Help with Motorhome laid up for long term

Have you got  a car Battery charger? it should do the job if you can get to the battery?  i think it is under the carpet in the passenger side foot well?

Under the floor cover between the seats. 

There's a very similar thread here -

https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/club-together/discussions/welcome-hobby-talk/new-to-caravanning-touring/not-being-able-to-run-our-van-in-lockdown/

do you have a voltmeter?....or can borrow one (while maintaining guidelines, of course)...

if so, you can check the state of the cab battery by placing the probes onto the cab battery terminals and it should read as follows...

dont plug in the Ehu just yet..

if the cab battery is at 13.9v or above (upto 14.4v) this means the solar panel is working and charging the cab battery....that would be great.

anything around 12.6/7v means the battery isnt being charged but is at full charge.

anything at 12.4v or lower means the battery is gradually discharging and could do with a charge from an external smart charger as suggested above.

in order to test the ehu we have to do the same type of test but need to ensure the correct start point.

if the solar charger is charging, this will corrupt the test so you remove the solar charger fuse (in line, close to the regulator) or cover the panel with a blanket if this is easy to do.

now you need to leave the ehu unplugged and with no solar for a day to allow the batteries to settle.

next day, measure the cab battery and then plug in the ehu cable and measure the cab battery again.

if the cab battery rises straight away to 13.9v or above (upto 14.4v) means the charger is working... again, now you know.

anything around 12.6/7v means the battery isnt being charged but is at full charge.

anything at 12.4v or lower means the battery is gradually discharging and could do with a charge from an external smart charger as suggested above.

with the knowledge from the above tests you can rely on solar, if working, ehu if solar not working or external chager if you find that neither solar nor ehu is doing the job.

good luck.

Thanks for your replies. I don’t think  I've explained myself correctly.

I’d like to know if  I plug the hook up into the mains will it charge the vehicle battery as well as the habitation battery?

and 

How do I know if the solar panel is charging the vehicle battery as well as the habitation battery?

Cheers👍

Thanks BoleroBoy. I’ll try your suggestions if I don’t get any replies from members with the same outfit.👍

I can't speak for Elddis but both my Bailey motorhomes on a Peugeot base did not charge the cab battery from the internal electrics, only whilst the engine is running. As far as the solar panel is concerned you need to check the controller to see how many wires run from the distribution terminals. If there are only two it would suggest its only charging the leisure battery. However if there are four there is a good chance it is also charging the cab battery. There is usually a setting on the controller which decides which proportion of charge goes to what battery. Unfortunately with my Bailey the manufacturers were two mean to connect the solar panel to the cab batter. I got over that by having a device called a Battery Master fitted which pushes excess charge from the leisure battery to the cab battery to keep it in good condition. The advantage of the device it works also on mains. Also had one on my previous Bailey motorhome for nearly six years and never had a cab battery problem.

Just a thought, if you are on Facebook it might be worth looking to see if there is an Elddis owners group.

David

Thanks David your information/suggestions are very useful.

Cheers👍

I've got a 2016 Marquis Majestic 125 - Accordo lookalike. The Charger unit doesn't charge the engine but I have run a supply from the Solar to the engine battery otherwise the alarms deplete the battery over a period.

I have a Majestic 120 and neither the charger nor the solar panel charge the engine battery. As it will go fairly flat inside a Month due to the alarm mainly, you will need to charge the engine battery yourself.

The best way would be to do as suggested above and connect the solar panel, but if you don't have the expertise to do this properly then you'll need to connect a charger.

The battery is under the large lid in the passenger footwell, and if you have a permanant hookup the simplest way is to connect an intelligent charger like a CTEK. 

Evening

A cheap way to maintain both batteries is, if you can, run a cable (1.5mm should suffice) between both batteries. Connect this to each positive terminal. Ideally install an inline fuse in that cable (10amp) close to the vehicle battery. Your ehu and/ or solar will then charge both batteries. I tried this on my last van and it worked well so I wired it permanently, then just removed the fuse when needed. Hope this is of some help?

JK