Leasure Batteries

[sally47]

Need to charge my two leasure batteries as been getting a bit low ie 11.4 , Have a solar panel but not much sun and as it is in storage can't plug in there and can't park outside the house . I do take it for a run every 2/3 weeks for about 30 miles but not enough .Question if I take the batteries home to charge for a couple of days will the van be ok without power . Thanks for any replies

 

[RYHALLRED]

Something to think about is if you have an alarm system attached to the leisure battery. Some have standby batteries that will be unhappy going flat after a day or two and just removing the leisure battery may set off the alarm.

 

[Spriddler]

11.4 is more than just 'a bit low' and should be charged immediately to avoid ruining it.
Is it convenient to leave one battery connected and bring home and charge one battery at at a time, swapping them over when/if the 'in-use' one needs charging?

 

[rosalan]

The radio may also lose its code without a battery. I have an old Halfords battery rejuvenator which is supposed to refresh batteries and could save batteries that have run low.
This is a good question and I expect some good answers to come up.

 

[68c]

Do not see why the cab radio would lose it's code if the leisure battery is disconnected. Also I doubt the burglar alarm is connected to the leisure battery, would not be a good idea as a low leisure battery in the middle of the night would wake the whole campsite.

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[RYHALLRED]

Do not see why the cab radio would lose it's code if the leisure battery is disconnected. Also I doubt the burglar alarm is connected to the leisure battery, would not be a good idea as a low leisure battery in the middle of the night would wake the whole campsite.

At least you would know your battery was flat, that's always useful

 

[Lenny HB]

No problem removing the leisure batteries but when you reconnect them, disconnect the solar panel from the solar regulator, connect the batteries then reconnect the panel. This is because a lot of solar regulators rely on the battery being connected before the panel to set the charge voltage (12 or 24v)

 

[Reallyretired]

I would go further and suggest disconnecting the solar prior to removing the batteries, and don't reconnect it until after the batteries are connected.

 

[Augusta08]

I pull the fuses on my leisure batteries every time I put the van back in storage (sometimes for 3 months or more) and it's never been a problem. I also disconnect the engine battery to stop alarms and clocks dragging it down. My storage is secure with barn alarm and CCTV so I'm not worried about theft.

 

[autorouter]

If the battery is at 11.4V then it will take several hours to charge it fully up to 100%. You should use a multistage smart charger, which will go through several stages and finish on a final 'float' charge. If it was mine I'd leave it charging for 24 hours at least. That will make sure that as much as possible of the crystallised sulfation has been converted back to useful materials inside the battery.

Ideally a battery should be fully 100% charged every month at least, to avoid deterioration due to sulfation.

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