we get our first motorhome on tuesday cant wait (1 Viewer)

[paula2072]

Hi everyone, we get our first motorhome on tuesday a 2001 swift gazelle f61 4 berth. My husband is semi retired and so we thought what the hell lets do it. We want to mostly wildcamp around England and Europe, with maybe the occasional camp site. We were just wondering how long a battery lasts and is it best to have a spare leisure battery, we have just bought a 2.4watt solor panel that you can just connect to the battery, we would be using lights tv freesat , we would use gas for the fridge and cooker. Has anyone got any ideas on how to make your motorhome more comfortable and homely as this is our first motorhome any ideas would be great.
Many thanks for all your help.
HAPPY MOTORHOMING EVERYONE.
Paula.

 

[Kon tiki]

Wouldn't have thought a 2.4 watt solar panel would do much you need something at least 85 watt but ideally as big as you can afford & one or two decent batteries.
Wildcamping in England can be awkward but not impossible it's much easier in France & Germany. Scotland is also more tolerant towards wildcamping.
A refillable gas bottle is also a big advantage both for cost & convienence when travelling abroad.

BTW Welcome to the site I'm sure you will get plenty of tips & help from here.

 

[joe50]

HI Paula, congratulations on getting your first motorhome and hope I hope you have many happy miles and days in it.

How long does a leisure battery last? Difficult to say exactly because there are so many variables such as:

1)Condition of the battery and its ability to retain a charge

2) How much you use it - number of lights you have on, how much you use water (pumped by electric pump), whether you use the heater which is run on gas but it also uses electricity from the battery.

We found that a battery charge will comfortably meet all the needs for an evening and night. Generally we will drive some the following day which charges up the battery again. I suspect we could get a second night if we economised but that might be it.

As you plan on doing a lot of wild camping it would be a good idea to get a second leisure battery and a solar panel. I can't help you with advice on a solar panel

Happy travels

Joe

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[pappajohn]

hi Paula and welcome to FUN.

as others have siad.....how longs a piece of string?

how big is your battery ?

are your lights standard or LEDs ?

is your TV an LCD type or the old tube type ?

so many variables........

chances are your battery is 85amp,

lights will be standard halogen type,

tv probably LCD type.

assuming the above....

in theory one light will run for around 35hrs providing nothing else is turned on.
if the lights are LEDs you could run around 8 lights at the same time for the same amount of time.
LCD TV for around 18 to 20hrs, again, if nothing else on.
if its a tube telly then around 5 to 8 hours.

a 2.4w solar panel will charge your mobile phone but thats about it.

at 2.4w its around 1/5th of an amp per hour of sunlight in a perfect world, but will be nearer to 1/3rd of an amp in reality and only in bright sunlight.

your TV will use around 2amps per hour and each light 1amp/hour plus water pump, fridge electronics etc so to keep fully charged you need about 15 to 20amps minimum going in to the battery every day.
a 60w panel may keep you self sufficient.

always worth fitting an extra battery connected to your existing one and upgrading to 110ah batteries......double your 12v electric storage....longer without charging.

 

[Jim]

Hi Paula,

Welcome to the fun:thumb:

 

[paula2072]

Hi Everyone, thankyou so much for all your replies it really helps.
We need all the help we can get.
Paula.

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