Help with Motorhome laid up for long term
We have a new (2019) Elddis Accordo 120 Majestic motorhome. It has a solar panel. I am concerned that it wont start after a long time on the drive.
The Elddis and Peugot Handbooks are next to useless for a novice. I don’t know if the vehicle battery is charged when hooked up or if the solar panel charges the vehicle battery.
My wife is on the extremely vulnerable list so I have to self isolate too, which means I can’t give the motorhome a run to the shops.
Can anyone advise.
Take care and stay safe.
Comments
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Under the floor cover between the seats.
There's a very similar thread here -
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do you have a voltmeter?....or can borrow one (while maintaining guidelines, of course)...
if so, you can check the state of the cab battery by placing the probes onto the cab battery terminals and it should read as follows...
dont plug in the Ehu just yet..
if the cab battery is at 13.9v or above (upto 14.4v) this means the solar panel is working and charging the cab battery....that would be great.
anything around 12.6/7v means the battery isnt being charged but is at full charge.
anything at 12.4v or lower means the battery is gradually discharging and could do with a charge from an external smart charger as suggested above.
in order to test the ehu we have to do the same type of test but need to ensure the correct start point.
if the solar charger is charging, this will corrupt the test so you remove the solar charger fuse (in line, close to the regulator) or cover the panel with a blanket if this is easy to do.
now you need to leave the ehu unplugged and with no solar for a day to allow the batteries to settle.
next day, measure the cab battery and then plug in the ehu cable and measure the cab battery again.
if the cab battery rises straight away to 13.9v or above (upto 14.4v) means the charger is working... again, now you know.
anything around 12.6/7v means the battery isnt being charged but is at full charge.
anything at 12.4v or lower means the battery is gradually discharging and could do with a charge from an external smart charger as suggested above.
with the knowledge from the above tests you can rely on solar, if working, ehu if solar not working or external chager if you find that neither solar nor ehu is doing the job.
good luck.
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Thanks for your replies. I don’t think I've explained myself correctly.
I’d like to know if I plug the hook up into the mains will it charge the vehicle battery as well as the habitation battery?
and
How do I know if the solar panel is charging the vehicle battery as well as the habitation battery?
Cheers👍
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I can't speak for Elddis but both my Bailey motorhomes on a Peugeot base did not charge the cab battery from the internal electrics, only whilst the engine is running. As far as the solar panel is concerned you need to check the controller to see how many wires run from the distribution terminals. If there are only two it would suggest its only charging the leisure battery. However if there are four there is a good chance it is also charging the cab battery. There is usually a setting on the controller which decides which proportion of charge goes to what battery. Unfortunately with my Bailey the manufacturers were two mean to connect the solar panel to the cab batter. I got over that by having a device called a Battery Master fitted which pushes excess charge from the leisure battery to the cab battery to keep it in good condition. The advantage of the device it works also on mains. Also had one on my previous Bailey motorhome for nearly six years and never had a cab battery problem.
Just a thought, if you are on Facebook it might be worth looking to see if there is an Elddis owners group.
David
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I've got a 2016 Marquis Majestic 125 - Accordo lookalike. The Charger unit doesn't charge the engine but I have run a supply from the Solar to the engine battery otherwise the alarms deplete the battery over a period.
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I have a Majestic 120 and neither the charger nor the solar panel charge the engine battery. As it will go fairly flat inside a Month due to the alarm mainly, you will need to charge the engine battery yourself.
The best way would be to do as suggested above and connect the solar panel, but if you don't have the expertise to do this properly then you'll need to connect a charger.
The battery is under the large lid in the passenger footwell, and if you have a permanant hookup the simplest way is to connect an intelligent charger like a CTEK.
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Evening
A cheap way to maintain both batteries is, if you can, run a cable (1.5mm should suffice) between both batteries. Connect this to each positive terminal. Ideally install an inline fuse in that cable (10amp) close to the vehicle battery. Your ehu and/ or solar will then charge both batteries. I tried this on my last van and it worked well so I wired it permanently, then just removed the fuse when needed. Hope this is of some help?
JK
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I've had a CBE CSB2 trickle charger fitted for around six years to keep the Starter battery charged up and it works very well.
For around £20 and easy wiring they are well worth the investment.
I have only been on hook up a few times over the years at home or away and have never had a problem with the two 110 Ah leisure batteries or the starter battery which are maintenance free.
I have an 80W Solar panel helping to keep the leisure batteries charged and with the help of the CSB2 the starter battery is always topped up.
Although there are more expensive devices than this one I've never had any need to worry about my batteries.
Two Digital Voltmeter Panels, for less than a fiver for the pair, will show you the charge of your Leisure and Starter batteries.
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If its on the drive then start it, blip the throttle to 2000 rpm and then hold it it at about 1200 for 5 min once a week and it will keep the battery topped up. If it was in good SOC when you parked it up it should survive for months, new vehicles have extremely low quiescent current.
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Others on the keeping a tow vehicles battery healthy thread, would not agree.🤔
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Keeping it topped up with the solar panel is less hassle and more environmentally friendly and probably better for your engine.
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Lvlv, the simplest way by far is to isolate the battery by means of the red button by your ignition switch. Your Peugeot handbook will explain all.
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My Auto trail has two battery icons, one for leisure and one for vehicle battery, when on hook up at home l select which battery to charge and alternate every 5 days or more. l assume the solar panel was fitted by the Elddis which in my experience would mean only the Leisure battery would be charged, as said on an earlier post you can check by putting a multimeter across the terminals on both batteries to see if you are getting the right volts, usually around 13.8 to 14 volts
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..but it wont help if the cab battery is already flat where some external help (CTEK type charger required) or the OP wishes to keep his alarm/tracker functioning....often the cause of the battery flattening in the first place.
if the solar nor the EHU charges the can battery then a Battery master or similar as used by DK and Keith eill do the job cheaply and efficiently.
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Obviously it won't help if the battery is already flat, BB.😄
The OP has made no mention of an alarm or tracker being fed by the vehicle battery.
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I don't know and we don't know what the OP doesn't know 🙂
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agreed this might be a cheap/quick way to 'balance' the two batteries with flow moving from a healthy leisure battery to a depleted cab battery and having a fuse (switch) to allow/prevent this could indeed be useful..
a 'manual' battery master equalisation system
However, it needs to be understood that the reverse action is also true....if the leisure battery gets low, for whatever reason, it will suck power from the cab battery.
in heavy off grid use, especially in winter where solar help is poor, normally charge would only be taken from the leisure battery, it will now also drain the cab battery at the same rate.
which is why a Battery Master (effectively joining the batteries as you describe) has a relay (electronic 'non return valve') to only allow the flow from the leisure battery to the cab battery and not the reverse route.
simlarly, batteries connected together 'should' be of the same age and capacity, ideally a matching pair.....as in a new/upgraded twin leisure battery situation.
furthermore, any battery or leisure system can develop a fault at any time (eg short causing fast drain). its bad enough (but not critical) to lose the leisure battery but, if connected to the cab battery without the protection of a BM, this would be dragged down too, meaning no vehicle starting capability.
i realise your post was a 'quick fix' and a versatile one for those who understand what its doing, but i wouldnt suggest this as a permanent solution....for the above reasons.
IMHO, a BM with added protection is a 'better' fix and forget solution.
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yes, a diode.....im not an electrician (certainly shows!) but i (think i🙄)understand the principles.....
you mean for my 'non return valve'
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Being a Majestic the solar may very well be linked to the van battery as well as your habitation battery. You can check by looking at your controller. It should be a truma controller sd10 and if the cab battery is attached you will have 3 sets of wires going into it. If you only have 2 sets of wires into it then it will not be connected. We have a dealer special Autoquest and I connected the cab battery to to controller myself.
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The advice above that reads “A cheap way to maintain both batteries“ by connecting them together with a 1.5mmsq cable is foolhardy and should not be considered whether an inline fuse is fitted or not! The current delivered under short circuit conditions from a vehicle or leisure battery under fault conditions is so high that it would not only melt the small cable but could also start a fire. If batteries are being paralleled then the cable connecting them should be no smaller than that fitted by the vehicle manufacturers. If a fuse is fitted AT THE VEHICLE BATTERY TERMINAL the size of the cable to the second battery could be reduced but the required cable size would need to be calculated by a competent electrical engineer. A second fuse would also be needed at the leisure battery terminal to protect the cable from a short circuit from that battery too. Please don’t attempt to connect batteries ‘on the cheap’. Split charge relays are available or, as others have said, there are proprietary devices available to do this safely.
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I find these useful I keep one in the car the other in the caravan, you can buy them for as little as a couple of quid
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Looks an interesting little gadget, could save going under the bonnet with the multimeter!
David
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