Vehicle battery flat

[camel]

Hi, my first post as I usually find an answer to my query by patiently looking through previous posts. Our motorhome is in storage and hasn't been started for 8 weeks, went today and battery is flat and won't 'turn over'. This is our first motorhome after hiring previously, and first time of shutting it down for the winter. We have a Bessacarr E560, 5 months old and did not expect the battery to be flat already even though it hasn't been used. Is this normal and do I need to keep turning it over each week to prevent this? Looking forward to be more involved in your excellent forums, thanks, Paul

 

[oldfozzie]

Just to continue my hi-jacking - the control panel on the Starburst has a button to switch between leisure and vehicle batteries. According to the handbook, when set to Vehicle, 'the vehicle battery supplies 12v to the conversion if the auxiliary battery is discharged'. It makes no mention of the same switch changing the battery to which mains power is being supplied. The rest of the handbook seems to be silent on the subject! Anyone have any ideas as to whether/how/if the vehicle battery is being charged whilst on EHU? And incidentally, how many types of control panel are there out there?

This sounds very similar to the control panel fitted to my Autotrail. After a few questions Autotrail got the suppliers of the panel to phone me, this button switches between vehicle and leisure batteries to feed the load and it also switches the charger EHU charger between the batteries. to quote " if you spend a few weeks on a site with EHU and want to charge the vehicle battery then use this source button to switch the charger over to the vehicle battery" hope this helps

 

[ericonabike]

That's great...

...really helpful OldFozzie, thank you

 

[MikeandCarolyn]

I've had no probs with M/H battery,but,when we came home after our first two month trip,my Volvo S60 would not start due to flat battery.I bought one of those dashboard solar panels online for the next trip-same problem when we got back
I now hook it up to a Ctek charger when we go away and have no probs :thumb:
Mike.

 

[TYKETRIPPER]

Try disconnecting battery when you are not going to be using for a while (as long as this won't void your insurance when the alarm is disconnected). I am looking at fitting a battery isolator to make this easier as getting to the battery on a Ducato is a bit long-winded.

Even if you turn it over for half an hour each week this doesn't seem to put enough charge back in. If you can get it connected to EHU for a couple of hours each week this might help, but I am guessing that this is not an option if in storage.

Fit or have fitted a isolator switch. Radio may need to be recoded when reconnecting, but it did not affect Cat 1 alarm.

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[Pikeman]

Best advice ive seen here and from personal experience the only real way, is to take your van out every couple of weeks for a good run. Good for battery, good for engine, tyres and owner.