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I recently purchased a new Elddis Sunseeker 130 (Nov 0 my first motor home. If I do not use the motor home for 2 or 3 weeks the battery goes flat. My dealer informs me that this is a known problem with this model with no solution. They suggest I purchase a 12v solar battery charger to keep the battery topped up when not in use. Does any one else have this problem?[/size]
It is a known problem with most modern cabs and arises because they contain electronic equipment that runs all the time.
With my Fiat the current is about 170mA so you will need a solar charger that gives about 1A maximum. Much less with mains hook up.
If you look at the instruction book it should guide you. With Fiat you can remove the earth lead (Negative) from the battery and that cures the problem but you cannot then lock up or set the security system. (you can lock the front - remove the earth - lock the back) My conversion is a Swift and you can set the charger to charge the cab battery and leave it on all the time. I am not so sure with Explorer as they use different electrics.
If you go down the solar cell route you need about a 10W solar cell with regulator. If you try one of the small low cost ones they do not produce enough current during the day to compensate for the lack of current during the night. (Especially winter)
So now Elddis seem to think its ok to sell things that don't work properly.
Did the salesman tell you there was a known fault before you handed your money over.
If it were me I don't think that I would be the one paying for the solar panel,it would be straight back to the dealer,"fit for purpose" rings a bell.
Gary
The word that I used was "problem" not "fault". Like all engineering it is a matter of compromise. There are advantages with the CAM bus and security systems. The penalty is the power required. The problem applies I suspect to all modern cabs not just the Fiat Peugeot Citron type.
The official answer is to disconnect the battery if you store the vehicle for any length of time but that is not always convenient.
Universal fitting of solar panels would be nice but would push the price up for everyone, take up payload and probably not suit most purchasers.
I do think that vans could be designed with solar charging as a optional extra rather than as an add on.
There are thin film solar panels coming onto the market which overcome the problem of weight and are potentially lower cost. Then we might see the manufacturers putting a good sized panel on the roof.
Is this still a problem when using the van regularly in warmer weather?
Our van is in for repairs at the moment and I have been told the battery problem may have been down to a faulty lead (to the outside light). I did think this was doubtfull as I would have seen the light on, and anyhow the power is always turned off on the control panel when not in use.
If you use the van at least once a week I do not think that there will be a problem. I would measure the discharge current which I would expect to be about 170mA. More than that would indicate a problem like a reversing camera or radio misconnected.
Hope that this helps but each van seems to be slightly different.
Safariboy.
We are about to buy a new van and unlike our current van it will be on a Fiat X250. I have already done a bit of research on the flat battery after 2/3 weeks and as we keep our van in storage some times it does not get used for between 4 to 6 weeks in the winter it is a worry to us.
I am going to fit an 85Watt Solar panel which will be wired to charge both leisure and cab battery. This will hopefully ensure that the van will always start and also give us the ability to camp away from EHU for longer.
I know that you should be able to leave a vehicle for over 3weeks but in the case of a Fiat x250 it seems that you can not. I think people should be made aware of this known problem by the dealer and be given options to solve this at purchase, instead of finding out the hard way and then having to budget even more money in to there new van.
For what it is worth we currently have a 2007 Mk7 Tranist and it has been left for over 5 weeks before and started first time. At the moment it was parked up on the 2nd January and I am confident that we I go and collect it next week it will start. (maybe I should not have said that )So not all new vehicles are like this.
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France
my first motor home. If I do not use the motor home for 2 or 3 weeks the battery goes flat. My dealer informs me that this is a known problem with this model with no solution. They suggest I purchase a 12v solar battery charger to keep the battery topped up when not in use. Does any one else have this problem?[/size]
)So not all new vehicles are like this.
