I have ordered the adaptor to 'hook up' the motorhome to a 3 pin socket while standing. I have been told that because of the set up The leisure battery will also top up the engine battery. what do I have to do to allow this. The van is an Elddis autoquest with a standard switch panel(lights/aux,vehicle/pump etc etc)I'm guessing I'd need to turn one of the switches on for the electric to run from the leisure battery to the vehicle battery but not sure
thanks Kim
The mains hook up to the caravan will only charge the leisure battery not motor-home battery. I had a motor-home on the next pitch next to me last year and he had been on the site for 28 days and although his leisure was charged from the EHU his motor home would would not started as battery had gone flat,until i jumped him from my motor.
Your cheapest option just at the moment is to buy one of the Lidl "Smart Chargers" [offer started Thursday past].
This you would have to clip its crocodiles onto your starter batteries terminals, assuming here they are accessible on your vehicle.
This is a mains powered charger that can safely be left on your battery, during non use periods. The only provision being that it will need resetting to "car" if you have a power-cut; this model is not smart enough to do that automatically.
There are much more refined ways but this is cost effective for what might not be a frequent use.
First of all you need to know what youve got in there at the moment, if its a voltage sensing relay like this then the charger for the leisure battery will keep the engine battery topped up, because they work both ways.
If its what i like to call an idiot switch or an idiot relay, that it only charges when the ignition is on or the engine is running, then it wont charge both ways.....
Options - Cheap Lidl smart charger as mentioned above, to keep the engine battery topped up, whilst your leisure battery has the benefit of the on board charger whilst on EHU.
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Topic: keeping battery topped up
