Have we done something stupid? Forums

dylan77

Our motorhome lives a few miles away from us on a storage site. It has been outdoors all winter, despite promises that it was going to be found an indoor home at some point.
We have been going down to it about every month and taking out for a spin. I thought that this would keep the battery charged up. The first few times were fine, but last time we went, the battery was flat. We jump started it and took it for it's usual outing. The owner of the storage place offered to charge the battery overnight for us, which he did. But then three days later, the battery was flat again.
The van has an alarm on it, which has been activated (I know this will have been draining the battery, but thought we were doing enough to keep the battery okay).

What have we done wrong? What should we do now? If we jump started it, how far do we need to drive to charge up the battery? Will the battery be okay? It's almost new - we bought the van new in September. It's a Carioca 656 on a Fiat chassis.

Thanks!

MandyandDave · Moderator

Hi! Our circumstances are very much the same as yours ..(van stored away from home frequent visits to start it up take it out etc.) and yes our battery failed too!
I replaced it with a quality make and have had no bother since, our battery was 5 yr old and has done good service, however this winter has been long and cold and is a killer for batteries.
Dave Wink

JohnsCrossMotorHomes

Hi,

Battery should be ok providing is has not been allowed to go completely flat too many times, if it has, it is likely to be kaput now.

You could go away for a weekend and take a spare battery with you and some jump leads just in case.

Some MH's will flatten batteries after a couple of weeks.

Regards

DTPCHEMICALS

Hi Dylan,
purchase a solar panel battery charger.
Not expensive and save a lot of hassle.

Regards

Dave P

GerryD

Hi,
We bought our Carioca 705 new last June, but by September the leisure battery had failed. When I checked the battery was dated Jan 2006. Your main battery may be considerably older than you think. Best thing is to get it checked at your Fiat dealership. It is not covered by the normal vehicle warranty and only has a 12 month warranty as a battery is considered a consumable. If you get it checked and it needs replacing then you still have time.
Another thing, have you fitted a battery master yet? Your Carioca does not have any system for the leisure battery to assist the engine battery, a Battery master will do just that. To fit one to a Carioca is simple and should take no more that 15 minutes. Just wire it into the split charger that is mounted in the main habitation fuse box just behind the drivers seat. Without battery Master you will not be able to charge your engine battery from EHU.
Regards,
Gerry

safariboy

A battery will work for starting etc. even of it is partly flat.
Running for a short time will not charge up the battery fully and so the battery will slowly be going flat over the winter.
If left for a few days partly charged the battery will start to sulphate and lose capacity.
The engine will probably charge the battery at about 40A if the voltage is down but the battery voltage will quite soon come up nearly to 13.8V and the charge rate will drop. The battery will then need a long charge of several hours (depending on how discharged it was) before it is fully charged again. It takes on surface charge quite quickly but it takes some time to charge all the plate fully.
A good mains charger will do all this automatically. (usually called a three or four stage charger)
This is why running the engine for half an hour or so once every two weeks is not a good way of preserving the battery. There are other reasons to take the van for a run. If you do not seals are likely to stick, brakes rust on etc. (Fiat suggest leaving the hand brake off if possible)

If you can connect up to the mains and if your charger will stop charging at about 13.8V a mains hook up is a good way of keeping the battery in good condition.
Disconnecting it when fully charged seems to work quite well.

If you do not want to disconnect sao as to keep the alarm working and cannot arrange a hook up a solar panel should do the job. You will need quite a big one. the suppliers should be able to tell you. I made the mistake of spending about £15 on a 6W one. Quite useless.
I would go for 1A to 2A Max. and it will need a charge controller.

I hope that some of this helps.

dylan77

Thanks for all your prompt and helpful replies.

So to summarize (and make sure I've understood okay):
- If the van remains stored outside, I should buy a solar charger to keep the battery trickle charged.
- If the van moves indoors, I should either use a good battery charger, but disconnect it once charged (ie visit every couple of weeks to charge it up overnight, then remove it the following day); or fit a battery master and use a EHU to keep both the leisure and vehicle batteries charged. In the second case, can I leave the EHU connected the whole time the van is stored?

Having had a quick browse, how good are the chargers that can be left connected the whole time the vehicle is unused? eg. the CTEK Multi XS 3600 Battery Charger. This would be handy as the van is stored away from home.

Thanks again!

Carper

Motorhomersimpson · Moderator