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 Due to the servere weather of late all layed up vehicles suffer from loss of power in the battery region , if you've got a battery charger connect up and switch on if it has amp meter this will show how much charge is going in som eshow 5-7amps this is high charge then pionter will drop to 0amps when fully charged. Taking your vehicle for a short run will NOT topup the batteries you need to RECHARGE the batteries. all the alternator does is keep the battery at 12volts it will not charge the battery. You can also drop test the batteries before replacement.

 if you have bright sky or sunshine you could purchase a solar battery charger to place on the dashboard and plug inti 12volt/cig ligter to charge the batteries.

hope this helps

Quote: Originally posted by peter37 on 09/3/2013

all the alternator does is keep the battery at 12volts it will not charge the battery.

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Hi,

I am quite like most of the previous 'posters' to your question. Familar with the characteristics of 'my' van, and any others I previusly owned. That does not make us experts, and we all try to give suggestions of help, and advice.

HOWEVER....This may be of help to us all, I know that I found it more than enlightening. ....Along with this months MMM came the annual 'RoadPro' brochure 'practical products on the move'. Page 2 is Tech Tips, Power from your battery. Page 3, is about batteries, and page 4 thro 9, is all about battery charging, chargers etc etc. Its one hell of a lot of reading, and very comprehensive ( so may take me a few days to read!) But as far as I have read, this is advice at its best, and well worth trying, if you don't take MMM, of getting your hands on a copy. When the rest of you have read and understand...maybe you could tell me.

I believe the original poster has found the problem to his battery drain i.e. the camera was left on. I have done the same thing on my previous Autotrail on a couple of occassions and I know that it will drain a battery in a couple of days.

Cold weather as already stated will knock a battery for six also. I generally trickle charge batteries prior to layup and then once more before re commissioning.