willtravel Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Due to an extended holiday in May this year we shall have to leave our motorhome in its storage place for nearly five weeks with no power connected! I can get the storage place to hook me up to the mains for a few hours at a time during this period but this will only top up my leisure battery. Three possible solutions have been suggested in order to keep my starter battery which has an alarm and tracker attached, nicely topped up; 1 Connect a battery charger to the starter battery by removing cab carpet and clipping onto terminals and plugging into 13A socket in van, then when EHU connected starter battery will charge as well. This sounds very Heath Robinson at best and possibly dangerous, anyone any thoughts on this. 2 Get a Battery Master from VanBitz or the other one whose name escapes me and charge the starter battery from the Leisure battery when the EHU is connected, is this a viable solution? 3 Get a small inside windscreen solar panel and connect direct to starter battery, this should provide enough charge to keep it from going flat. Any thoughts? In the winter if we are not going away we have left it for three weeks maximum before taking it for an hours run in order to get the engine good and hot and the batteries charged, this seems to work fine and the engine has always started with no problem, so what are the chances of it lasting five weeks without any charging at all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 5 weeks is probably pushing your luck as you have an alarm. Option one not to be recommended. The battery master would work providing the mains is connected for long enough to get all the batteries charged. The solar option will work providing you get a decent size unit, a lot of the ones sold have such a small output they probably wouldn't even replace the battery's natural losses. I would go for a 20 watt panel with a charge regulator. Bare in mind the screen will filter out a lot of UV and I suspect your screen is tinted reducing further any solar gain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJay Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 We leave our Mh for longer than 5 weeks, no problem. If it is secure storage leave the alarm off, maybe put a wheel clamp on it. If you are paying for atorage , it should be secure !! PJay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willtravel Posted March 16, 2014 Author Share Posted March 16, 2014 lennyhb - 2014-03-16 1:04 PM 5 weeks is probably pushing your luck as you have an alarm. Option one not to be recommended. The battery master would work providing the mains is connected for long enough to get all the batteries charged. The solar option will work providing you get a decent size unit, a lot of the ones sold have such a small output they probably wouldn't even replace the battery's natural losses. I would go for a 20 watt panel with a charge regulator. Bare in mind the screen will filter out a lot of UV and I suspect your screen is tinted reducing further any solar gain. Thanks for the thoughts, currently pricing windscreen solar units vis a vis a battery master and storage charge for electricity! As for disabling alarm, certainly a thought but not a leg to stand on if van gets burgled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sss Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 As we wild more than EHU we have a solar panel on the roof, this charges the leisure bats. Once they are full the system then charges the vehicle bat. We have left it for months due to work, came back and started no problems. Not sure if your van and electrics are suitable but it works for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brambles Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Connect a wire via a fuse between the leisure batteries +ve and engine battery +ve. Then when the hook up is connected it will charge both batteries. If you forget to disconnect or someone tries to start the engine the fuse in your link will blow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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