The best way to charge A flat engine battery?

[The Curly's]

Hi all, I've just bought a Autotrail Apache 700 2010. I have had it sat on the driveway for 3 weeks and the engine battery has gone flat. It's probably a daft question but what is the easiest way to charge the engine battery please? Any help would be greatly appreciated ?

 

[David and Sally]

Chance are it's now knackered.

You need an intelligent charger like an Optimate that can monitor the battery and charge accordingly. They do claim to be able to restore sulphated batteries.

An Optimate can be left on for months with no problem. I use them on my motorbikes all the time.

 

[Jim]

If you have the van hooked up on your drive or if you have solar panels, then a Battery Master is a good idea because as soon as your habitation batteries are full, it diverts a bit of power to keep your engine battery topped up. The best one of these costs around £60

 

[596]

Hi all, I've just bought a Autotrail Apache 700 2010. I have had it sat on the driveway for 3 weeks and the engine battery has gone flat. It's probably a daft question but what is the easiest way to charge the engine battery please? Any help would be greatly appreciated ?

Buy a CTek charger, they come in different sizes, I have 6 and have had them for years, they work 24/7 on my vehicles, great bits of kit, this one will also recondition your battery, read carefully what they do, some may not do what you want or not powerful enough, always handy top own at least one I would say

Amazon product ASIN B00FC42HAA
I also have these attached to all batteries, my Land Cruiser has vehicle and domestic battery so has 2, this makes it so easy to plug and unplug the charger, mine hide under the wires so don't need to open the bonnet Amazon product ASIN B002MT8S7E

 

[tonka]

Just plug in the mains and turn on the built in charger,,,
On that years model the charger should do both engine and leisure, However as mentioned above if its gone real flat it may be ruined..
Autotrails have a steady drain so need a regular charge in winter, fitting solar panels will help but still need a mains charge or good run during winter months.

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[Campervan_man]

Fiat Ducato:-
Under the bonnet are two points to attach a battery jump pack.
No need to go in the cab, remove the plastic battery cover and jump it from there.

 

[HandyAndy]

Hi all, I've just bought a Autotrail Apache 700 2010. I have had it sat on the driveway for 3 weeks and the engine battery has gone flat. It's probably a daft question but what is the easiest way to charge the engine battery please? Any help would be greatly appreciated ?

extension lead with the plug UNDER the bonnet to protect it from the weather and a 240v "smart" charger that has a desulphation mode. Preferably a multi stage charger that switches to maintenance mode after a time so that it can be left connected indefinitely,
You may need to "jump" some life into it to get the charger to see it if it's completely dead. (by that I mean connect another 12v battery to it with some jump leads for half an hour or so, then connect the charger)

While it is unlikely you have totally killed the battery like some seem to have replied here (they are not that fragile) you will have shortened it's life somewhat.

 

[596]

CTek charger and connections for 2019 Ducato ?

 

[ToBoldlyGo]

I second the ctek and optimate comments I have both.

As an aside, I flattened the battery on an old car by leaving the door open. The battery was so flat it didn't even read .5v. I tried the ctek, wouldn't even attempt to charge the battery. I tried the optimate and then noticed it wouldn't attempt charging if the battery was sub I think 10v, so I finally used a 250ma ancient dumb trickle charger just to get the volts up to 10v ish and then the ctek charged fine. Batteries been in use fine ever since.

 

[stevewagner]

Hi all, I've just bought a Autotrail Apache 700 2010. I have had it sat on the driveway for 3 weeks and the engine battery has gone flat. It's probably a daft question but what is the easiest way to charge the engine battery please? Any help would be greatly appreciated ?

I recently traded in a 2011 Apache 700 and the built in system charges starter and habitation batteries.

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[The Curly's]

Thank you all for your comments. That's really helpful advice. I think I will go for the CTEK to see if this works. Thanks all ??

 

[596]

Thank you all for your comments. That's really helpful advice. I think I will go for the CTEK to see if this works. Thanks all ??

The Ctek also reconditions batteries if you get one with Recon on

 

[The Curly's]

SteveWagner... Thanks for your message. Do you know how this works? Do I just plug the motorhome into the mains to charge both leisure and engine battery? Do you know what I press on the control panel? How long would I need to charge it for please? Sorry for the daft questions ?

 

[boxerdog]

as stated auto trail forever going flat if not run we just banged the old trickle charger on always worked for us

 

[MikeD]

My 2012 Autotrail had a "brainy" battery charger and it will switch between the batteries giving charge as required.

You just need to plug the van into 240v and as long as the charger is switched on it will sort itself out.

If I remember it is a 10amp charger so will take some time to recharge a totally flat battery.

If the leisure battery has enough charge you should be able to read it and the vehicle battery voltage on the panel. Just select each battery in turn.

If you can't switch the panel on I suspect your batteries are now dead and may need replacing.

We used to leave our Autotrail plugged into 240v all the time as we stored it on the drive.

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[The Curly's]

Thanks for the info. I'll give that a try ?

 

[HandyAndy]

Just because they are dead (if they are dead) does not mean they need replacing. Yes it'll shorten their life span but they are not that delicate.

 

[The Curly's]

Hi all, I've bought the CTEK battery charger and charged the battery for 24 hours but the engine still won't start? Please could I get some advice on what I can do next to try to get the engine to start? Is it safe to bump start it from another car that has a 12v battery?... I've heard that this could damage the internal electrics in the MH if I do this? I would like to avoid having to buy another battery if possible.

 

[PhilandMena]

Hi all, I've bought the CTEK battery charger and charged the battery for 24 hours but the engine still won't start? Please could I get some advice on what I can do next to try to get the engine to start? Is it safe to bump start it from another car that has a 12v battery?... I've heard that this could damage the internal electrics in the MH if I do this? I would like to avoid having to buy another battery if possible.

Hi, When you say the engine wont start is this because the battery is flat and will not turn over the engine ? If so, my advice would be not to attempt to start the engine until you have a good engine battery fitted, as there is no point in starting the engine otherwise. I'm not sure you can bump start your Autotrail and would advise against it.

 

[HandyAndy]

Slow down fella. Tell us the voltage of the battery now that it has been on charge for 24 hrs.
Do not have the charger connected to it for at least 30 mins before you check the battery voltage with a multi meter.
Do not attempt to start the car in any other way at the moment as you may cause further damage if its not actually the battery at fault.
What is the vehicle doing when you turn the key to the start position, what noises can you hear.

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[The Curly's]

Hi Handy Andy, thanks for your advice. When turning the key the ignition key the light comes on but i don't hear any noise at all? I don't have a multi meter so am unable to check the voltage... I'm ordering one which will arrive on Sunday.

 

[pappajohn]

Hi Handy Andy, thanks for your advice. When turning the key the ignition key the light comes on but i don't hear any noise at all? I don't have a multi meter so am unable to check the voltage... I'm ordering one which will arrive on Sunday.

Doesn't sound like a battery fault... You would at least hear the starter engage and try to turn.
More like an earth problem or starter fault.
Quick check without a multimeter.
Turning on the sidelights and trying to start would confirm, if the lights go dim or go out then battery, if they stay lit while trying... Earth/starter fault.

 

[Silver-Fox]

Doesn't sound like a battery fault... You would at least hear the starter engage and try to turn.
More like an earth problem or starter fault.
Quick check without a multimeter.
Turning on the sidelights and trying to start would confirm, if the lights go dim or go out then battery, if they stay lit while trying... Earth/starter fault.

That’s what I thought.
You would normally at least hear a click.

Check all earths first.

Ohh trying to figure out why you can’t jump start using another vehicle.
No different to what a recovery service would do.

Come to it do you have home start by a recovery service?

 

[Vipar]

Always remember whatever battery you are charging or disconnecting
it must be

Negative off FIRST

Negative on LAST

To avoid spikes

 

[The Curly's]

Thanks for all of your help, I've tried turning on the side lights and starting it up and the side light stay on..the lights don't dim. I think I'll check the what voltage comes through the battery when I get the multi meter and then go from there.