Mickydripin Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Hi can anyone help I have a new Carioca 694 and I have been reading all the posts on charging and batteries for motorhomes. Does my motorhome charge the main battery and the habitation one on hookup I was in France for four months and had no problem with either I have all the paperwork on the vehicle and am working my way through it and have not seen anything yet. How often is it advisable to hook up when the vehicle is standing do I leave it on all the time or just every now and again. Where will I have to look to find out if there is an inbuilt charger on the electrics. I know it is a lot to ask but any help will be appreciated. Mike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ips Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 Dont know your exact vehicle but to get the ball rolling. I would assume that yes it will charge both batterys, ours certainbly does. With regards to plugging in during lay up, well we try and use van all year however I make sure that I run the van engine at least every two weeks for half an hour or so and that seems to maintain the batterys ok. I know some peeps will say that running an engine on tickover is not neccasarily the best thing for engine longevity but I have done this with motorbikes , cars, boats and MH over the years and have not had any problems. Hope that helps if not then at least it bumped your post :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickydripin Posted October 10, 2011 Author Share Posted October 10, 2011 Thanks ips it is a start Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flicka Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 Hi Mike CI are part of the Trigano Group & their website gives Autotrail's address & details for the UK. It may be worth giving them a call, for an answer. http://www.ci-motorhomes.co.uk/index.php/contacts?type=repair_center Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickydripin Posted October 11, 2011 Author Share Posted October 11, 2011 Thanks Flicka I will give them a ring Tomorrow Mike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Mickydripin - 2011-10-09 12:11 PM Hi can anyone help I have a new Carioca 694 and I have been reading all the posts on charging and batteries for motorhomes. Does my motorhome charge the main battery and the habitation one on hookup I was in France for four months and had no problem with either I have all the paperwork on the vehicle and am working my way through it and have not seen anything yet. How often is it advisable to hook up when the vehicle is standing do I leave it on all the time or just every now and again. Where will I have to look to find out if there is an inbuilt charger on the electrics. I know it is a lot to ask but any help will be appreciated. Mike. Regarding your French trip, unless you were doing something that resulted in a serious long-term drain on your 'motor battery' (eg. having the cab radio on day and night) and never drove the vehicle (both unlikely scenarios), there's no reason to anticipate that the motor battery should lose its charge. So not having problems with the motor battery over a 4 months period would not be a reliable indicator that your motor battery was being charged while the motorhome was on campsite hook-up. Probably the best thing for you to do would be to attach a voltmeter to the terminals of the motor battery and then put your motorhome on hook-up. Assuming that your motorhome's battery-charger is then running, check whether or not the voltmeter's reading rises. No rise in the voltage reading will suggest that the battery-charger only charges the leisure battery. Any rise in the voltage reading will indicate that both batteries are being charged. (There is the possibility that a battery-charger's output can be directed towards EITHER the leisure battery OR the motor battery, but the norm nowadays seems to be for the battery-charger to charge either the leisure battery alone, or leisure and motor batteries together.) There seems to be no certainty that, even if leisure and motor batteries are being charged together, that both receive equal treatment. My Hobby's system passes a relatively low voltage charge to the motor battery and a much higher voltage to the leisure battery. I've never checked the amperages, but I suspect that, if the motor battery were allowed to go flat, the Hobby's on-board battery-charger might take an age to recharge it. Can't really advise on whether you should leave your battery-charger running continuously while the motorhome is not being used, but I don't. Best of luck with getting CI-related motorhome electrical-system information. The last time I tried this (admittedly years ago) I was sent an Italian-language leaflet that, once I had managed to make sense of it, proved to be technically inaccurate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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