Fetch Camper Vans

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Rosehip Jul 2022 10:05pm, 3 Jul 2022 25,714 posts	0 Rosehip I can’t remember the last time I needed to bump start anything, doubt very much I would have thought about it in time
forest plodder Jul 2022 10:10am, 4 Jul 2022 1,159 posts	0 forest plodder Well done Cath. Foresight rewarded. Hope you can get your replacement battery sorted soon. Do you have any idea how old it is?
cathrobinson Jul 2022 11:31am, 4 Jul 2022 10,319 posts	0 cathrobinson I have no idea on age but we’ve owned the MoHo for 3 years and keep it in storage. That meant lockdowns we’re not kind to battery health without any means of trickle charging and I suspect it’s just too far gone now.
Boffin Jul 2022 11:13pm, 5 Jul 2022 122 posts	0 Boffin So insulting Rosehip - well done keeping calm 👍 No reason for gender bias with operating vehicles - plenty of examples of all genders with varying maneuvering skills. Cath, might be an option to try charging the battery off the camper? Like as not the battery is dead flat and will not accept charge - however after many years of 'experience' etc, I learnt something new about presumed flat batteries this spring. My van also had battery issues from being drained overwinter... last habitat service saw the leisure battery changed as it was presumed dead. I purchased a trickle charger, removed the new (one year old) leisure battery and tried to charge it- no go, dead and too flat to accept charge. This is what I learnt from a co worker who used to manage a car dealership.. Use two batteries, one if which will accept charge. Connect both batteries with jump leads- +very to +ve , -ve to -ve just as if jump starting (don't want to go making a 24v battery - that is not the objective 🤔🤣) . Connect the charger to the 'dead' battery and leave to charge. The charger will keep charging and not shut down as it has a 'good' battery to accept charge. The dead battery gets a constant trickle charge and reconditions the battery. Worked for my dead battery and even the replaced leisure battery which I insisted on retaining - now I have two leisure batteries to play with 🙂 Do feel a bit foolish for having agreed to a new battery on the habitat service in hindsight 🙄 Every day is a school day 🙂👍
Steve NordRunner Jul 2022 8:03am, 6 Jul 2022 1,694 posts	0 Steve NordRunner You might have got away with that, but charging the batteries of different ages, state of charge, and possibly brand may cause one or both of them to overheat as the one tries to charge the other directly. There is no resistance or controller to prevent overheating batteryguy.com
Northern Exile Jul 2022 8:05am, 6 Jul 2022 8,996 posts	0 Northern Exile I was thinking along the same lines as Steve. If you got away with it then all good.
RunningRonnie Jul 2022 10:27am, 6 Jul 2022 2,354 posts	0 RunningRonnie I was having a jokey argument with a friend about whether manual or automatic is better. He's driven auto for years and I hate them. Next morning after camping his battery was flat. I told him I'll push while he bumps it. He was forced to say "oh, can't bump an auto" while I cheered "I TOLD YOU!"
Angus Clydesdale Jul 2022 10:34am, 6 Jul 2022 24,984 posts	0 Angus Clydesdale Me too. That’s a good article, thanks Steve. I’ve bookmarked it for future ref. I’ve previously recovered deeply discharged (dead) batteries by using the Optimate* trickle charger that I use to keep the motorbikes topped up over winter. It took days, but eventually got there. And another time it didn't, because the battery was properly dead… Overall it’s better to maintain the batteries if you can. Replacing them is really expensive. * other brands exist these days, including Oxford which is also recommended.
Angus Clydesdale Jul 2022 10:36am, 6 Jul 2022 24,985 posts	0 Angus Clydesdale I like my autobox.
Angus Clydesdale Jul 2022 10:40am, 6 Jul 2022 24,986 posts	0 Angus Clydesdale We were discussing last week the fact that in the near future it might be almost impossible (and arguably unnecessary) to get driving lessons in a manual car, as all electric vehicles are automatic. My young lad is 17 this year and will have lessons and practice in a manual vehicle but when my lass turns 17 in 3 year's time it’s likely to be a different story. We wondered when the DVLA were going to catch up and remove the caveat that you can’t drive stick if you’ve learnt on an auto. We figured it would be self-limiting in any case.