Motorhomes in storage

[Jodi]

We may keep our soon to arrive motorhome in storage if it is too cumbersome on the drive which has led us to ponder leaving the van for long periods and battery drain. There is an alarm fitted and we are having a Cobra tracker also fitted which must take its toll on the the vehicle battery, also not moving the van so that the tyres remain on the same spot is not a good thing. Do those peeps that have their vans in storage go to the storage site move the van and run the engine every so often? If so how frequently should this be done?

[GypsyTom]

I think you're going to have a huge problem. Unless the storage site can arrange for your 'van to be plugged in to an electrical hook-up for for a few hours every week, your batteries are going to run down.

If it's stored outdoors, a decent-sized solar panel may help but it will be an expensive of way of keeping the batteries topped up, unless of course you are considering one anyway.

You could take out the fuse or somehow isolate your leisure battery, which would solve the problem with that one, assuming that nothing runs off it, such as your alarm.

I'm the least technical person there is but mine is stored on my own premises and I keep the tyres at maximum inflation to lessen flat spots and every six weeks or so I take if for a run for at least an hour. 

This has worked for me so far.

[breakaleg]

Just a thought, Have you told your insurance company what you intend to do, they may not like it.

Pete

[gadjo]

Hi Jodi

 

We keep ours in storage and we don't have any problems at all. I have a couple solar panels from Maplins in total about 20w plugged strieght into the PSU, not the 12volt sockets or ciggy lighter cos these are dead, so any charge however small goes to the batteries either the leisure or vehicle, and I try and take it for a good run for about 1 hour once a month, ho yes and try and use it as much as possible even if just going to coast for the day.

 

I much prefer keeping it in storage and think it is the best and possibly safest option especially after reading the the other thread about the attempted thieft that must be awful.

 

Where we keep our is COSAA??? rated, the gates key coded, it's under cover and there's a big mean dog on guard as well, and they have got washing facilities so suits us down to the ground really!!!!

 

oh yes the insurance company are quite happy and gave us some discount, which was nice!!!

 

cheers

[Randonneur]

Gadjo, how do your solar panels work if your motorhome is under cover?

[Jodi]

We got a quote yesterday for insurance which was £229 a year keeping the van on the drive. It was quite surprising how much discount was given for the alarm and tracker systems. I would assume that CSSOA storage would reduce the quote, but who knows.

 

[Rowan Lee]

We left our motorhome on our drive for three months this winter, November to February, while we went to the USA. We had it covered with a Protec cover which had a clear plastic panel to go over the solar panel. The solar panel then kept the batteries topped up, despite the weather and being covered in snow for a while, so when we got home the engine started immediately. The plan worked!

[gadjo]

Randonneur - 2010-03-22 11:13 AM

 

Gadjo, how do your solar panels work if your motorhome is under cover?

 

well spotted that person

 

the vans under cover in a converted cow shed (it's better than it sounds honest) so the top sides and back of the van are covered but the front cab is still exposed.

 

I use the the smallish type of solar panels three in total and just put them on the dash board and plug them in they are pionting southish so get a fair bit of sunlight even in winter.

 

I use them when we are on small CLs with no hookup just to keep the battery topped up. I know with 20w there is not much going to the batteries but there seems to be enough to keep them charged.

 

cheers

[Randonneur]

gadjo - 2010-03-22 12:42 PM

 

Randonneur - 2010-03-22 11:13 AM

 

Gadjo, how do your solar panels work if your motorhome is under cover?

 

well spotted that person

 

the vans under cover in a converted cow shed (it's better than it sounds honest) so the top sides and back of the van are covered but the front cab is still exposed.

 

I use the the smallish type of solar panels three in total and just put them on the dash board and plug them in they are pionting southish so get a fair bit of sunlight even in winter.

 

I use them when we are on small CLs with no hookup just to keep the battery topped up. I know with 20w there is not much going to the batteries but there seems to be enough to keep them charged.

 

cheers

 

That explains it. Martin uses one of those suitcase type solar panels for the engine battery and it works very well.

[Way2Go]

GypsyTom - 2010-03-22 10:14 AM I think you're going to have a huge problem. Unless the storage site can arrange for your 'van to be plugged in to an electrical hook-up for for a few hours every week, your batteries are going to run down.

We've store our motorhome under cover when it isn't being used and in the three years we have been doing this we've never had a problem with it starting or having juice in the leisure battery.

Having said that, you shouldn't leave it unattended for long periods of time like you can with a caravan.  It's usually a good idea to take it out for a run every couple of weeks to keep everything turning and burning.

The journey should involve getting it up to it's normal working temperature so you're looking at maybe a round trip of around 15 miles or so.

The distance involved will fluctuate depending upon the ambiant temperature.  In Spring/Summer this maybe 10-15 miles whereas Autumn/Winter it could be 20-30 miles.

W2G

[Mel B]

Jodi - 2010-03-22 11:22 AM

 

We got a quote yesterday for insurance which was £229 a year keeping the van on the drive. It was quite surprising how much discount was given for the alarm and tracker systems. I would assume that CSSOA storage would reduce the quote, but who knows.

 

Hi Jodi

 

I would expect you to get a discount for a CSSOA storage facility, but the cost of the facilty will far outway any discount you'll get.

[mike 202]

By the way it is a CASSOA (in case you want to Google it) site and the best is rated Gold. Ours in the Portsmouth area is Gold rated and costs £620 a year. Yes it is expensive but now that Google Earth has gone live you can look at any address/Area and see if there is a Motorhome/Caravan stored on the premises. In my opinion it is a Thieves charter they dont even need to leave home and drive around casing the joint. I bet that they cannot believe their luck - well done Google - I dont think so!!

In the end you see what risk that you can live with and afford. pays your money.

[Wills Wagon]

We keep ours on a CASSOA site and with three vans over 8 years have had no problems with either leisure or vehicle batteries. We do make sure both batteries are fully charged when we leave the van using the onboard charger. When leaving the van I disconnect the leisure battery. But as we have a Phantom Proactive tracking system leave the vehicle battery connected. This winter the van has been left for 23, 24 and 20 days and the voltage measured at the instument panel has been 12.3 V, 12.4V and 12.3 V respectively when I have picked it up. We have a Fiat 2.3 engine which has always started first time. Autotrail indicate that battery voltage between 11.90 and 14.40 is good. What I have noticed is that the battery loss per day is greatest for short periods of storage, about 0.08 volt loss per day for 7/8 days but for 24 days is only 0.045 per day. Normally I dont like to leave the van without being driven for more than 21 days but it would certainly be OK to leave it for 28 days at a time. Phnatom has its own back up battery and if the vehicle battery became to low this would cut in and trigger an alarm call to Phantom who would let me know the battery was low.

Hope this helps.

[MotoHomer]

Although we keep our van in a CASSOA compound it's on the road all year - I try to give it a run of 20 miles or so every week or two. I like to think this keeps lubes, tyre preservatives, batteries, brakes, clutch etc. happy plus it helps air the interior and hopefully reduces the risks of rodent settlers. Plus I can pick up on any possible issues that may develop with the conversion.

I usually use it for one of our shopping runs which helps keep fuel cost down.

This has worked so far (touch wood).

Personally, I wouldn't fancy leaving a van immobile for any period although I know many are happy to do this.

[Rosbotham]

Unless there's a wiring fault on your motorhome, or you leave it for a very long time, you shouldn't suffer from battery drain. We generally use ours every couple of weeks, but with the weather from Dec to Jan it was left for 6 weeks in subzero temperatures and started fine. No solar panels or other such gizmos. If you're really bothered you can get gadgets to draw upon the leisure battery if the vehicle battery's starting to lose voltage, but personally I'd experiment whether there's a problem before going to the expense.

 

While CASSOA sites have their advantages, my experience is they make no difference whatsover to insurance quotes. I was considering moving our van from a CASSOA gold site to a non-member storage facility around the time of insurance renewal last year (purely on cost grounds...£260/yr versus £600), so got brokers to quote on both postcodes/sites. Pricing was always identical...all the insurers wanted to know was that there was a locked gate overnight and CCTV coverage. It wasn't a case that these factors affected the price...if both weren't present the insurers wouldn't cover full stop.

 

Paul

[bob b]

You could always take the leisure battery out and keep it in the garage over the winter. Easier to give it a maintenance charge every now and again.