Hi guys. My first post to this forum so hello and please be gentle.
I'm a brand new motorhome owner. Always been a dream to own one and me and Mrs M purchased our first one last week. A fairly old Fiat Bessacarr E350. We were stunned by the condition of it and only 25k on the clock.
We absolutely love it already.
However we have a slight problem. We left the vehicle for 4 days when we disappeared for four days last week and returned to a totally flat battery. Dead as a dodo. It had hardly enough juice left to move the windscreen wiper by more than an inch or two (but the fact it did gave us the clue we needed to it being battery related).
Managed to start it up using jump leads and went on a decent drive to charge it up to full last night. Checked it this morning and started no problem.
We're a little confused by leisure battery/car battery usage. Could it be possible that we accidentally flicked a switch somewhere which has left something switched on to drain the car battery slowly? We're hoping it's a one off...mebbe we left the radio on or the reversing camera on.
Can anyone give any tips on this...we'll keep checking it over a longer sustained period of time. Might be best having it checked out at the garage possibly?
Honestly any tips anyone can give would be HUGELY appreciated.
Hi Martin,
welcome to the forum.
There could be many reasons for a flat battery.
1. The battery is past its best.
2. is there an alarm on the vehicle, if the battery is well pasts its best days, the additional drain from the alarm may well deplete it of power.
3. there may be something that has a permanently live feed and its been left on , ie radio, interior light?
Normally, the leisure battery has an isolator switch and provides power to everything except the base vehicle.
I would get the battery tested as a first point of call, if its good then we can look at other potential issues, if not replace the battery.
you can also test the drain from the battery with a voltmeter with everything switched off.
Basa
Unfortunately you don't know how old either of the batteries are and as for the mileage of your van, it is quite amazing but some MH owners only clock up 2k to 3k per annum, so very low mileage motorhomes are a common sight.
If I were you I would remove both batteries and take them to a good local tyre/battery fitters and ask them to run a test on both of them.
Don't do as I did the other week when my van battery went to the wall and I went along to a tyre fitters who tested the battery whilst still in the van. It showed it was still in excellent fully charged condition, but we then realised that the test equipment was picking up on the condition of the leisure battery......... twirp that I am!!
You don't say how old your van is, but over the past 20 or so years, most vehicles have been fitted with automatic alarm systems and various other devices that never turn off, even if the key isn't in the ignition. The result of this can be that even on a brand new installation a battery can go flat in about a month!!
My Renault Master was fitted with an aftermarket Traffic Master installation, and this never turned off and it proved to be quite a considerable and constant drain on the vans battery............ I have now ripped it out!
Your van will no doubt be fitted with a change over switch that clicks from the leisure to the van battery, I would suggest you read the owners manual if you have one as to what to do with it........ My self built van doesn't have one although all of my caravans did in former years but I am afraid my grey matter can't recall which way to leave this switch.
Good luck, but by the sound of it you might have a very tired old van battery.
All the best
Phil
------------- There is a great World to be found out there, but by the very day, to find where it is becomes more of a challenge!
This is what I would do:
Make sure everything is switched off then put my DC clamp meter round the battery positives. This first test isn't very accurate but will tell you if the drain is more than a few hundred Milli amps. If no reading is shown I would then get my multimeter out, set it to DC amps and connect it in series with the battery. This will give a very accurate reading of any current flowing out. After that it's just a case of tracking down the culprit. Good luck!
Thanks everyone for the informative responses.
Buzzy, it's a 1999 registered vehicle.
So far it's been quite an experience to say the least. Mainly good.
Can't wait to get it out to the gig circuit and put it to good use (I play drums in a band...one of the many reasons for getting it is for post-gig stop overs)
Martin; I also lost my bag (close to) Newport Pagnell, the money grabbing two timing b-tch that she was!
I have a CTEK battery charger, one of their medium range ones.
It has a facility on it that not only charges but also discharges the battery and in so doing it is said to recondition it.
I know that when I first bought my 08 plated van the battery was about on its' last legs, but leaving this special charger connected to it for about a week, it changed the condition of it and in so doing it lasted another 18 months before it finally died.
------------- There is a great World to be found out there, but by the very day, to find where it is becomes more of a challenge!
A few years ago I had battery problems on the MH we had at the time. I realised that it was the drain of things like the alarm when the van was not being used, and so fitted a quick release terminal on the negative end of the battery and when the van wasn`t being used I would disconnect it.
This may not be an option if you park it up somewhere you worry about it being stolen of course.
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Topic: Flat Battery....
