self energy eg-20 (1 Viewer)

[gypsylady]

Just Wondering

Why does everyone worry about keeping the leisure battery charged?

We wildcamp. Cos we like rallies and as we rally with tuggers they carry generators and have vehicles available for re-charging their batteries.

We, however, turn up quite 'naked' with only our 'van.

We have rallied for 2 weeks in a field at Druridge Bay in Northumberland. As we were near home we took the Clio with us for getting about so the van stayed put for the whole of the 2 weeks.

NO GENERATOR or SOLAR PANELS.

BUT we carry our own generator in the form of an engine.

When our leisure battery runs low, we just run the engine for 15 mins. This has done the trick for us for 5 years now.

Obviously, when we move the van, the engine is doing it's job naturally.

Even cheaper and less space than carrying a 'proper' generator.

BUT I'd love to know whether we really need to pull out the cash and buy a leisure battery charger.

June

 

[Terry]

Just Wondering

Why does everyone worry about keeping the leisure battery charged?

We wildcamp. Cos we like rallies and as we rally with tuggers they carry generators and have vehicles available for re-charging their batteries.

We, however, turn up quite 'naked' with only our 'van.

We have rallied for 2 weeks in a field at Druridge Bay in Northumberland. As we were near home we took the Clio with us for getting about so the van stayed put for the whole of the 2 weeks.

NO GENERATOR or SOLAR PANELS.

BUT we carry our own generator in the form of an engine.

When our leisure battery runs low, we just run the engine for 15 mins. This has done the trick for us for 5 years now.

Obviously, when we move the van, the engine is doing it's job naturally.

Even cheaper and less space than carrying a 'proper' generator.

BUT I'd love to know whether we really need to pull out the cash and buy a leisure battery charger.

June

Hi June no you don't nothing wrong with what you are doing now :thumb:We have also managed without genny / solar for 10 years :thumb:Ask yourself why a lot of people need such things as oposed to what you do ?We all use our vans differently,but lots want reasurance of a genny etc,and possibly BRAGGING rights oh:
Try asking the samequestion in a different foarm like How long since you needed to use your genny ? I bet the answers are once / if at all
terry

 

[chrisgreen]

Just Wondering

Why does everyone worry about keeping the leisure battery charged?

We wildcamp. Cos we like rallies and as we rally with tuggers they carry generators and have vehicles available for re-charging their batteries.

We, however, turn up quite 'naked' with only our 'van.

We have rallied for 2 weeks in a field at Druridge Bay in Northumberland. As we were near home we took the Clio with us for getting about so the van stayed put for the whole of the 2 weeks.

NO GENERATOR or SOLAR PANELS.

BUT we carry our own generator in the form of an engine.

When our leisure battery runs low, we just run the engine for 15 mins. This has done the trick for us for 5 years now.

Obviously, when we move the van, the engine is doing it's job naturally.

Even cheaper and less space than carrying a 'proper' generator.

BUT I'd love to know whether we really need to pull out the cash and buy a leisure battery charger.

June

depend's how much power you drain from you batteries when useing your van?
when we park up,thats it,the van does not move,we use computers that need to be charged,we use phones,the wife uses a hair dryer,and the telly,all power hungry,running the engine to replenish the batteries is not an option when stationery as this can cause unseen damage to the engine,glazing the bores being one on a diesel, if you have a DPF fitted to you engine this will also suffer problems,diesel's need to be run under stress,not ticking over charging batteries,so for me chargeing batteries from the engine,when not traveling is not an option.
on our van we have 2 110ah batt's,and a 2000 watt inverter(4000 watt peak) a big lump of a thing that covers most 240 application's that we use,but draining power from the batt's,all that power needs to be replaced,and the only way to that 100% is with a genny,solar is ok but on a dull day would struggle to keep up with demand that we need from our batts.
i am not prepared to sit useing one led light,no computer,no telly,just to save batt power,so for me a genny is the only way:thumb:

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[haganap]

no i never run out of power,just like the idea,dont realy need it,just want one:thumb:got to have onemust get one:thumb:
only thinking about it terry,might spend a tenner quiteing my 12v genny down a bit:thumb:or surply every one on site with earmuffs

Glad to see my post yesterday is sinking in..
We should all be buying things we don't need but just want :Cool: its the only way forward. :thumb:

I would love one but It has a downside as far as I can see. When skiing we are lucky to get through 10 nights with 3 large gas bottles. That includes using a genny (Honda of course) to keep the batteries charged but running on Petrol. The issue I would have is that it would increase LPG consumption, byt how much Im not sure, but enough for me to have to install a large underlsung tank as well.
Far better with a Little Honda like mine and a man of your means could easily knock up some sort of fitted vented box. :thumb:

 

[gypsylady]

depend's how much power you drain from you batteries when useing your van?
when we park up,thats it,the van does not move,we use computers that need to be charged,we use phones,the wife uses a hair dryer,and the telly,all power hungry,running the engine to replenish the batteries is not an option when stationery as this can cause unseen damage to the engine,glazing the bores being one on a diesel, if you have a DPF fitted to you engine this will also suffer problems,diesel's need to be run under stress,not ticking over charging batteries,so for me chargeing batteries from the engine,when not traveling is not an option.
on our van we have 2 110ah batt's,and a 2000 watt inverter(4000 watt peak) a big lump of a thing that covers most 240 application's that we use,but draining power from the batt's,all that power needs to be replaced,and the only way to that 100% is with a genny,solar is ok but on a dull day would struggle to keep up with demand that we need from our batts.
i am not prepared to sit useing one led light,no computer,no telly,just to save batt power,so for me a genny is the only way:thumb:

Thanks for your comments Chris,

Actually we only have 1 x 110ah battery. We often stay put for a full weekend and may only need to re-charge if we are staying for a long weekend (4 nights).

We've changed our sleeping compartment light for low energy LEDs. which have had no effect on the light output, but the lights no longer get hot in use.

The main lights are still the flourescent lights as fitted cos we havent found any low energy lights to fit yet.

We use our TV/DVD player via the 12v system. Granted when we watch tv we turn out the lights because they are too bright.

We charge the computer via an inverter whilst travelling and it's battery will last for about 6 hrs.

The only thing we don't use is the hairdryer, but carry a 12v one for emergencies. I do have a gas hot air brush/tongs to keep me tidy, but like my short hair.

We don't have a microwave, but then the one at home is only used occasionally.

We carry a small electric water pump that is used to refill the main water tank from the water barrel we use when we are set up with awning and gear all in situ. We run the engine for the pump this 5 mins can be during the re-charge session.

TBH running the engine for 15mins if we need to re-charge our batteries is just like sitting in a traffic jam, and some of these may be for longer than 15mins especially in the winter.


I realise that the use we put our motorhomes to is down to personal choice.

We like to get out and socialise when we are out on a rally, and night time finds us in the marquee. We keep a motion sensitive light in the van to light our way in when we return until we can switch on the lights. We have left the exterior light on by mistake all night to no detriment to the leisure battery charge. Just lighting up the rally field.

Regards June

 

[Terry]

Don't worry June you would have to run the engine hours on end before glazing the bores as soon as you drive off you put the engine under stress and get rid of any glazing As I said we all use our vans differently and in 10 yrs the only timeI have ran out of power was on the engine battery after I left the cd player on oh:This was easy to overcome by putting the L/batt on where the starter was
terry

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[chrisgreen]

Don't worry June you would have to run the engine hours on end before glazing the bores as soon as you drive off you put the engine under stress and get rid of any glazing As I said we all use our vans differently and in 10 yrs the only timeI have ran out of power was on the engine battery after I left the cd player on oh:This was easy to overcome by putting the L/batt on where the starter was
terry

well terry! you must know more about diesel engines than i do?oh:

 

[John & Joan]

Update on our Gasparini

In January we planned to go south to the South of France. We had a problem with a heater needing a new valve (Thermostat failure) so we decided to wild our way from County Durham to Preston over about 10 days.

As we were only doing short hops we used the Gasparini to keep the batteries charged as we did watch TV on the long dark nights.

One night the genny stopped and would not start again. We went to Preston for our repair and then to Conrad Anderson in Birmingham to sort out the Gasparini.

It turned out that the bearing had gone sloppy and this was allowing the shaft to move enough to contact the motion sensor and when this happend the engine would not run.

We had the outer bearings replaced, but they could not get at the big End bearing as these are sealed to the crankshaft and Con Rod as a unit.
On starting it ran but there was still a lot of vibration. The crankshaft repair is a factory only repair.

As we were heading to the south of France we thought we would just take the unit to the Factory in Bologna in Italy and then continue our trip when it was fixed.

We had not noticed more vibration as it had crept up on us since the fans had failed and been replaced. We had a fan failure at 600 hours another at about 750 hours and a third 30 hours later, which was replaced under guarantee. After this we spent most of our time on hookup and only got a further 20 hours of use out of the unit before it failed completely.

After a trip through snow to Bologna (2ft of snow) we met up with Snr Gasparini and a fitter at the factory and the unit was put on test and condemned. It had done only 800.1 hours and the expected life is in excess of 1500 to 1800 hours.

It would seem that when our fan went the bearing became overloaded with the imballance and had caused premiture failure.

We now have a new engine and generator unit in our old case. It is now back to being super silent again.

We did find however that these units are only designed for about 100 hours of use per year. This equates to 1 litre of lubricating oil. The unit needs to have a full service which involves replacing the exhaust system and sparking plug and a decoke if necessary every 300 hours. The fans are expected to have a life of 500 to 800 hours and the generator unit needs to be replaced after 1500 to 1800 hours.

The company in Bologna is in liquidation but we understand that there are potential buyers in the offing. There were only Snr Gasparini and the fitter who had been brought in for the day in the factory when we were there.

We had put about 6 years use on our unit in just over 2 years of fulltime use. The other 2 years were what Snr Gasparini considered normal use. These units are basically only a suppliment to Solar Power. Very good when the sun is not sufficient to keep your batteries up but are not siutable to be the only source for charging the batteries.

We have now also fitted a B2B and are going to fit solar this year.

We found all of France and Itally bitterly cold this winter and returned in early February to the mild UK to overwinter instead. At present we have gone onto hookup sites, till we are better equipped for off hookup use.

We gave up because we thought our leisure batteries had also failed but on return to the UK and being tested they were found to be working fine and it was the extreme cold that they did not like. I am considering diverting some heat into the battery compartment (former gas locker) now to prevent this occuring in the future.

Our 1600 watt inverter also failed on this trip and it was in the battery locker so we put that also down to the cold as well

John

 

[Reallyretired]

Interested in the effect of the cold on your batteries and inverter. I hadn't considered this when fitting mine but fortuitously I have installed them in the bottom of the external 'ski locker' which has a heater outlet in it so I have solved a problem I didn't know I had

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[ShiftZZ]

Why would you bother with the self energy eg-20 ? When you have perfected the perpetual motion machine, looks like you have money to waste...

 

[Reallyretired]

After hearing of the problems that John&Joan have had I'm glad I decided not to get one. I decided this when I heard the company were having problems, as I wouldn't be happy if I needed repairs etc and the company had gone up the Swanee.

Dometic do something similar but theirs is a lot heavier.

 

[Jaws]

Couple of points..... well one and a question / point I spose

1) From personal repeated experience I can offer nothing but praise re Conrad Anderson.. and yes, while it is a bit of an odd area, we stayed there the night on hookup, went shopping in brum the following day ( a bus ride right to the bull ring ) and had not a single issue.
As an aside, might be a rough area and they Do have a very large steel fence and gates inside which you will stay, but speaking to one of the fitters they have never had a single breakin or had any vehicles attacked

2) And here is the question / point
It is 2t and as mentioned uses a reasonable litre of 2t oil per 150 hours.. So the question AND point is, how easy is it to get to the 2t tank to top up ?

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