stage charger to your system. Just add it to the battery connecting it straight to the battery terminals. I would suggest using a charger with an output current of around 20 - 25% of the batteries Ah capacity. Alternately if you are going to do a lot of off power camping then fit a solar system, the rating of the capacity of the panels of around 150 W per 100 Ah of the battery capacity.

Muddy · Veteran Member

Sadly many RV manufacturers do not install the best battery management equipment and leave that to us to retrofit. Having said that they try to taylor their product capability to the majority and are unlikely to spend an extra thousand + dollars satisfying the techies among us who want best possible performance. The Setec unit maybe slow (at 5 or 10A charging rate depending on the unit you have) but fast charging of deep cycle batteries is known to shorten their life and yes, I am aware that this would be minimal but I guess they try to cater for the less technically minded who spend most of their time hooked up to power in the park. Makes sense.

gazza018 · Member

thanks to all for the info i will try to get the problem fixed in the coming weeks as i am back at work in paraburdoo and can start fixing it on my days off cheers to all