Battery power running low on a field - do we need to go home?

Dancers

Dancers

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Jul 5, 2017
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Preston
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49,348
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Carthago Malibu
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6 years
Can anyone pls suggest how to get my panel van leisure battery up to a point where it will run the gas heating for another night on this holiday taking place in freezing temperatures?
I wonder if all we have to do is run the engine for a bit? Or do we need to travel a few miles or just go hI’m e!!!!!!
it’s reading one yellow dot on the truma 6 panel and has two red dots to go. :(
 
Bailey58 said:
Running the engine a bit won't put anything like enough in, it would need a good run which is better for the engine anyway rather than idling for ages. Other threads mantion the drawbacks to idling a modern engine.
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That’s not good news……… but thanks for reply
 
Dancers said:
Can anyone pls suggest how to get my panel van leisure battery up to a point where it will run the gas heating for another night on this holiday taking place in freezing temperatures?
I wonder if all we have to do is run the engine for a bit? Or do we need to travel a few miles or just go hI’m e!!!!!!
it’s reading one yellow dot on the truma 6 panel and has two red dots to go. :(
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Run your engine for up to half an hour and batteries should have enough life. Never let your batteries go below 11volts. Below this and you can more or less destroy them. Not ideal treatment but will overcome your problem.
 
Do you have a B2B? if so take the van for an hours drive that should give you enough charge, if you don't have a B2B it will take several hours of driving to get a reasonable charge into the battery.
Only as a last resort run the engine stationary, on a modern diesel you risk thousands of pounds of damage as they never get up to operating temperature ticking over from cold.

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If it was me and as a very last resort I'd wire the hab electrics to the starter battery but making sure that I didn't run it so low that it wouldn't start the engine. You need to be a bit clued up with electrics to do it though.
Luckily, my m/h has a rocker switch that enables me to select to power the hab electrics from either the leisure or the starter battery.
Or if there was a risk of terminal domestic unrest I'd nip to a motor factors and buy another fully charged battery.
 
Where are you, take it for a spin, see some sight , get some lunch and enjoy it.

b2b is the best option , is there maybe another site near with EHU?
 
Spriddler said:
If it was me and as a very last resort I'd wire the hab electrics to the starter battery but making sure that I didn't run it so low that it wouldn't start the engine. You need to be a bit clued up with electrics to do it though.
Luckily, my m/h has a rocker switch that enables me to select to power the hab electrics from either the leisure or the starter battery.
Or if there was a risk of terminal domestic unrest I'd nip to a motor factors and buy another fully charged battery.
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Anything for a quiet life………
 
Tombola said:
Where are you, take it for a spin, see some sight , get some lunch and enjoy it.

b2b is the best option , is there maybe another site near with EHU?
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Could do but snow, snow snowing.

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Hoovie said:
If you are away on holiday, why not just go to a campsite which has EHU for an overnight stop? Recharge your batteries and continue your break rather than heading home early?
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It’s a thought
 
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do you have a b2b installed?


its all experience, the thing to do is take it in your stride and try and enjoy whatevercomes your way. :) good luck let us know how you get on
 
Tombola said:
do you have a b2b installed?


its all experience, the thing to do is take it in your stride and try and enjoy whatevercomes your way. :) good luck let us know how you get on
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No B2B but something to think about for the future!
 
chaser said:
If you are at risk of getting snowed in you don't want to risk having no battery, I'd get outa there.
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I wonder does the gas heating take much power from the battery?

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Dancers said:
Anything for a quiet life………
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Seriously, I'd buy a starter battery (which is less expensive than a pukkah leisure battery) to run the hab system temporarily and you can then keep it topped up at home to use as a spare hab or starter battery.
I have two spare ones at home on permanent charge from a smart charger so always have a good one available for my family's several vehicles . If I'm going off-grid for an extended period I take one with me that I can connect up in extremis if I have a low voltage hab or cab one.
 
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Spriddler said:
Seriously, I'd buy a starter battery which (is less expensive than a pukkah leisure battery) to run the hab system temporarily and you can then keep it topped up at home to use as a spare hab or starter battery.
I have two spare ones at home on permanent charge from a smart charger so always have a good one available for my family's several vehicles . If I'm going off-grid for an extended period I take one with me that I can connect up in extremis if I have a low voltage hab or cab one.
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We have a fully charged Bluetti 700 watts. We could try topping up leisure battery through EHU on van if that would give any useful charge?
 
your bluetti will get you about 20-25 ah into the ehu if it s full
 
Dancers said:
I wonder does the gas heating take much power from the battery?
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I think you have a Truma Combi, takes about 6 amps on startup with the fan blowing full pelt once the van reaches temperature and the fan drops to a minimum then about 1 amp (current will vary at inbetween fan speeds). If you were running it from say 4pm until 11 pm in this cold weather it would probably use about 16 to 20 ah.
 
rosalan said:
Run your engine for up to half an hour and batteries should have enough life. Never let your batteries go below 11volts. Below this and you can more or less destroy them. Not ideal treatment but will overcome your problem.
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Funny thing is my 4 year old leisure battery has (accidentally) been run totally flat about 3 times over the years, but when fully charged again, it holds at 13.4 volts perfectly - for several weeks in storage. Maybe I'm just lucky.
 
Where are you? There may be a funster nearby who can help. Judging from your snow concerns not in the south I suppose.
 
Dancers said:
We have a fully charged Bluetti 700 watts. We could try topping up leisure battery through EHU on van if that would give any useful charge?
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That is a good idea. It has a 537Wh lithium battery, that is equivalent to 537/12 = 45 Ah of 12V battery energy. You can plug it into the standard EHU inlet if you have the right adapters. As funflair has already warned, be careful to keep the fridge on gas, it will probably automatically switch to 240V if you connect the Bluetti, so you'll have to manually set it back to gas.

If the Bluetti runs low, you might even be able to persuade someone, in a pub or cafe maybe, to charge it again, maybe for a small fee. It's only half a kilowatt-hour so won't exactly run up a huge bill.
 
If its only a one off it will not be the end of the world if as long as it will not disturb anyone to run the engine at a fast idle, you will get a little in the battery and when the engine warms up. Gain a little heat from there, but ideally take it for a run. When you first start the engine water is formed in the exhaust and if done a lot will rust out. Condensation forms in the oil unless it is brought up to temp
 
Like many on here, I'd always believed leaving the engine idling from cold was not good.

However, during lockdown I received an email from Jaguar to run the car (diesel) initially for 30 minutes with the internal temperature set to 22c (?), and thereafter run the engine for just 15 minutes every subsequent week the car wasn't driven.

Which is exactly what I did. Only time will tell if any long term harm has been caused... ? :unsure:

Checking in to a campsite with a hook-up for a night sounded like a good idea to me however. (y)
 
mikebeaches said:
Like many on here, I'd always believed leaving the engine idling from cold was not good.

However, during lockdown I received an email from Jaguar to run the car (diesel) initially for 30 minutes with the internal temperature set to 22c (?), and thereafter run the engine for just 15 minutes every subsequent week the car wasn't driven.

Which is exactly what I did. Only time will tell if any long term harm has been caused... ? :unsure:

Checking in to a campsite with a hook-up for a night sounded like a good idea to me however. (y)
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Thanks to all the Funsters who replied, we have learned a lot. Good to know we could use the bluettI if desperate, but will head home as weather seems to be getting worse too. Seasons greetings to everyone, see you at the shows hopefully. :cold:

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