I can't see any obvious problem with leaving the leisure battery in the FC connected all season (even when it's not in use between trips), unless I've missed anything, but what do people do out of season? Do you leave it connected, disconnected, removed from the camper etc? I realise it will need the occassional charge out of season to keep it topped up.
I remove ours during the winter months but leave it connected up during the season, but to honest I am not sure what should be done it will be interesting to find out from others.
We (he if I'm honest) leave it in from first trip to last each year. It goes in the garage over winter and we charge it up on the solar panel in the conservatory before our first trip. I drain the water etc over winter so it seems sensible to do "the lot"
------------- Good friends are hard to find, difficult to leave and impossible to forget.
Left mine on over winter and used the campers charger to charge it up. I left the camper charger switch in the on position, then all i need to do is plug the mains hook up cable into it to charge - no need to open the camper up to switch the charger on hehe
I can't see any reason for disconnecting it. If it's not being used regualarly then plug in the EHU to charge it up every so often, otherwise leave it alone.
------------- Caz
If you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, just keep going till you go round the bend.
We leave ours connected all year but make sure the isolator switch is off. I occasionaly plug in the EHU and switch the charger on for half a day. I also check the electrolite level at the begining and end of the season.
I have a marine battery isolator switch mounted in the battery compartment, when I connect ehu cable on site I switch on, when I disconnect from the ehu I switch off. I leave the battery on the camper until I wrap it up for the winter then take it off, charge it and leave it in the shed. I check the indicator occasionaly and if necessary I charge it.
With my cruiser it has a 12v charger built into the fuse box under the seat next to the kitchen. I leave it switched on so all i need to do to charge the leisure battery is plug in the ehu for the camper. If you have an older camper it may not have a built in charger, and if this is your situation i recon connecting your own charger to your leisure battery, plugging it into the campers mains socket then packing the unit down would allow you to charge your battery by connecting the camper to mains electric also(just remember to switch the charger on otherwise you will need to unpack to charge your battery)! Hope this helps
Quote: Originally posted by heidifuss on 28/4/2008
Not sure what you mean doit (still haven't used our camper!!).
What is the "camper's charger" and where is the "camper charger switch"?
The charger is built into the small "consumer unit" you have under the large seat. If you have your mains hook up plugged in and the charger on (the switch is on that unit - it's the big red one), then you'll have 12V electrics (meaning your lights will work) regardless of if you have the battery in or not.
I leave ours connected during the season and it charges up when i connect the mains to pack and cool the fridge before we go away.
In the winter I remove it and store in the garage. Every 3 or 4 weeks i connect a car 21 watt light bulb via 2 lengths of wire and crocodile clips . I leave this on over night as a drain and then remove and charge with my car battery charger for 24 hours. This seems to work fine.