battery charging

[colin47]

HI New to this forum and motorhoming, can someone tell me when I plug the motorhome into my home power supply at the leisure battery compartment, does this only charge the leisure battery, or will it also charge the van battery as well, I have a bailey 740 motorhome new , if not can I connect a trickle charger to the van battery during winter without disconecting the battery from the van, I have read that If I disconect the battery, I could lose computer info in the van also radio ect, please advise

many thanks

colin

[flicka]

Hi Colin & welcome to the forum

The Bailey website states their motorhomes have a "switch mode battery charger with 20A output" so it appears choice of which battery for charging will be selectable on the control panel. How to select should be in your manual.

If you wish to charge the battery with another charger, you do not need to disconnect the battery,

The connection points for external charging are in the engine bay (on the right when looking in to the engine bay)- refer to your Peugeot Handbook for exact location.

[colin47]

many thanks for your reply colin

[Derek Uzzell]

“Switch mode” describes the manner in which a battery-charger works, not that it is able to charge either the ‘engine’ or ‘leisure’ battery (or both) via a switch.

 

 

There’s a throw-away posting on this forum that suggests that, in 2012, the engine-battery of Bailey motorhomes could not be charged via the on-board battery-charger. That may have been wrong or may no longer be true.

 

A somewhat similar question was asked recently on the MotorhomeFun forum

 

http://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/beginner/71721-silly-question.html

 

but I'm uncertain if this implies both batteries are charged or not.

 

I’m not sure if there are any Bailey motorhome owners on this forum who could give you a definitive answer, but you could try asking on the MotorHomeFacts forum as there’s a dedicated section there for Bailey motorhomes.

 

http://www.motorhomefacts.com/forum-230.html

 

If there’s nothing about this in your Bailey Owner’s Manual (and this type of information can be well buried sometimes!), I suggest you ask the dealership that sold you the vehicle about it and, if they can’t say, insist that they seek advice from Bailey. (The Owners Manual can, supposedly, be downloaded from the Bailey website, but I can’t get at it.)

 

Or you could try contacting Bailey direct (telephoning might be best)

 

http://www.baileyofbristol.co.uk/company/contact-us/

 

If your Owners Manual is unhelpful and there’s no obvious switch or control-panel option that suggests that the battery-charger can be deliberately ‘aimed’ at the engine-battery, it may still be the case that the engine-battery gets charged automatically when the battery-charger is charging the leisure-battery. (Your original question, of course.)

 

You should be able to test if this happens by checking the voltage of the leisure and engine-battery before connecting the motorhome to a 230V power-supply, and then testing the voltage again afterwards. If both batteries are being charged, the voltage of both batteries should rise when the battery-charger is operating. If only the leisure battery’s voltage rises, it’s fair to assume that the engine battery is not automatically charged.

 

You’d need a digital multimeter to carry out such a test. They are handy things to have and aren’t expensive. This earlier forum thread refers:

 

http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/leisure-battery-charger/32287/

 

If it turns out that your Bailey’s on-board battery-charger does not charge the engine-battery, there are ways around this that avoid the need to use another charger. Examples are given here:

 

http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Heavy-duty-battery-question-/30649/

 

If you do use a separate battery-charger to charge the engine-battery, I suggest you take some care. It would probably be wise not to have the on-board battery-charger running at the same time, nor to start the vehicle’s motor when the engine-battery is being charged. Whether either of those things would cause harm is debatable, but better safe than sorry.