Battery dead ??

[Dubs1953]

Hi all,
New to all this and first post ?, have been charging my leisure batteries for the last couple of days on and off, seemed like they were holding charge until this morning when I checked them again, ? only showing 3.1 poor on the Sargent control display above the Hab door.
Immediately put them back on charge via mains h/u and straight away show 13.7 good, are ok or dead ??, Thank you for any help.

 

[Quackers]

What batteries would you recommend to Dubs1953 as a replacement if Lithium are beyond reach. My Autotrail may also require new batteries in the future,
Autotrail default are Banner Agm, is there a better alternative?

 

[vin0114]

Yes, that proves it then. Now, at this point if I could afford it I would seriously consider a lithium battery. Towsure advertise a 100amp at around £750 so about 4 times the cost of a decent quality wet/gel/other but tests if believed one 100amp lithium would be sufficient for our needs and allow much deaper discharge down to 80% whereas my wets will only safely allow around 40% discharge? My 2 x100amp wets are showing probs this Winter that have not required mains charging so much in previous years so currently...
Jo's going on't Town Hall steps with plenty of change

 

[vin0114]

What batteries would you recommend to Dubs1953 as a replacement if Lithium are beyond reach. My Autotrail may also require new batteries in the future,
Autotrail default are Banner Agm, is there a better alternative?

I've only ever used wet acid bats up to now and have always got at least 5 years out of them so cannot advise on gels or others. Lithiums are expensive but Towsure's offer looks good against other sellers £1000 upto £1200 for the same battery!

 

[Lenny HB]

Autotrail default are Banner Agm, is there a better alternative?

Anything is better than a Banner AGM about the worst batteries on the planet.
If going for flooded cells the Varta LDF range are good.
If your charger supports Gel either Exide or Sonnenschein.

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[Lenny HB]

I've only ever used wet acid bats up to now and have always got at least 5 years out of them so cannot advise on gels or others. Lithiums are expensive but Towsure's offer looks good against other sellers £1000 upto £1200 for the same battery!

Battery Megastore do a 30% Funster discount on the TN100 brings it down to £500. You will still need a B2B probably a new solar regulator and mains charger so it will still cost you over a grand.

 

[Dubs1953]

Update, booked a guy for a hab check 30th of the month gonna pick his brains about stuff I don’t know about,
batteries on order from my local automotive shop ( been going to them years) , gone for led strips to replace the original tubes, less power drain ?.
Gave her a bath yesterday, would like to polish her but obviously weather dependant ?, any recommendations on the polish side of things.

 

[Mickey1]

Update, booked a guy for a hab check 30th of the month gonna pick his brains about stuff I don’t know about,
batteries on order from my local automotive shop ( been going to them years) , gone for led strips to replace the original tubes, less power drain ?.
Gave her a bath yesterday, would like to polish her but obviously weather dependant ?, any recommendations on the polish side of things.

Collinite 476

 

[ambulancekidd]

 

[Dubs1953]

Collinite 476 , wax or spray?? ,
Hi ambulancekidd and thanks ?

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[Lenny HB]

Collinite 476

That is a wax, he is going to need to polish it first to get rid of road grime.

 

[Phill D]

i have found these to be quite good.

Meguiar's M6316 Marine Wax

and

Meguiar's M5416 Marine polish

 

[Ivory55]

Being a non technical family, my other half said is it any good switching the PSU switch off for 30 seconds and back on so it all resets ?

 

[Ivory55]

The OH - it worked for us. The Sargent PSU had glitched and was showing, as yours, low battery levels on the Control Panel when we knew they had just been charged. Worth a try before spending out

 

[POH]

You need to be aware that the system on an Autotrail has a small but very constant drain, even when nothing is connected.. If you do have new batteries then do some research and look into a solar panel, ALSO very important you understand what setting to put the Sargent system on ensure solar charge is working. Manuals are on their website.

Even with solar, its best to have a mains hook up and EHU charger on every 3-4 weeks in winter if the van is not used..

Try a mains charge, you may be lucky but at 3v thats not good..
As mentioned the 13+ voltage will be the charging system.

Hi Tonka, whats this EHU charger that you are on about , when my starter battery went flat last year i put it on charge and promptly got a call from the tracker people,had to leave it on for 24 hrs, i do have a solar but not sure what size , van is parked on drive with hook up on so i assume the leisure batteries are kept topped up, not good with this techie stuff

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[autorouter]

whats this EHU charger that you are on about

EHU is motorhome-speak for Electric Hook Up. The EHU charger is the inbuilt charger that automatically comes on when the EHU is plugged in. Some of these keep both leisure and starter batteries topped up. Some only keep the leisure battery topped up. Some are switchable between the two.

 

[tonka]

Hi Tonka, whats this EHU charger that you are on about , when my starter battery went flat last year i put it on charge and promptly got a call from the tracker people,had to leave it on for 24 hrs, i do have a solar but not sure what size , van is parked on drive with hook up on so i assume the leisure batteries are kept topped up, not good with this techie stuff

As the reply above. I was referring to the built in mains charger.
However now seeing the year of your van forget what I said as that's relevent to newer versions of the Autotrails and different Sargent systems.

 

[Dubs1953]

Thanks for all input into this post, have now got new batteries and hab check man booked
so fingers ?, now looking for somewhere to have a few nights away ?, happy MoHoing.