It's a drain on your battery
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urther to your article on batteries (CM 29 October-4 November) we would state that battery failures have been discussed by a number of members at the Freight Transport Association's regional engineering forums.
It would appear that, due to fitting of 12V equipment such as televisions and refrigerators into vehicle cabs, some workshops and suppliers have been providing power feeds for these auxiliary devices by taking a 12V feed from one of the vehicle batteries instead of 24V feed from both batteries and then supplying 12V via a voltage dropper.
The result of taking the feed to the auxiliary equipment from one battery means that it is probable that this battery will fail earlier than the other one. As a result, if this battery is replaced on its own, a perma
neat imbalance in battery output is created.
The result is constant failure of one of the two batteries which can be overcome only by replacing both batteries and correctly wiring the 12V feeds.
Geoff Day, Freight Transport Association, Tunbridge Welk Kent.