Motorhome batteries over winter
As I understand it, the majority of motorhomes only have the domestic batteries charged by the solar panel. What do members do to keep their engine battery charged over winter when the van is stored in a site with no 240v available? I presume it’s necessary to remove the battery and bring it home and place it on a trickle charger, (a real pain) or run the engine every three weeks or so for a considerable time to use the vehicles alternator. Any tricks I am missing (switching from caravan to motorhome)? Thanks.
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Split controller on solar panel will do the job. During winter about 40% to leisure battery and 60% to engine battery or thereabouts will do the job. Maybe change that to 60:40 when van is in use. A trickle charge from a solar panel will extend the life of your battery, rather than subjecting to regular charge & discharge cycles which isn’t good practice.
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To add to my earlier post, if you want something easier to set up, you could temporarily place a solar panel behind your windscreen at an angle of about 60 degrees in winter and 40 degrees in summer.. Position the van facing due south as much as possible. Solar panels are less efficient behind glass so go for about 25 watts output or more, with feed directly to battery terminals via 20 amp fuse and solar controller to avoid over charging. That should keep the starter battery fully charged.
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The problem is easily solved if a prospective motorhome is not equipped to keep both batteries charged. Just fit a Battery Master like the one sold by Vanbitz.
peedee
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We have used a Van Bitz battery master in the past with great success however keeping the vehicle battery topped up depends among other things on the ambient draw on the vehicle battery (for example by an an alarm system) and factors like how long the van is left without being run, how cold it is and how sunny it is. It is possible to fit a type of solar controller to trickle charge the vehicle battery (some "basic" solar installations do't do this) . The VBBM uses a little current itself in monitoring the vehicle battery systems. Being unable to access our van literally for several months over the winter due to Covid restrictions we feared the worst but the upgraded system on our latest (2017) van with two solars and a sophisticated solar charge controller meant both batteries were in good condition.
In the first instance I would have a chat with a specialist company such as Van Bitz or Dave Newell (other suppliers are available)
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I guess it depends what motorhome you have. For example, all Autosleepers with solar panels are set to charge both batteries. I have never had a problem in the winter with an 80 Watt panel keeping both batteries fully charged. Apart from that, it is good practice to take the motorhome for a run every 4 to 6 weeks to get the engine oil hot, moving parts not rusting, air conditioning seals lubricated etc. This will also top up both batteries.
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