Battery Life

jo662

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Battery Life

I keep my Motorhome in undercover storage.The other day it failed to start and I had to jump start it.
I took it for a run and when I got back tried to start it and the battery was dead.It is about 4 years old,
and we do about 10,000 miles a year so it is never stood for more than a week before I take it out.
I replaced it with a Bosch battery and all is ok.Im just wondering is 4 years the average life of a battery?
 
It sounds a bit early for a replacement, we've had them last well over 6 years. Did you try and charge the battery disconnected from the van just to check it's not the van charging system?
Dave
 
I replaced my vehicle battery this year, the old one was 10 years old. It had always been reliable, but suddenly died (whilst at local garage being serviced/mot). I also replaced it with a Bosch.
David.
 
Sounds a bit early to die but much depends on how it’s been used during its life, or you could be just unlucky. Kept all our vans and caravans around 4/5 years and never bought a battery.
 
Im pretty sure Im on my third vehicle battery in ten years with my van and it does (or did) get used a lot. I disconnect mine now when parked up for a long period. That seems to stop it slowly discharging. I understand this is not as straight forward on newer vehicles.
 
Nope Barry. Modern cars/vans have more and more parasitic loads draining the battery all the time.
Keyless entry, alarm, radio and Sat plus I'm sure many more detectors running in the background like a computer.
We found a pre electronic car lasted many months not being used but a modern one might be too low to start after only two weeks
Even our 2003 Golf runs down after a few weeks so is connected while we go away.

Ray.
 
raynipper;n16513 said:
Nope Barry. Modern cars/vans have more and more parasitic loads draining the battery all the time.
Keyless entry, alarm, radio and Sat plus I'm sure many more detectors running in the background like a computer.
We found a pre electronic car lasted many months not being used but a modern one might be too low to start after only two weeks
Even our 2003 Golf runs down after a few weeks so is connected while we go away.

Ray.
Click to expand...

My point was I dont think its as straight forward just whipping the neg cable off the battery on a modern vehicle Ray as cant it affect all those electronics? Mine is 1996 and pretty much no electronics and no problem disconnecting the battery. Takes a minute but it still used to slowly discharge when left standing and connected. Maybe it was just the immobiliser i dont know. New battery this year though which seems a lot better. I know you can get battery master solar changers but Ive never got round to having one fitted. Its not that big an issue really.
 
Change my motorhome engine battery every 5 years, just bought my 2nd replacement ( 3rd one including original ) as it`s coming up to 11 years old.

The signs are there, it`s starting to deteriorate and takes longer to start the engine especially after a period of non use.

We do a lot of very remote / wild camping and the last thing i want in a morning is the dreaded ........................... click,click click.
 
Just taking it for a run will not restore a flat battery, it will need 24_48 hours with a decent charger to get it back to reasonable performance. It is far better to store a battery on charge/float rather than just let it self discharge, it will now have lost at least one of its nine lives.
 
Val54;n16400 said:
It sounds a bit early for a replacement, we've had them last well over 6 years. Did you try and charge the battery disconnected from the van just to check it's not the van charging system?
Dave
Click to expand...



I had the alternator checked to see it was charging,which it was.
 
jo662;n16608 said:
I had the alternator checked to see it was charging,which it was.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you were just unlucky then, hopefully the Bosch replacement will give you better service.
Dave
 
Nothing like the winter for showing up a tired battery. You could have lost 20% of battery capacity due to low temp. On top of that everything is harder to turn over when cold.
 
batteries discharge at about 5% a week and only have so many cycles of charge / discharge so it's best to keep it charged so it lasts longer. leisure batteries are not much different although numax make a 115 ah battery that allows up to 2000 cycles i'll report back when it finally gives up the ghost
 
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