Motorhome Battery advice

is the site under cover or in the open?

do you have a solar panel?

does the site have access to EHU?

if in the open and you have solar, this may charge the leisure and vehicle batteries...if you have ehu, you could plug in periodically, assuming this will charge all batteries....

however, if none of the above is available, you need to be careful as cranking a cold diesel engine might take out more than a short run puts back in...

as long as the battery is OK now, you could just isolate the cab battery to stop it running down, but this will stop your alarm/immobiliser/tracker systems from working.

not much help im afraid, but if you will be parking the van up,from time to time, and need to keep security systems active for insurance purposes, perhaps a solar install would,put your mind at rest...

good luck FB...

If your vehicle hasn't been used for over a month then I would think it likely that the battery voltage will be low and unable to start the vehicle, assuming the battery has not been isolated and no solar panel with the ability to charge all batteries is fitted. It would be prudent to take some jump leads to assist starting if necessary.
Once started I would take the vehicle for a run, at least 10 miles if possible. Just running the engine stationary isn't the best solution although it will put some charge in the battery. Niether option will fully charge the battery but taking the vehicle for a drive will ensure all moving components get lubricated and rust gets removed from the brake discs.

Agreed. You need to drive it rather than just start it. Take it for a good run to top up the batteries and get things turning and working properly.

We make sure our van gets a run of about an hour if it's been unused for 2-3 weeks. It does them no good to stand idle.

By the way, if your Fiat/Peugeot has a battery isolator switch, I’d recommend using it when in storage. The newer vans have a red button on the ignition switch for this purpose.

This is a real problem for both Motorhome and Caravan owners. As BoleroBoy says, there are ways to maintain charge at your storage location but if none of these are available you really have to take the vehicle for a run once per month. With our Caravan I had a spare battery and swapped it once a month to recharge at home.

Even with a solar panel there can be problems. It snowed near us before Xmas and the Motorhome plus solar panel were covered in snow for a few days and the storage location was locked in. I settled for just running the engine in situ for about 30 minutes.

My previous van had a tracker and immobiliser and consequently I couldn't disconnect the battery. It was kept in storage and on several occasions it wouldn't start. A bit of a nuisance but Greenflag soon had it started. The current van has a large solar panel and even in winter its enough to keep the battery topped up.

Tinwheeler, my Peugeot base vehicle has the red isolation switch on the ignition. There is a sticker on the dash explain8ng how to use it but nothing in the manual to explain why I should use it. I have a solar panel (fat belly - all new Baileys come with a solar panel) so knowing that this charges both the leisure and vehicle battery I have chosen not to isolate them via this switch. Is this the right thing to do?

My solar panel does keep the batteries charged but I still try and drive it every 2 weeks or so to keep the engine working and the tyres rolling.

Hi, Apperley. We have a 80w SP but, when parked in a semi shaded position in dull weather, it did not keep the batteries charged. You can see keeping a charge could depend on the size of your SP and location and weather.

Consequently, I now operate the battery isolation switch which prevents the memory circuits etc of the vehicle electrical system from draining the vehicle battery. 

Isolating the vehicle battery should not affect operation of any after fit alarm or tracker as these are normally fed by the leisure battery.

Note, though, that operating the red button will disable the central locking mechanism after you have exited the vehicle and locked it via the key fob. You will then need to manually unlock the driver's door to gain access. Once you put the key into the ignition switch, the system will become live again. 

There are only a couple of lines in my 2017 Peugeot handbook referring to use of the isolator switch and they are in the section about the battery and battery charging.

Thanks TW, I’ll have a look in the handbook, but your reply is great, thanks.

Hope it helps, Apperley.

The above advice about fitting a solar panel is good and you may want to look at fitting a "battery-master" type device which allows the leisure battery to feed current to the vehicle battery. Bear in mind that setups vary but some panels are wired to charge only the leisure battery. A panel will produce much less electricity in winter and none if covered with snow but properly specified and configured it will be a good solution because for the reasons below the best scenario is to facilitate a sufficient trickle charge to keep both batteries healthy so as not to need disconnection.  

I think most installers of trackers and/or alarm systems wire these to the main vehicle battery not the leisure battery so disconnecting the vehicle battery will disarm the security systems. Your original installer will be able to advise which battery the system was wired to and what the implications of disconnection are.

Another reason for not  disconnecting the vehicle battery on a recent vehicle as yours is is that  you may lose the coding on engine and other systems.  This will very likely necessitate a visit to your Peugeot dealer for re-setting which they call a diagnoses and for which typically a three figure sum will be charged.