gjrj Posted January 25, 2020 Share Posted January 25, 2020 Hello everyone. We recently purchased this van and would like to fit a Solar panel with dual battery charging regulator. I am having difficulty in locating the leisure. battery . Are there any technical gurus out there who can help with advice on doing this. We are long time motor home owners and in my former life I was an automotive electrician so am not new to electrics and motor homes I am concerned about not damaging the modern habitation electronics and the base vehicle. My thoughts are to wire direct to both batterys ( via fuses ) from the solar voltage controller. I have located the habitation battery isolator switch under the two front forward facing seats , and am told the vehicle battery is located centre front of the cab floor .Is there a more sophisticated and professional way to do this ? Yes I could just take it to a dealer, but past experience has not been very good on subjects such as this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithl Posted January 25, 2020 Share Posted January 25, 2020 Looks like it could either be in the garage or a side locker... https://www.knaus.com/fileadmin/media/2018-2019/reisemobile/global/pdf/kataloge/ktg-knaus-2018-2019-katalog-rmti-en.pdf Keith. PS Search the attached for 'Battery' to find the relevant pages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 25, 2020 Share Posted January 25, 2020 Welcome to the Out&AboutLive forums, Gil. Your Fiat Ducato-based motorhome’s starter-battery will be in a compartment in the floor in front of the left-hand cab seat. (Photos that should help are here) https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Battery-fitting/54196/ Knaus’s specification for a recent SKY TI 700 MEB model suggests that the standard leisure battery will be 80Ah capacity and this, in turn, suggests a gel type battery. Have you checked what’s under the cab seats, as - when a German motorhome manufacturer chooses to fit a gel (or an AGM) non-maintainable leisure-battery - it’s quite common for an under-cab-seat location to be used? This 2017 MHFun forum thread https://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/inverter-question-2-batteries-not-connected.159181/ related to a 2016 Knaus Sky TI motorhome where two leisure-batteries were referred to. Assuming that the Knaus motorhome being discussed was RHD, one leisure-battery was under the driver’s cab seat and the other was under the passenger’s cab seat together with the battery charger and some other (probably CBE-made) electrical kit. (Otherwise, as a 2015 700 MEB is 7.47m-long, there’s plenty of opportunity for Knaus to hide the leisure-battery elsewhere.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjrj Posted January 25, 2020 Author Share Posted January 25, 2020 Thank you Derek, I did try to look under the cab seats ,but they are totally enclosed by plastic vent covers securely fixed by several screws. Looks like I shall have to get the screw drivers out and remove the vents. Both drivers and passengers seats have the same covers, so further investigation is needed. Currently pouring with rain here in the deep South West so will wait for a dry day. regards, Gil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjrj Posted January 25, 2020 Author Share Posted January 25, 2020 Thanks Keith , That was my first thoughts . I have tried all the locker areas with no joy. It appears that I will need to access under one of the cab seats to find the battery and that tools will be required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 25, 2020 Share Posted January 25, 2020 gjrj - 2020-01-25 5:09 PM Thank you Derek, I did try to look under the cab seats ,but they are totally enclosed by plastic vent covers securely fixed by several screws... That’s odd as contemporary reviews and videos strongly suggest that a 2015 Sky TI’s cab-seats would normally be Fiat’s standard (for coachbuilt motorhomes) ‘captain’s chairs’, with a seat-swivel mechanism between the seat and the base (examples in the 1st image attached below). A seat base has a vented plastic panel front and rear, but neither is normally fixed by screws as Fiat tends to exploit one under-seat compartment to store a Ducato’s bulky tool-kit container and the other base may contain a storage tray. Removing the rear vent-panel needs a bit of manual jiggery pokery, but pulling the top edge of the front vent-panel upwards easily releases a simple clip and allows the panel to be hinged down and (if necessary) completely removed. (2nd image below shows relevant extract from Ducato Owner Handbook). If the leisure-battery is not in either cab-seat base, does your motorhome have Knaus’s “Service Box” locker accessed from outside the vehicle? A Service Box can contain one or more leisure-batteries as shown in the 3rd image below, but your response to Keith suggests that’s not so in your case. (It’s stating the obvious, but if your Knaus motorhome does have a battery and/or electrical equipment in a cab-seat base, accessing those items will require removal of the seat + swivel mechanism. A seat + swivel is HEAVY and the machine-screws that attach the swivel mechanism to the cab-seat base can be very tight - so be warned!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 26, 2020 Share Posted January 26, 2020 A brief addendum... The seat-swivel mechanism fitted as standard to a Fiat Ducato ‘captains chair’ has a large circular central aperture (image attached below) Sliding the cab-seat fully forwards on its runners and shining a torch though the aperture from above should establish what, if anything, is in the seat-base beneath the swivel. If a battery is there, this should be apparent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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