Motorhome Battery advice
Hi All,
We've got a new Bailey motorhome which we used extensively last summer & autumn. We intended to tour throughout the winter but an unexpected event has meant we've not been in the van since early December & we won't be able to tour again for at least 4 or 5 weeks. Our van is in storage and was wondering do I need to drive to the storage site to start the engine up or will it be okay just left? The battery is new so will it be okay.
Any advice please.............
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is the site under cover or in the open?
do you have a solar panel?
does the site have access to EHU?
if in the open and you have solar, this may charge the leisure and vehicle batteries...if you have ehu, you could plug in periodically, assuming this will charge all batteries....
however, if none of the above is available, you need to be careful as cranking a cold diesel engine might take out more than a short run puts back in...
as long as the battery is OK now, you could just isolate the cab battery to stop it running down, but this will stop your alarm/immobiliser/tracker systems from working.
not much help im afraid, but if you will be parking the van up,from time to time, and need to keep security systems active for insurance purposes, perhaps a solar install would,put your mind at rest...
good luck FB...
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If your vehicle hasn't been used for over a month then I would think it likely that the battery voltage will be low and unable to start the vehicle, assuming the battery has not been isolated and no solar panel with the ability to charge all batteries is fitted. It would be prudent to take some jump leads to assist starting if necessary.
Once started I would take the vehicle for a run, at least 10 miles if possible. Just running the engine stationary isn't the best solution although it will put some charge in the battery. Niether option will fully charge the battery but taking the vehicle for a drive will ensure all moving components get lubricated and rust gets removed from the brake discs.0 -
Agreed. You need to drive it rather than just start it. Take it for a good run to top up the batteries and get things turning and working properly.
We make sure our van gets a run of about an hour if it's been unused for 2-3 weeks. It does them no good to stand idle.
By the way, if your Fiat/Peugeot has a battery isolator switch, I’d recommend using it when in storage. The newer vans have a red button on the ignition switch for this purpose.
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This is a real problem for both Motorhome and Caravan owners. As BoleroBoy says, there are ways to maintain charge at your storage location but if none of these are available you really have to take the vehicle for a run once per month. With our Caravan I had a spare battery and swapped it once a month to recharge at home.
Even with a solar panel there can be problems. It snowed near us before Xmas and the Motorhome plus solar panel were covered in snow for a few days and the storage location was locked in. I settled for just running the engine in situ for about 30 minutes.
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My previous van had a tracker and immobiliser and consequently I couldn't disconnect the battery. It was kept in storage and on several occasions it wouldn't start. A bit of a nuisance but Greenflag soon had it started. The current van has a large solar panel and even in winter its enough to keep the battery topped up.
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Tinwheeler, my Peugeot base vehicle has the red isolation switch on the ignition. There is a sticker on the dash explain8ng how to use it but nothing in the manual to explain why I should use it. I have a solar panel (fat belly - all new Baileys come with a solar panel) so knowing that this charges both the leisure and vehicle battery I have chosen not to isolate them via this switch. Is this the right thing to do?
My solar panel does keep the batteries charged but I still try and drive it every 2 weeks or so to keep the engine working and the tyres rolling.
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Hi, Apperley. We have a 80w SP but, when parked in a semi shaded position in dull weather, it did not keep the batteries charged. You can see keeping a charge could depend on the size of your SP and location and weather.
Consequently, I now operate the battery isolation switch which prevents the memory circuits etc of the vehicle electrical system from draining the vehicle battery.
Isolating the vehicle battery should not affect operation of any after fit alarm or tracker as these are normally fed by the leisure battery.
Note, though, that operating the red button will disable the central locking mechanism after you have exited the vehicle and locked it via the key fob. You will then need to manually unlock the driver's door to gain access. Once you put the key into the ignition switch, the system will become live again.
There are only a couple of lines in my 2017 Peugeot handbook referring to use of the isolator switch and they are in the section about the battery and battery charging.
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Hope it helps, Apperley.
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The above advice about fitting a solar panel is good and you may want to look at fitting a "battery-master" type device which allows the leisure battery to feed current to the vehicle battery. Bear in mind that setups vary but some panels are wired to charge only the leisure battery. A panel will produce much less electricity in winter and none if covered with snow but properly specified and configured it will be a good solution because for the reasons below the best scenario is to facilitate a sufficient trickle charge to keep both batteries healthy so as not to need disconnection.
I think most installers of trackers and/or alarm systems wire these to the main vehicle battery not the leisure battery so disconnecting the vehicle battery will disarm the security systems. Your original installer will be able to advise which battery the system was wired to and what the implications of disconnection are.
Another reason for not disconnecting the vehicle battery on a recent vehicle as yours is is that you may lose the coding on engine and other systems. This will very likely necessitate a visit to your Peugeot dealer for re-setting which they call a diagnoses and for which typically a three figure sum will be charged.
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Hi, BVM. Most modern vehicles have a method of disconnecting the battery without affecting important memories, either by a removable link, fuse or concealed switch.
In this case, the battery isolator is fitted to the ignition switch and is a Peugeot optional fitting. I can assure you it does not affect any important memories and only the date/time needs to be reset. Mine is a 2 litre 2017 model.
In my experience, items such as trackers fitted by the converter are normally connected to the leisure battery. The circuit diagrams should show if this is the case. Converters do not normally run anything from the vehicle battery, other than via the habitation area control panel, but after fit installers often do connect to the vehicle battery.
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TW I think you are right as regards the memory at least on 2017 (post 2014 ?) Peugeots/Citroens.
Having a flat battery (down to 10.8 volts) and to ensure reliability I bought a Varta Battery same dimensions but 100ah and 830amp CCA and I fitted it this morning involving of necessity a total disconnect. My van a 2107 Citroen 2 litre (which sounds like it is the same as your 2017 Pug ) was showing a check engine and check power steering fault which was not cleared by the initialisation procedure in the handbook (switch on ignition and wait for one minute) however within a short time of the engine starting up the faults cleared so it wont be necessary to have the vehicle "diagnosed" as I had feared and had an appointment with a main dealer pencilled in for. As you say only the clock time and date needed resetting but that is very easy with the new style of central display panel.
I will get the old battery tested and keep it as a spare which i can substitute if the new one goes flat. My alarm however (fitted by a well known firm in Taunton) is definitely wired to the vehicle battery. The tracker is ex-works (before conversion) and is likewise. However practice will vary.
One of the interesting things I discovered in this exercise is that the voltage shown on the Sargent Panel for the vehicle battery agrees with a direct reading taken with a meter on the battery terminals. I thought that perhaps there might be a small voltage drop between the panel and the battery but apparently not.
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BVM, our battery goes flat in 2-3weeks in this dull weather if not turned off, even with the SP in use.
When the battery is turned back on it takes a couple of minutes for things to settle and various warning lights appear in that time. It does indeed sound as if your warning lights were a result of a flat, or disconnected, battery which is good news.
I'm not a bit surprised that the after fit alarm is wired to the vehicle battery as that seems to be the way VB wire them. The alarm and tracker in our last MH were fitted by them. I wasn’t impressed, tbh.
Your findings re the voltage shown by the Sargent panel are a bit of a surprise but a good one.
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just for balance, which might be applicable if the storage facility is relatively open, we keep our van on the drive when not in use and the 100w SP is more than able to keep two leisure batteries and the cab battery fully chanrged even with immo ilser and alarm set.
this is acheived using a twin channel solar regulator, so we dont need a battery master....also, according to Apperley (who has a new Bailey) the fitted panel 'should' charge cab and leisure batteries....however, this may depend on how its set up...possible a Sargent PSU with built in regulator, which should be set to 'smart' to feed both sets of batteries.
im not sure we have a cab battery isolator (dont have the red tag on the ignition) but there is a red leisure battery isolator should i feel the need to use it.
however, as the panel does exactly what i want of it (keep all batteries fully charged whenever the van is parked up) i wont be changing anything.
a little investigation might verify you already have all the kit you need to ease any worries.
good luck
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Hi Tinwheeler, we also have Peugeot based motorhome with the battery isolation switch on the ignition key. We had one on our previous motorhome too.
My question is, this new motorhome has a solar panel which charges both the habitation battery and the vehicle battery, do you know if this is disconnected from the vehicle battery when the isolation switch is operated? None of the dealers seem to know how these are connected.
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Oh, yes they will!🤣🤣
Unfortunately, though, I can’t remember for sure, although I think the SP carried on charging the leisure battery for what good it did - our SP wasn’t up to the job in winter months. If your controller has a changeover switch, the answer is obvious but it will depend a lot how your set up is wired and I doubt there’s a one size fits all answer.
As I posted earlier somewhere, we changed the van for a Fiat based model and that doesn't have the button on the ignition switch (NB switch, not key). Therefore, I no longer have the Peugeot handbook which is where I found info about mine.
Speak to somebody technical at the MH dealership where you bought it. If they don’t know, how can they possibly repair it if/when there’s a fault on the SP side?
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Our leisure and vehicle batteries were both running down despite having solar panel which charged both 'smartly' through Swift Command on Escape 612 2020. Just really wanted to make sure the vehicle would start, so, as vehicle battery was getting low decided to isolate it and let solar panel carry on charging the leisure battery. Unfortunately, by isolating vehicle battery it turned off solar panel completely. So, re-connected vehicle battery and set control panel to charge vehicle. It did for a while and then went back to 'smart charging' both batteries. Is there any way of JUST charging the vehicle battery?
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It does your battery no good at all if it’s subject to regular deep discharge and recharge. Much better to maintain on a trickle charge while not used for extended periods. Also, it (both) will reward you with a significantly longer life if maintained that way. Given the value of your MH I think a modest investment on a roof mounted solar panel (at least 100w, ideally more) with a split controller to maintain the leisure & starter battery would make a lot of sense.
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Just to emphasise the point, this is the (iNet) status of my leisure battery on stored MH under a very gloomy (wet) Cornish sky. MH hasn’t been started since sometime in October and continually operates a tracker. SP is 150w, 80% of the charge is direct to leisure battery and remainder to van battery which (although not represented here) is also around 13v.
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