Hobby... er hello all (1 Viewer)

[cwr.campbell]

I have just bought my first motorhome - a Hobby 750 ELC - about 18 months old. We have romantic visions of wandering around Europe - including wild camping (never done any - but sounds nice). The 'van only has one leisure battery, a small gas cylinder and no charging system other than the engine. We also want to run satellite - freestanding or on the 'van? Any thoughts/help/observations gratefully received.
Colin

 

[Wildman]

Welcome to the fun. Sounds like you have bought a nice van. I would be very surprised if there was not an onboard charging system or zig unit that will charge the leisure battery when on hookup. The first thing that you must get your head around is that battery power is a finite resource and running a satellite system will soon eat into your reserves unless you travel every day, charge via hookup/generator or have a large solar panel. You must learn to live in power conservation mode. Change all light bulbs for LED lights, remember to switch off pumps, heating radio etc when not in use. Alarms will flatten the battery in an unused van unless you have some form of trickle charger connected. We do not have a sat system fitted so cannot help with specifics but no doubt someone will be along soon who can.

 

[Linda and Steph]

Welcome to the best support facility and knowledge database around.

:welcome:

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[American Dream]

I have just bought my first motorhome - a Hobby 750 ELC - about 18 months old. We have romantic visions of wandering around Europe - including wild camping (never done any - but sounds nice). The 'van only has one leisure battery, a small gas cylinder and no charging system other than the engine. We also want to run satellite - freestanding or on the 'van? Any thoughts/help/observations gratefully received.
Colin

Hi Colin and Welcome.

I guess you'll be looking at some way of supplementing and recharging your batteries.

As you mention wildcamping I would think Solar panels might be the way to go...or a small quiet genny.

I'm sure someone can advise the best way to go.I guess it depends on how long you are going for and the initial cost involved.

 

[Tony Lee]

Yours should have the same standard electrical system as mine - an integrated mains charger and engine charge controller under the passenger seat perhaps, running an 80Ah gel battery.

Mine (bit over a year old when we bought it) had an extra battery and two 80W solar panels with regulator.

Even with heavy use of a laptop and satellite TV, we can get two or three days wild camping and more if you follow the sun. As an example, our four weeks in Iceland and the Faroes last July was almost all free camping with perhaps four days on power - but there we weren't using the satellite or the computer. Month in Sweden and Norway - ditto but with sat TV. Bit of driving at least every couple of days and it is that that makes the big difference.

As one poster suggested - take it slowly before you go spending a heap on optioning it up and work out exactly what your lifestyle is going to be.

 

[iceni]

Hi Colin
I,m sure it does have a charging system. There are no buttons to poress or switches to switch. It just does it whenever you plug the hook up cable in. Its probally part of the control panel that switches the 12v on etc.

If you want to spend time off hook up then you will need to increase the leisure battery bank accordingly. You could consider 2 x 110 ahs (if you can get them in) as these will be charged when on hook up or driving. Solar panels are also Ok ( i have one) but these can be expensive for a 75 watt (a normal-ish sized one) you can go mad and have 2 x 100w You can always take the panel with you if you get a new van as i did this when i bought my wentwoth 3 yrs ago and i had the panel in 2002.
Everyone views are different re panels and what size to have. The beauty is you fit and forget them. the main thing to consider is if you do fit one get as big a battery bank as you can reasonably fit as when they are fully charged the solar regulator will switch the charge off anyway.

Good luck with whatever you decide and let us know as we are interested

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[Tony Lee]

There are no buttons to poress or switches to switch

There just might be one. When we were waiting for the money to arrive, we lived in the Hobby on the dealer's yard and ran out of battery power after three days even though we were on shore power. What the!!!!! Checked that the panel was switched on and no problems there - other than it kept tripping out because of low battery voltage.

Turned out the charger unit under the passenger seat was not switched on. Push button is easily accessible from the front of the seat base and an indicator light came on. No more problems.

 

[cwr.campbell]

Thank You

Thank you one and all. My only concern about joining this community is that I no longer have any time to work - there's so much interesting info to read on this site!
Colin

 

[cliff]

I have a 2006 Hobby 650 , purchsed from Germany. I can't understand you say there is no charging point your Hobby should have a euro type connection point on the outecting this will charge bot the van & motorhome batteries, there should also be a indicator panel inside above the camper entrance door. you should also have had somee handbooks from the dealer, did they not give you any instrution when you collected the camper, The gas cupboard should accomodate at least one small & 1 large gas cylinder, which it sounds as if you will have to buy,I did.
I fitted a 66cm Omniview crank sat dish from Maxiview it is fantastic all freeview channels fine from Millau so far, but you need to be a dit of a diy fan to fit it,if you can't they have agents, I used a std sky receiver (its allready tuned) with a card £25. It does take some .time to learn to aim the dish ,you just practice at home untill you can receive in 30 seconds

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[Rainbowchaser]

Hi Paul,
Congrats on the choice of MH. I've had mine for some 4 years now. I live in it fulltime. When not on hookup I have a 1kw Honda genny which takes care of most of my needs. I've fitted extra batteries and done the led mod for lighting etc. Don't forget to switch on the charger under the passenger seat when hooked up.
I was fortunate that mine came with all the toys, Sat dish, big solar panel etc.
Make sure the light in the wardrobe shuts off when the door is closed or take out the bulb.
I have 2 fixed gas bottles that I always keep full but have bypassed them and connect up to a separate bottle outside that I can throw in the car for refilling.
Happy to have a natter about anything if you want more detail, copy of handbook etc.
Lots of nice, helpful folk on here far more knowledgeable than I, so welcome aboard.
Anyway, I'll be monitoring this thread as I watch the rugby.

Happy trails
[FONT=&quot]Tony[/FONT]

 

[Minxy]

Hi

I'd suggest you get one of John Wickersham's books - The Motorcaravan Manual (ideally the 2nd edition):

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[ame]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Motorcaravan-Manual-Choosing-Using-Maintaining/dp/1844250474/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269097642&sr=8-4[/ame]

These will tell you lots about how a motorcaravan works etc which is a very good starting point.