Trouble shooting Part 2

This follows on from the blog the other day as I have finished my trouble shooting, though I'm now even more confused than ever.

Just to recap I have worked out that the hookup does work, the charger does put charge in the batter and the battery does hold charge (though more on this later).

The next step for my troubleshooting was to find out if attaching the battery charger, without having it actually connected to the mains, was causing a drain on the battery enough to flatten it overnight. As I said at the end of the last blog I reattached this in the evening and checked yesterday morning. There was no significant drain to the battery, though it was a little lower than I hoped. This is kind of a success.

Success Number 4

The final thing to check was whether the act of driving and having the alternator running (which I know for sure is no longer putting charge into the battery) was actually causing the charge to be drained out of the battery. I had the opportunity for a longish run in Julian yesterday afternoon as MeekAid was taking place at my studio.

Don't ask.

The MeekAid boys (faces blurred to protect the guilty)

I may link to the end result and make you all suffer with me ;)

Anyway, back to the troubleshooting at hand. I checked the charge both when I arrived in Blackpool, and also when I got home in the evening and it had not dropped appreciably at all over the length of both drives.

Success Number Five (kinda)

I am now left confused.

Did I accidentally leave something on and flatten the battery, or had it actually not charged up when I thought it was before my trip last weekend? Or is it something intermittent, a "wet short" caused by some of the damp getting in where I need to reseal the joints?

The only controllable variable that I can think of now is that both my drives yesterday were undertaken with the battery charger connected (which indeed it still is now) so I will alter this when I drive back over (hopefully to collect Thomas) tomorrow. I really don't see that this will make a difference but I do need to know.

Confused face

My path now is going to be to pursue the issue where the camper van guy broke the charging from the alternator, through his affiliate association if need be. I will keep my eye on the charge that the battery is holding as well, and hopefully will be able to work out what happened.

The last thing to say about Julian is not having Thomas has been a blessing in disguise; I am now so confident driving him around and understand his performance envelope on hills and in tight spaces which gives me much hope that he will be absolutely fine getting over there next year.

A couple of other unrelated matters to relate (see what I did there...? yeah?! Ok ok...) first of all; Thomas.

He had a cracked cylinder head and as of 5pm yesterday was mostly put back together but not drivable. I am over to Blackpool anyway tomorrow morning to do stuff on the trailer (attach the laycorn boxes, buy and seal the marine ply, etc) and fingers crossed I will be able to go collect him then. If not then, I'll be in Julian all of Christmas so that could prove interesting for the driving I need to do.

Also the Power of Attorney and Contract have been returned from London and sent onwards to Bulgaria so hopefully they'll arrive before Christmas. This is great as all progress that can be made by Lubo (who I'll need to pay when it arrives, actually; better consider that) will just make my arrival in Bulgaria a happier and smoother occasion.

I came second woooooo

Finally, thanks to @RantyPantz_ for picking my blog as one of his top three independent blogs for this year :) and praising my beard. Cheers buddy.