No power in battery

Catherine

Guest
It’s been a tough 12 months. Bought a motorhome for husband as it was his dream and he had cancer diagnosis. Sadly he deteriorated and passed on in December.

I heard beep beep beep noises from the motorhome and went to investigate. The engine wouldn’t start and I have a flat battery. I think my thatcham alarm has drained it. Ordered a charger but it is a trickle charger and I don’t think it will work to recharge a dead battery?

I ow know that I should have started my engine regularly etc. Supporting my husband at the end of his life was my priority and I am a novice motorhomer. Your thoughts on how to restore life to my battery (without rebuke) valued x
 
Sorry to read about your situation.
Try the trickle charger for say 24hours or more and see what happens...It may be OK
But careful after that as often a battery which has gone that low may not work properly..But give it a try before getting a new battery.
 
If the dash lights still work there may be a chance of charging battery up,there should be a on board charger once a cable is plugged into van outside,if its on your drive leave this in when not using.
Sorry to hear about loss,take time and life will repair.
 
Sorry to hear of your loss.
Jagmax advice is good, sometimes they can be revived,
Any more problems, ask away. It's hard when problems arise that you've not had to deal with before.
 
What are details of motorhome as this will help with giving you suitable advice , although it seems to have been pretty well covered so far :)
 
As bad as things may seem with the motor home, it is only a battery, you’re in good hands on this forum.
There’s a motor factor giving a healthy discount on line atm.
Try GSF online, order today and get up to 60% discount. Hope this helps. I posted this sometime ago on the forum, checked again today and the offer is still available . Don’t know how they do it for the price, but that’s not our problem is it?
I wouldn’t worry about fitting it, one of us won’t be to far away, there’s lots of us.
 
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Some intelligent chargers may not charge a totally flat battery , but a good old fashioned simple charger may,


Plenty of people have battery chargers lying unused in sheds and garages , can you ask any of your friends and neighbours to borrow one ?

Where abouts are you located , there may be some members on here that are local to you and could assist
 
It’s been a tough 12 months. Bought a motorhome for husband as it was his dream and he had cancer diagnosis. Sadly he deteriorated and passed on in December.

I heard beep beep beep noises from the motorhome and went to investigate. The engine wouldn’t start and I have a flat battery. I think my thatcham alarm has drained it. Ordered a charger but it is a trickle charger and I don’t think it will work to recharge a dead battery?

I ow know that I should have started my engine regularly etc. Supporting my husband at the end of his life was my priority and I am a novice motorhomer. Your thoughts on how to restore life to my battery (without rebuke) valued x

I am so sorry to hear your sad news Catherine, I hope that you will be able to continue living your life in as full and active way as possible with long, loving thoughts for and about your late husband.

As for the motorhome, unfortunately your experience is one of the downsides of modern security systems that are a constant trickle drain on the main van battery. Fingers crossed that the battery hasn't been permanently damaged and it will be able to hold a full charge, however it might be worth popping along to somewhere like Halfords and ask them to run a battery test on it.

When you have the battery sorted, if your van is parked up at home, you would be well advised to run a EHU cable across to the van so that the battery system is always kept fully topped up.
However and contrary to what I have written immediately above, my van has a roof mounted solar panel and this, combined with the way it is installed, ensures that all 3 of my vans batteries are always kept in a fully charged state.

My fingers are firmly crossed for you, I hope that the forthcoming year is one hell of a lot better for you.

Phil
 
So sorry to read about your husband Catherine.

I can't add to the advice already given about the battery except to suggest that, if you can't get it going, then I would call out RAC (AA, Green Flag etc) who could get the van going so you could drive to a garage (or Halfords or somewhere) to get a new battery, they will fit it for you.

Alternatively, let us know in what area you live and I'm sure one of the helpful folk we have on here will come to your rescue.
 
I'm so sorry to hear about your husband Catherine... you must be reeling :cry: I faced exactly the same thing just over 4 years ago and remember only too well being overwhelmed by having to deal with unfamiliar mechanical and maintenance stuff for the first time and basically sobbing about it all! I hope you managed to make some good memories with the van before your husband passed away. You will build a new life in time... not the life you wanted or expected but you'll find some joy again I'm sure. My motorhome has played a huge part in that, so maybe it will for you too. Big hugs to you.

As for the battery, the worst possible scenario is that you end up having to bite the bullet and get a new starter battery - so work backwards from there and any other outcome will be a bonus. If you belong to a breakdown service with home start, call them out. They can test the battery and they carry new ones if that's the final verdict. First, definitely try friends and neighbours for a good charger to get things started (pardon the pun)... I'm sure they'd be glad of the opportunity to help out after what you've been through. Good luck (y)
Jennie
 
Hi Catherine,

So sorry for your loss.
We suffered a succession of close bereavements last year, one of which was after a long fight with cancer so we have some sense of how you feel.

I am sure there is nothing wrong with your motorhome that can’t be easily be fixed so first of all don’t let it worry you.
As it is the the starter battery rather than the leisure (habitation area) battery it may be possible to jump start it and the let it run for a while to give it a charge - ideally a drive would help. Then connecting the hook up to maintain charge will help to avoid any repeat of the problem.
We are based in Solihull, West Midlands - if that is within striking distance of you I would be happy to help.
Good luck

Guy & Michele
 
As bad as things may seem with the motor home, it is only a battery, you’re in good hands on this forum.
There’s a motor factor giving a healthy discount on line atm.
Try GSF online, order today and get up to 60% discount. Hope this helps. I posted this sometime ago on the forum, checked again today and the offer is still available . Don’t know how they do it for the price, but that’s not our problem is it?
I wouldn’t worry about fitting it, one of us won’t be to far away, there’s lots of us.

GSF may be offering large discounts (45% today) as do eurocar parts but their base price is very high they quote a price of £301.01 (301.01 - 45% = 165.55) for the battery I looked up against ukpartsdirect.com price of £113.99 a reduction of £51.56. So while the headline discount looks good it is always worth getting their price then doing a google search before placing an order
 
Some intelligent chargers may not charge a totally flat battery , but a good old fashioned simple charger may,


Plenty of people have battery chargers lying unused in sheds and garages , can you ask any of your friends and neighbours to borrow one ?

Where abouts are you located , there may be some members on here that are local to you and could assist
Other way round,a pulse smart charger is the best to revive old batterys,mind you it will never be 100% of its youth.
 
IRe GSF
thought i was putting forward a generous offer. Just goes to show.
No offence meant or taken
 
Other way round,a pulse smart charger is the best to revive old batterys



Nope not with mine when i tried to revive a totally flat battery

My smart charger ( CTEK M200) once connected sat there for hours doing nowt

Changed it to old fashioned basic car charger for a couple of hours which put in some charge

Then swopped back to smart charger which then worked as expected and that then fully charged the battery
 
I'm sorry for your loss.

The main problem here is to stem the losses to the battery or get a trickle charge into it. Merely replacing the battery won't solve the issue. As Phil says the easiest and virtually 'fit and forget' method is to employ a smallish solar panel, say 30 - 50 watts. For what it's worth I have a 50 watt unit on the side of my house with leads running down to where I keep a few old batteries. It's not positioned that well but when the sun shines it get a good few hours a day before shading by the house next door. One old battery I thought was utterly finished but after some weeks it came back to life. I rotate the batteries to accept the charge and they're all capable of starting a diesel engine. Naturally since sorting this about 2 years ago I've had zero need for such power, not even a neighbour in trouble... Sod's Law prevails...
 
Hi Catherine. You are not alone. As someone else who lost their husband to cancer I know how difficult things will be for you just now.
The folks on here are great for advice and help, there will be some near you who can call round if you need help.
 

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