Jump Starter Help Please

Our solar panels, 2 off, I think 150 watts between them, have kept both batteries charged in storage, since we bought the van in March 2019. Our van is in the open, however when I got round to cleaning them (found I can reach out of a roof lite) they were fairly dirty.

Keeping the batteries charged was the primary reason for fitting, having swapped batteries over for years with the caravan. However, we also used them off grid for several days in France, which increased the number of stopping places significantly. Especially if there are any more lockdowns, it has got to be the way to go. Letting the battery discharge is not going to do it any good.

You must be really shaded then TW because just daylight will result in some charge from my panel. This morning with a very overcast sky and the tree in leaf the battery was showing 13.9 volts with a charge of 0.4Amps. The recommended trickle rate for my battery is 13.6 to 13.8v

peedee

All solar panels are not equal. Like most things, you get what you pay for. A high quality solar panel will perform much better in poor light conditions than a low efficiency panel. 

Mine is as fitted as standard to the van. It is not important to me and I have no real use for it as the van can easily be plugged into the mains at home. Tbh, SPs don't really interest me. 

There are two aspects, prevention (of battery discharge) and cure.

There is a view that jump starting a flat battery is dangerous to the health of the donor battery and the flat battery and also potentially to the alternator on the donee car. Rescue organisations use a jump start pack these days but any type of jump start risks the battery because of the load imposed on a flat battery by the vehicle alternator. So the safest solution is to remove the battery,  charge it at home and then refit it.

As regards prevention a solar panel may be helpful but it depends on a number of factors including the size of the panel and quality of installation amount of sun and ambient draw for example by an alarm. 

So my advice is essentially NOT to use jump leads except in an emergency. Rescue companies are there to rescue you and if your battery fails later its not their problem (but it may be their opportunity if they sell you a new one). 

Interestingly I had Mayday out when my battery failed a couple of months ago.  I don't know if it is just for battery issues but was clearly told that I could not call out Mayday in the following 28 days for the same problem.  I assumed that this is an assumption that you should get the problem fixed in that time.

I was thinking of getting one of those small lithium jump starters for emergencies but was interested that all the ones I looked at had very short leads.  I was told that you should never put the negative lead on to the negative terminal of the battery but  with the jump starters I was looking at you had no choice.

On SEVEL vans (Ducato/Peugeot/Citroen) (other makes are available) the vehicle battery is located in the cab floor on the passenger side (RHD) underneath a hatch and of course cab carpets. It's a faff to get to the battery and for that reason a jump start connection point is provided under the bonnet for the positive lead and also advice where to connect the negative (essentially to the chassis). 

In the oil industry their is an acronym RTBM well actually thats the less profane version. In other words an entreaty that you may find perusal of the documentation for your vehicle including the users manual to be informative.  

Not a problem as you connect before making a circuit and then switch the lithium device to charge.. If charging from another car using jump leads the last connection that you make will likely cause a spark and hence the advice to avoid sparks above the battery with possible hydrogen gas being emitted.

In use at 4 mins 40 secs on this video Bill