Bongo Fury

Hi,
I was hoping somebody might help a bongo amateur.
I have just purchased my first Bongo and could not get the leisure battery to work. I checked it and it seemed to be dead so I purchased a brand new larger leisure battery and stuck it on, but still no reading on my Zig Marque 1.
Battery is obviously working as it is new, but somehow no power is showing and nothing works when I switch to caravan battery.
I have checked the 2 fuses next to battery(40amp) and they seem OK, I also replaced them with 2 new fuses(35amp) just to make sure, but still no luck.
Any body with some info and I will be very grateful,
thanks
Justin

Hi and welcome i dont have a conversion or a zig but i do have a leisure battery mine uses the willington kit and has 4 fuses near the brake cylinder. Maybe a fuse in the zig?. Some body with a load more knowledge than me will be here shortly.
Good luck

Hi lazyb,
thanks for quick reply.
I have 3 fuses in my zig(as far as I am aware) and they are all working when I switch to car battery. I don't know if it has something to do with the relay switch, hopefully someone will know.

Well a Zig Marque 1 is a very simple set-up just a 3-way switch to select the battery (or none), a Volt Meter, and three switches and fuses.
So, do you get a voltmeter reading when its switched to Car ?
Do you have a mains Electrical Hook Up (EHU), if so then if you set the 3-way switch to the middle "Off" and plug the EHU in then the charger should power up and the Meter will read 14 Volts as well ?
If both of the above happen then I would suspect the wiring from the switch to the L/B and the fuse close to the battery that supplies the Zig unit as the cause of the problem.

Do you have a multi-meter at all, if so then we can suggest further tests .....

g8dhe wrote:Well a Zig Marque 1 is a very simple set-up just a 3-way switch to select the battery (or none), a Volt Meter, and three switches and fuses.
So, do you get a voltmeter reading when its switched to Car ?
Do you have a mains Electrical Hook Up (EHU), if so then if you set the 3-way switch to the middle "Off" and plug the EHU in then the charger should power up and the Meter will read 14 Volts as well ?
If both of the above happen then I would suspect the wiring from the switch to the L/B and the fuse close to the battery that supplies the Zig unit as the cause of the problem.

Do you have a multi-meter at all, if so then we can suggest further tests .....

Hi g8dhe,
thanks a lot for reply,
I get a reading when it is switched to car.
I have a EHU and tried it for first time today, I am pretty sure there was no reading for this, however I cant be 100% sure and will have to try it again.(I did try the fridge and lights etc while connected to EHU and they didn't work, but the 3 pin sockets did) does this zig unit not supply fridge etc via EHU? If not I will be pretty gutted, as I was hoping to go away and run the fridge from the EHU
I don't have a multi meter, but I will def get one if I can find the solution.
thanks again

Yes the Zig will have a 12 or 16 Amp charger if it uses a Zig equipment and the fridge will be via one of the switches and fuses on the front panel, normally the the right hand switch. Its possible of course that they haven't actually wired the LB to the Zig, odder things have happened before!
Have any of the fuses down by the drivers knee been altered to your knowledge ?

g8dhe wrote:Yes the Zig will have a 12 or 16 Amp charger if it uses a Zig equipment and the fridge will be via one of the switches and fuses on the front panel, normally the the right hand switch. Its possible of course that they haven't actually wired the LB to the Zig, odder things have happened before!
Have any of the fuses down by the drivers knee been altered to your knowledge ?

Hi Geoff, I have just tried the EHU again, but no reading is showing for it, plug sockets only working when connected.
I would have thought the LB is wired to Zig as the conversion was done by Hillside Leisure approx 4 years ago.
I haven't checked all the fuses by drivers knee, as I thought this would be just factory fitted fuses and nothing to do with conversion. Could I be wrong? Do you know which fuses could be related?
Is it possible the relay could be faulty and is there a way of telling?
Sorry loads of questions, but I cant find a local garage that would be able too help,
thanks

keefysher wrote:

Iwannabongo wrote: Sorry loads of questions, but I cant find a local garage that would be able too help,

Bell Hill are 30 minutes from you.

They are about 1hour 30 mins away, I am actually near Andover, but I don't think many on here would know Andover,
apart from yourself.
Are there any good garages near you in Basingstoke, as I have a few other things to get sorted on my Blingo,
thanks

Oh yeah, sorry I thought they were other side of Bath. If your Bessie does it in an hour the she goes like a rocket!!
I will def give them a ring with all my probs. I don't normally like garages, always feel like I am getting ripped off, even when I am probably not.
cheers

Iwannabongo wrote:I have just tried the EHU again, but no reading is showing for it, plug sockets only working when connected.
I would have thought the LB is wired to Zig as the conversion was done by Hillside Leisure approx 4 years ago.
I haven't checked all the fuses by drivers knee, as I thought this would be just factory fitted fuses and nothing to do with conversion. Could I be wrong? Do you know which fuses could be related?
Is it possible the relay could be faulty and is there a way of telling?

OK well if it was installed 4 years ago, and you have only just bought it then anything could have happened in the meantime ! It might not even have been wired up right, we've seen this before on the forum!

So where to start fault finding on this ...
Can you actually get to the back of the Zig unit ? Depending how its fitted its easier if you can lift a bit of worktop and gain access to the rear of the Zig panel, and probably behind it will be the charger powered from the EHU circuit breaker box. If you have to take the front panel off, then getting behind to the other bits gets tricky
If you are able to get behind the Zig Panel, then first step is too inspect the wiring from the Zig back to both batteries and then check out the charger as it has its own fuse as well. After that to do anything useful really needs a multi-meter and a lot of email exchanges, probably best done via PM, otherwise the main forum gets a bit messy!
Also some pictures of the set-up are very helpful, rather than having to guess at the set-up and things like wiring colours which are not standardised at all!

As to the fuse down by the drivers knee, its to try and identify just what has been swung over to the L/B, normally between 1 and 4 fuses on the top row need to be picked up depending what you want to be powered from the L/B. Sometimes they picked up from the front (nice and easy) sometimes behind, which makes life more difficult to identify things

Geoff's on the case... solution imminant

I have just been out to my Blingo and I cant get to the back of Zig as it has a wardrobe style cupboard behind it and the panels all looked fixed.
I have taken off the front panel of zig and there are no wires connected to the caravan part of the switch
I will get a few pictures posted on Wednesday of the wiring.
I thought 6 months of searching for my first Bongo was driving me mad, now I realise that was just the beginning!!
I really appreciate all your help
thanks Justin

OK well no connections from the Zig to the L/B, explain that part of the problem at least!
I suspect given the above that maybe there isn't a mains charger / power supply either, but that isn't an absolute.
Do you know who did the conversion ? If it was one of the larger firms then normally people can advise what and how they are normally wired up as they usually stick to one pattern which helps identify things
Lets see what the photo's show, if you can get pictures of the back of the panel anything inside behind the panel and also the mains circuit breaker box it will give us clues as to what is going on. If you need advice on putting the pictures up see this link http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... =42&t=9285 .

was it definitely a leisure battery?

it may just be a winter spec dual battery bongo.

as far as i can see as g8dhe says the zig marque 1 unit does not seem to be anything more than a few switches and fuses and no transformer/inverter for charging from the mains or split charge system, as the leisure side has not been wired i would guess it may have been fitted just as a means of isolation & fusing components such as the fridge etc.

i hope i am wrong though as you may have to spend a few quid to achieve split and mains charging.

hope you resolve it,

oh and you need to change your forum user name to "Igottabongo-and-its-stressing-me-right-out-already"

Hi,
I have just armed myself with a multi-meter and taken a few pictures.
http://s1183.photobucket.com/albums/x466/iwannabongo/
Conversion was done by hillside leisure in Derby, which I don't think would have been cheap, which is why I don't understand why it would not have been wired up properly.
If the LB is not connected to the Zig, then what is its purpose?
Could it be just in place as an extra battery? But then why the two 40 amp fuses next to it.
Also when I disconnect the LB I don't get a reading for the SB.

Thanks again, Justin