Keeping Vehicle Battery Charged (1 Viewer)

[richardab]

Hello folks.
I am wondering what the best way is to keep my vehicle battery charged. At present I take the van (2009 Autosleeper Nuevo) out for a good run every 2 weeks if we are not using it.
However we are moving house in a few weeks and the van will have to go into temporary storage at a friends house/garage for 4-6 weeks. I can either:
1) Leave the van on EHU hook up - the Nuevo control panel has the option to toggle between charging the leisure or vehicle battery. Not sure how controlled or effective this is however. I read somewhere that it is not wise to leave motorhomes on permanent hook up? There is the option of using a timer switch I suppose.
2) Leave it off hook up and use a battery trickle charger connected directly to the mains supply in the garage.

I am inclined to think 2) would be better but would welcome people's thoughts.

Thanks
Richard

 

[Masman]

I have mine on hook up all the time.Bought van new in 2004.Changed original habitation battery last year. Still on original cab battery. So in my opinion it won't hurt to leave it hooked up.But expect different answers ?.

 

[Wagoneer]

I bought a 2.4 watt portable solar panel from Halfords to keep my engine battery topped up. It attaches to the inside of a window or just lay on the dashboard. Cost about £20.

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[HandyAndy]

Fit a solar panel, either temporary or permenant, just remember to take it off the roof before you drive off if it's a temporary one.
I bungie corded a couple of fold out soft suitcase ones to mine when not in use..
In fact, that's what I'm doing in my avatar haha.
Throw cables down through roof light and connect the controller up to the PDU. (so that it charges both hab and cab battery.

 

[pappajohn]

You'll need at least a 50watt panel to keep your starter battery charged in winter. Too many parasitic loads even with the ignition off and there's a lot of sunless days ahead.
50watts may give you 1 to 2 amps on a good winters day.

 

[pappajohn]

I bought a 2.4 watt portable solar panel from Halfords to keep my engine battery topped up. It attaches to the inside of a window or just lay on the dashboard. Cost about £20.

1/10th of an amp (100ma) at best..... I reckon you just have a very good battery.

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[HandyAndy]

Camping in my discovery I used to do this

 

[DaveandJen]

If a mains power supply is available for you to use during your 4-6 weeks away don’t hesitate to use it. The last thing you want is your batteries being undercharged and suffering from the cold. No need to be concerned about the battery charger being constantly powered it will only top up the batteries as and when required and many leave their vans connected in this way for much longer.

 

[DBK]

Just disconnect the battery and bring it home or put it in your friend's garage. You could put it on charge but that shouldn't be necessary over a few weeks. But you could give it a blast every couple of weeks for 24 hours if you wanted. It won't do any harm.

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[richardab]

Thank you for your replies everyone. Most helpful. I do have a permanent solar panel on the roof. Not sure what capacity - probably 80-100w but I too am not sure there will be enough sun in November...

 

[TerryL]

Even in the winter I find our 100w solar panel keeps the batteries from going flat. It's connected directly to the leisure batteries and I've got a Battery Master which in turn keeps the cab battery charged. As long as the panel can see whatever daylight there is, try and have an open southern aspect, it'll probably be okay

 

[ToBoldlyGo]

I think taking the leisure battery is easiest over winter, or using solar year round, but as I don't have a solar panel I have this 12v battery to 12v battery charger for carrying electricity from home to the van when it's in storage:

OptiMate DC

OptiMate DC

www.optimate.co.uk

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[The Wino]

Anyone know if a Chausson flash 10 will charge the vehicle battery from ehu?

 

[Campervan_man]

I've got an isolator key on My Iveco BOX Van Motor Caravan Engine battery with a 20W solar panel in the windscreen and a just in case 12V charged up once a month heavy duty booster pack that can be used to start any car, van etc
eg,

car Battery booster 900A power pack jump start 900Amp HEAVY DUTY 12v portable | eBay

THIS IS A 900AMP BOOSTER. Heavy duty massive 900A 17Ah Jump start facility. Portable HEAVY DUTY booster. Portable 12v battery power. 12v accessory outlet. Fast uk dispatch! LED work light. (Strictly UK mainland only quoted. ).

rover.ebay.com

 

[TheBig1]

the simple answer is put it on ehu and set to charge the leisure battery. then plug a battery charger in inside the van to charge the cab battery

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[AXO66]

Anyone know if a Chausson flash 10 will charge the vehicle battery from ehu?

when our chausson 510 is on electric hook up, our cbe control panel inside the van shows4 green lights for the engine battery and 4 for the leisure battery.i.e maximum number of greens possible. So assume both batteries getting a charge.
when off ehu lesuire is 3 , 2 or one green depending on use and engine is 3 greens.
Charger is a cbe unit.

Whether i am right i don’t know as might just be showing full power in and not necessarily then into the battery.

maybe somebody will add more detailed info.

 

[soreeyes]

I use a 7 day timer that comes on for a couple of hours twice a week to keep it topped up and alarmed .

 

[TerryL]

When we go away for our longer trips I connect up battery chargers to our cars which are on a timer that switches on for an hour around mid-day - when the house solar panels are most likely to be active. Win-win, batteries kept fully charge at no cost!

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[PhilandMena]

I bought a 2.4 watt portable solar panel from Halfords to keep my engine battery topped up. It attaches to the inside of a window or just lay on the dashboard. Cost about £20.

Well at least it's only £20.00 you have wasted. 2.4/12=0.2 A so in 5 hours of great sunshine you will get 1 Amp into the battery........perhaps !

 

[Wagoneer]

Well at least it's only £20.00 you have wasted. 2.4/12=0.2 A so in 5 hours of great sunshine you will get 1 Amp into the battery........perhaps !

The drain on the engine battery is less than 0.1amp from the electronics.

I actually saved over £100. My 3 year old Halfords engine battery died. A replacement battery was provided FOC provided l bought a solar battery maintainer. So far, it's kept the battery topped up

 

[PhilandMena]

The drain on the engine battery is less than 0.1amp from the electronics.

I actually saved over £100. My 3 year old Halfords engine battery died. A replacement battery was provided FOC provided l bought a solar battery maintainer. So far, it's kept the battery topped up

That's a good deal. Best of luck going forward with that.

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[PeteH]

The "toad" is parked facing south and I have a small panel clipped to the visor. it is just enough to keep it from going flat over a couple of weeks or so of non use. Went to it about 1pm to-day and it started OK, 20 min run to the Garage and back (2 starts). It likely won`t run again before next week, but so far the system works. Once SWMBO is cleared to start driving again it will get more use, as I am using hers, it being better access for her.

 

[ToBoldlyGo]

I was thinking of visiting our van in storage with a spare 12v battery, a 150w inverter and a mains 250mah charger ... hmm looking at this thread arithmetically I see maybe this isn't such a good idea, I think I want a folding solar panel kit to put in the windscreen, what sort of wattage should I think of over winter?

 

[TerryL]

To get any sort of trickle charge you need to be capable of putting at least 1 amp into the battery. Using the usual formula that means at least 12w - so ostensibly 20w minimum. Remember this will be the maximum output of the panel in good sunshine directly onto it. In reality you're going to need more, however I think you maybe will then need a regulator to avoid overcharging.

I used to use a pair of those small dash-mounted panels; fortunately the van was facing directly south with open sky so that they got the most benefit. However that only in reality extended the need for a full recharge to 6 weeks and I'm sure it didn't do the batteries a lot of good. I thus made a point of giving it a half hour run every couple of weeks - at the time the van was stored at the coach depot where I worked.

The whole problem was solved when I invested in a 100w panel charging the leisure batteries plus a battery master to top up the engine battery. This also does us fine when we are touring as we rarely use sites with hookup. It is rare, however, that more than 3 weeks pass before it gets a run anyway.

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[HandyAndy]

I thought my Elektrobloc was smarter than what it appears to be.
I've had the thing layed up and plugged into to EHU for at least the last two weeks, if not three.
(Hab 12v system turned off at the control panel above the door).
While I was out there messing with mouse traps I thought I'd check the hab battery voltage.
The damn electrobloc was still sat at 14.3 volts
I was expecting it to be on a steadier maintenance charge after that long.. So I switched the little switch off on the front of the electrobloc which kills the system...
Battery still at 14.3volts !!!!!!
Pulled the two separate 20 amp fuses
Battery still at 14.3 volts!!!!!!!!!
Pulled every fuse on the electrobloc
Battery still at 14.3 volts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pulled the 240v input plug out of the front of Electrobloc and Finally the volts started dropping back (surface charge dissipating)

What a crap design!

 

[TerryL]

So has your hab battery been charged at 14.3 for several weeks? Methinks it won't have done it a lot of good, but probably better than going flat of course.

 

[HandyAndy]

So has your hab battery been charged at 14.3 for several weeks? Methinks it won't have done it a lot of good, but probably better than going flat of course.

I can only assume it has. I am damn sure that it's not a smart enough charger to cut back into a desulphation or conditioning charge every week or so and I just "happen" to have caught it doing so.
Certainly nothing in the user manual to suggest it does.
The manual states two stage charger.. 14.3v and float of 13.8v (which in itself is a little high for my liking.)

Somewhat annoyed as the battery was new last August and that last thing I wanted to see is it sat at over 14v for two weeks ..

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[PhilandMena]

Gassing starts at 14.1 V so it might e wise to check your fluid levels.

 

[HandyAndy]

No it doesn't, maybe in spain when it's 30°c outside but here in the UK in winter then no chance.