HI,
I have a ducato (diesel) motor home, bessacarre e560
I confess, I didnt start my motor home in the last 4-5 weeks and the battery completely drained.
I have been advised by a mechanic that jump starting can damage a lot of the electrical components (although there are jump starting points) etc.........
If I disconnect battery the radio and more worrying the security device will need recoding, so Im little confused as what my next move should me.
Anyone had experience in this dilemma!
Regards TrevChrizy
If you are within reach of an electrical point then charge battery on slow charge over night. If the battery is completely dead things could already need decoding. The mechanic is just covering himself, jump starting does require care & done incorrectly can cause damage.
If you have breakdown insurance with home start coverage, call them out.
On the other hand, find out if your cigar lighter is live, my pug is live only with the ignition on doohhh, thanks peugeot! if yours is live then you can hook up a 9 volt PP3 battery to your cigar lighter, that will keep things going re, alarm/immobiliser etc. or even better borrow another 12 volt car battery and hook that up to the terminals of the engine battery as you are taking it off, i hope i'm making sense here.
Well if it was sat on my driveway i'd pull the bonnet, connect a battery charger to it,without removing any leads, plug it in leave for an hour, disconnect the charger then fire it up. If you ain't got a charger jump lead it off
TIP..... as your battery is dead flat, once you connect the jump leads run donor car at 2500 rpm for 5 mins to put some charge into yours before you attempt to start it
I had same prob AA man came out and started it he also suggested that I get Solar Panel to connect to battery to keep a trickle charge going. I got one from Maplins only cost £9.99 as it was on offer. This has done the job.
------------- English and Proud
Keep the motor homes rolling
Reading all your comments with interest, some ideas I shall certainly look at.
As a precaution I got the break down out ( years ago with the old vans I had, I would not have been so hesitant to try whatever)and got it started, the charger he used had a surge protector in it.
Tomorrow it goes to the local fiat garage (MOT) so a few questions to ask....!
I believed in my stupidity that the on board charger (rigged up to the leasure battery, any additional charge would be fed into the cab battery) charged both batteries.
Thanks for your advice
TrevChrizy
Hi,
I have heard that by disconnecting the neutral lead to the battery and connecting a charger to the battery terminals is a way to charge the battery without loosing power to the electric components, has anyone any feedback on this, would be appreciated
TrevChrizy
What a load of crap if you disconnect the earth lead you have broken the circuit .
Then you will moost definatley lose all radio codes etc dont know what all the fuss is about Mick silverwood gave the best answer a simple old fashioned way to jumpstart or charge .
Get a bit of life into the battery and change if neccessary, you can buy a module to fit into your cig lighter that will keep enough poweer to retain code memories etc .
Delboy
------------- you may be frustrated now but infront of me there is a big incline . yeh it may be slow but it is in front
Well,I don't think Delboy's respones was that "nicely" put..
(..no matter how correct it was... )
TrevChrizy..it may be worth just checking to see if your charger is supposed to sort both batteries out and that something hasn't just failed..maybe...
I know that our onboard charger both batteries but the bulk of charge goes to the leisure first.
(..although on our previous Compass it only charged the leisure battery..)
Dont know how old your van is , but I had to check and recharge my batterys cab and leisure a couple of weeks ago on my swift' ducato base... I just made sure everything radio/display panel was switched "off" and dissconected and removed the two batterys checked the fluid levels and then charged them out of van.(cause on power supply where stored).
Reinstalled a day or two later no codes lost or any faults, "silly question" but have you not got the radio code written down in the handbook somwhere ??
Either way if you do manage a jump start, I'd still top the levels up and give both batterys a good charge "off " the vehicle to ensure you get them back to full capacity.
On my 2002 Bessacarr E415 if I was hooked up to the mains the on board battery would charge if the panel switch was on Cab position, if I forgot and left it switched to interior battery the alarm would flastten the cab battery within a few weeks.
Just changed to a new Elddis and the on board charger only charges the interior battery (common on newer vans). If you have a mains hookup you can buy charger/conditioners that connect via the cigarette lighter socket to keep everything topped up.
Thanks to Parry 71,
got myself a solar panel and having a look at a charger/conditioner,
regards to wineciccio and Dave for those suggestions,
trevchrizy
I don't know why some folks keep on re, put a charger in the cigar lighter socket, on newer vehicles that is as dead as a dodo until you put the ignition on, therefore forget that, if you are able/competent enough wire the battery so you have the terminals inside the camper into a female cigar lighter socket (buy one from maplins ) and then you can charge the battery any time you wish from a either mains or solar panel.