batterys over the winter period

[Guest neil]

has anyone got any suggetions on keeping your battery topped up over the winter period .i have looked at the ctek range of battery chargers from roadpro ,but i have two 85ah batterys wired together which are conected to a solar panel which i assume will not generate much power in the winter. i also considered keeping my van connected to a mains supply during winter is this a good idea or not, all comments gratefully received thanks neil

[Guest PeteC]

Hi Neil first - Unless you have something switched on to the batteries They should not require to be permenantly connected to the mains You could top the up say one day every week or month (the batteries in garages in stock awaiting sales have to be checked monthly) second - you have a solar panel this shold be enough to keep them charged in winter if you are not running anything from them One car manuacturer store vehicles with small solar panels that give out about 100mA to keep their bateries charged

[Guest Clive]

I agree, the Solar pannels will be fine. My own Panel is an 80 watt BP panel mounted on the roof. It is more than adequate to keep both Leisure and starter batteries topped up over the winter. I assume you have a regulator associated with your solar panel. I fit a "bridging fuse" between the positives of the starter and leisure batteries when the camper is laid up for a bit. Works just fine.

[Guest neil whiting]

thanks to pete and clive for your comments ,very helpful.

[Guest martin]

Our problem is not the two 110A leisure batteries but the vehicle battery - we have to keep our van a few miles away. The 'Strikeback' seems to drain it faster than I'd like and last winter we had to use a secondary battery to get it all going for the third year running! We've changed to one of the latest low temperature gel types and will see if that does the trick this year. We also now have a 2K generator if all elese fails!