Coachman 2012 Caravans Faulty Bca Battery Chargers

[bandybash]

Can all members who have experienced failures since collecting their new van reply to this post, which will hopefully illicit a response from CMC?

 

My 2012 Coachman VIP 560/4 suffered a failure within 2 months of delivery from dealer, I replaced the battery I swapped from my previous caravan within a month so I suspect it may have been delivered with it failed and as we only done short trips was charging off the car?

 

Any replies would be appreciated, hopefully the true extent of the problem and an apology might be forthcoming from CMC?

[Cannondale]

My March 2012 Pastice had a charger fail in August this year and suffer from the battery going flat after 3 to 4 week when ot in use.

 

It is going in next week to get fixed.

 

Richard. ..

[petejev]

The charger on my 2012 VIP 545/4 failed within 3 weeks of delivery,my dealer got BCA to send me a new one, arrived within 24 hrs and I fitted it myself in 5 mins, I still have the failed unit and am planning to have it checked by an electonics professor to determine the exact cause of the failure in the hope that it may be of benefit to BCA. The new unit has been fine since installed including a 3 week trip to France and several months of short trips. Another recent post explained the battery discharge problem in that the alarm system needs to have a full 14 days charge on ehu to fully charge up the alarm battery backup, if this has not occurred then the alarm battery draws current from the caravan battery and can discharge the caravan battery in 2 to 3 weeks, my alarm is fully charged up and with the radio fascia removed and everything else switched off there is no draw on the caravan and it is holding at 12. 5v.

Hope this helps Pete

 

2012 Coachman VIP 545/4 tugged with a 2011 BMW 520d very frugally

[hustler]

Hi brandybash, Had my charger replaced on my 2012 vip 560/4 with the dealer it came back just the same, it went in a futher 2 times still no change. Spoke to BCA and they came out and replaced the charger again !! he said there was a problem with the fan in the unit, you still have a live feed going to fridge, truma heating system, radio even with the radio fascia removed,alarm when the master is OFF, they have now sorted it out and touch wood mines holding at 12. 5 hope you get it resolved quickly, and we can all get back to some caravanning without problems

Edited October 14, 2012 by hustler

[David 38]

On my previous caravan and now on this I have BCA charger problems, people on the forum seem to have them fail too, so a couple of questions. Common faults on mine cutout trips and smell of burning. Looking at Dealers they have lots of stock of these chargers on their shelves which suggests a good line to stock and sell.

1, Anyone know if a common component fails?

2. Any other model or even make can be substituted, preferably same physical size but not essential?

[bandybash]

That is an interesting point about substitution, they fit snugly into the back of the consumer electrical unit so probably not? Certainly worth investigating. No symptoms on mine it just failed and they replaced it, as it is a sealed unit don't really see how identifying a common fault helps. The only other thing is the plug coming loose, but now I know where it is located and how easy it is to get at, it's the first thing I would check.

 

I am disappointed that there isn't more reported as if you check other postings it seems fairly common, I have replaced a perfectly good leisure battery and lost a weeks holiday over this with a brand new caravan, there also an issue with the alarm and flat batteries in storage with the new Coachman models. Further to what PeteJev says if you use your mover to put your van in storage the alarm will flattery your battery.

 

My previous van a Coachman Amara didn't have an alarm and never had an issue with alarms/chargers or flat batteries in storage, so i am a little disappointed about the lack of help from CMC!

[Tony W]

I have lived with two batteries available to my Laser since 2008, swapping them every 6 weeks when the van is not in use. I have measured up to 0. 7amp draw with everything switched off, Radio facia etc. I have now installed a 4 Watt solar panel to give me more time between change overs and it does!! My BCA has always been fine since day one, when the connecting plug came out!

[Alan Stanley]

We suffered real head scratching with our swift the battery was going flat very quickly. It is never on EHU and the battery is fully charged before use. Turned everything off and made sure the alarm was not live still a 2 amp drain. Further investigations revealed the drain to be the Alarm and tracker. It was quite hot to touch even when switched off. Pulled the fuse to the alarm and drain on battery dropped to 0.

 

It is still subject of ongoing enquiries but if you have the same alarm system fitted to your coachman vans then this is well worth checking. Theory is that the Alarm/Tracker back up battery goes flat if you have taken the Leisure battery out and it is left off EHU for too long. But if you are not on EHU, It is then trying to recharge itself from the Van battery when you refit it. Which it can't do so it just goes on draining it till that is flat as well. Similar problems being reported on other forums.

 

If anyone does establish this as fact can they let us know. As we have no need of the alarm on the swift it's not a problem for us any more.

[Tony W]

On a Laser, the plug is just below the BCA unit under the front locker, but if you have power throughout the caravan, I doubt this is a problem. Unfortunately, its seems that the battery run down is quite normal due to the load that is put on it. As said before, I use two bateries when in Storage and depending on the gap between using the caravan I simply change the battery every 6-8 weeks or so. If you use an EHU on site it just resets the 6-8 week change over clock for the battery swap. As I said earlier, I have extended this with a simple solar panel. ......I need the alarm and Phantom tracker working for insurance and peace of mind

[The big uns]

Do you inform phantom everytime you disconnect the battery or is there another way ?

[Tony W]

Interesting question!

 

I used to call Phantom every time I disconnected the battery, then I forgot, and they didn't call me. So I stopped calling them; then on one of the subsequent change overs they called home, whilst I was at the caravan changing the battery.

 

I think it must be down to the charge in the alarm battery, If you are changing a flat battery, I guess Phantom can pick up whats left of the voltage drop. but if the alarm is pretty well up, I guess they don't (or maybe I can change a battery like a Formula One team can change tyres because of the practice!!!) but Phantom are still awsesome.

 

Phantom do like you to tell them first though!

[petejev]

Hi Guys

with regard to the caravan battery charging the Sargent alarm back up battery, this will not occur if the caravan has been on EHU for 14 days or more as it takes this amount of time to fully charge the alarm battery. When the alarm battery is fully charged it should last 6 months. Pete

[The big uns]

Cheers Tony w i have been told by phantom to let them know during normal office hours in the week if i swap battery on wknd i was thinking of bridging across the two batteries in parallel as not to interrupt supply which i hoped was that you might have done

[Tony W]

Cheers Tony w i have been told by phantom to let them know during normal office hours in the week if i swap battery on wknd i was thinking of bridging across the two batteries in parallel as not to interrupt supply which I hoped was that you might have done

Thats more or less what they said to me, but did not cofine it to the working week. It seems hit and miss, they have rung me about four times but I changed the battery every 6-8 weeks before the folding 4w solar panel was used. Now its a lot less!

[bandybash]

Thanks to all that replied a little disappointing because if you read through the topics it is re-occurring, I started his topic to try to co-ordinate the complaints about faulty BCA battery chargers on the new 2012 Coachies. The topic veered of course regarding flat batteries in storage which again is prevalent with the 2012 vans. They are lovely vans but I feel let down by CMC as no interest has been shown with regard to a hi failure rate of these chargers?

[Paul_B]

Hello bandybash,

What response have you had from your dealer? I would have thought that the new one should have arrived and been fitted by now.

[bandybash]

Hello bandybash,

What response have you had from your dealer? I would have thought that the new one should have arrived and been fitted by now.

 

Hi Paul B, I thnk you are a Coachman plant but I will respond anyway. Had the charger replaced months ago been alright since, I work in the aircraft industry and if the large amount of failures on new builds had occurred then the manufacturer would have alerted all owners to the possibility of this happening by some form of bulletin with advice of what to do. I suggest if CMC want to maintain their status as a quality manufacturer they should step up to the plate instead of burying their heads in the sand on this?

[Paul_B]

Interesting reply :huh:

Not a reply that we expect when we go to the trouble of trying to offer advice or help, and its not one that we've had on the forum before.

[Guest Rita]

Hi Paul B, I thnk you are a Coachman plant

 

Bet you not been called that before

 

How does a Coachman Plant grow . . Prickly

[Brecon]

Quote " Hi Paul B, I thnk you are a Coachman plant but I will respond anyway"

 

 

WOW,,,,talk about paranoid !!!!

 

Quote " I work in the aircraft industry"

 

Totally different situation, the Caravan Industry is still, in the UK, a cottage industry.

 

Quote " large amount of failures on new builds"

 

The BCA charger is not made by Coachman, similarly very little on a caravan is actually made by the manufacturers, but are bought in units from various suppliers, BCA being just one, and if you think BCA are bad you obviously have not had dealings with Nordelettronica units!

 

All faults during warranty period are dealt with by the person with whom you have the contract, the Supplying Dealer.

You have no contract with Coachman themselves, therefore they are not obliged to answer your questions and certainly not on an open forum

 

PS. .....NO, I do not work for Coachman

Edited November 11, 2012 by Brecon

[Frodo]

Coachman use a different type of bca unit in there caravans which for some reason are more prone to failure.

 

And Brecon I second that about nordel they are by far the worst system. They always fail.

[kiaboy]

You could always ask BCA to supply you the charger fitted to the Amara range. But you will need them to also supply the fly-leads, I had one of them fitted to mine during my persistent problem, worked perfectly, but then they sorted the problem out and supplied the correct working unit (20amp smart charger), I sent the other back, but could have kept it for about £80. 00

[galamike]

I had battery charger fail on 3 week old VIP 560/4 while on holiday in France in April. BCA shipped replacement charger to me which I installed and we were able to continue our holiday. Since returning we have had continuing electrical problems; battery discharged in 2 weeks while in storage, flickering lights when additional load put on 12 volt system, e. g. water pump running. My dealer (Crossburn Caravans) has been great and when we cancelled a planned trip due to our lack of confidence in the electrics, they replaced the charger, control panel and alarm. Last trip was fault free. Hope the battery has charge when we get it out of storage in 10 days time!

[kiaboy]

Since returning we have had continuing electrical problems; battery discharged in 2 weeks while in storage, flickering lights when additional load put on 12 volt system, e. g. water pump running.

 

I had the same problems 2 years ago, they said they had found the fault and rectified it, obviously they didn't.

[bandybash]

Thank you to all the owners of 2012 vans for your replies, on this topic alone there are 5 of us who have experienced problems with BCA chargers! I hope you have all got sorted and are able to enjoy your outings with confidence.