Hi everyone, this is my second season with the caravan but am going to be putting the caravan into storage in July, i've just had a motor mover fitted so have bought a new battery just wondered how best to look at the battery both during the seasonal months and winter. Do you generally remove the battery or have a trickle type charger?
I'm lucky in that I keep my van at home and keep it plugged in all the time so I use the built in charger
However I periodically (esp in the winter) remove the battery and use a battery charger to maintain it using a Halfords Fully Automatic Battery Charger as it is suitable for lead acid & deep cycle leisure batteries
I guess during the seasonal months your tow vehicle will charge it as you travel and then you can keep it topped up on site
I think it is recommended to charge your battery once a month when it is standing just to maintain it. My OH has fitted a Maypole Smartcharger today and it tops it up whenever it is needed.
Julie
------------- Wish I could go camping more and not have to work for a living!!!
I find the best method is to uncouple the positive clamp off the battery when in storage& recouple it when I collect the caravan this way it keeps the charge for the mover, & remove the battery in winter & use a battery optimiser (left over from biking days) to monitor the battery condition, this keeps it in perfect order for new season
As above mainly. The usual built-in caravan chargers don't charge the batteries fully so it is beneficial to remove the battery and give a decent charge periodically. Ideally remove and store over winter as batteries do and will 'freeze' with possibility of causing cell damage.
Check too if your battery is 'maintenance free' or if it requires top-up in the cells using proper de-ionised water.
DON'T make the mistake that I've seen many times on here and use a conventional car charger for the leisure battery. As per above posts, a smart-charger is required and personally I use a CTEK MXS 5.0, as C-Tek are probably the best smart-charger manufacturer; this model runs a recondition cycle too to fully analyse and charge the battery (annoyingly, this has dropped a fair bit in price too; a good buy).
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Topic: Battery maintenance
