Charging leisure batteries

[olley]

Hi just fitted some new leisure batteries, does anybody know if they are charged by the engine alternator?

Two in the battery bay

And four in the basement loker next door


Their secondhand and at £25.00 I had to have them.

Olley

[olley]

Hi just fitted some new leisure batteries, does anybody know if they are charged by the engine alternator?

Two in the battery bay

And four in the basement loker next door


Their secondhand and at £25.00 I had to have them.

Olley

[troth]

Olley, make sure your "Coach Power" switch (by the entry steps) is switched on, and that allows your engine alternator (or your generator) to charge the batteries.

[DonavonP]

Nice setup. Are those medical device sealed deep cycle batteries?

[olley]

Hi thanks guys, I intend to put a switch on the converter, and then i can run the fridge on electric using the inverter, as we travel on the road or ferry, without draining the batteries.

no idea about the batteries donavon, they were advertised on ebay, when i picked them up the guy reckon they had been used for a security system, and the insurance company insisted on a regular battery change. £25.00 each, they are AGM and so far seem ok. he had over 100, plus 150amp ones.

Marathon battery

Olley

[Geechee]

olley,

Are you really driving around Europe in your Brave. Must be a treat fulling up with petrol and trying to navigate those narrow roads. I think you are limited to 100KPH on most of the roads so you most likely are getting better fuel economy that most of us. In all my times in Europe I never saw an American MH as big as yours.

[olley]

hi Geeche, narrow roads? where are they then :-)

Most of europe now has some very good motorways, so when were you here? before or after 45 :-)

Speed limits are 70mph in the UK and 110-120kph in europe, Germany still has some unrestricted autobanns were if you like you can do 200kph.

As for being the biggest :-)
Here's a picture of the Peterborough show this year, taken from the RV section.

And

and


We even fly the flag


Me and that little Four Winds in the second picture were about the smallest out of about 100 RV's

All together with the european Motorhomes over 4,000 attended

Olley

[Geechee]

olley,

No not 1945, my last trip to Europe (mostly Germany) was in 2004 just before I retired. I didn't do any camping so I guess I missed seeing any "A"� class MH's. I agree the main highways are as good as anywhere in the world, but I don't think I would take my Brave into any of the city centers. Still a lot of streets designed for the traffic of the middle ages. I spent the better part of the last twenty years traveling through Europe, but never in the UK. I am use to seeing mostly towables with a "B" class MH's here and there. To the best of my knowledge, the German highways limit Buses, Trucks, caravans and cars towing trailers to 100KPH (63mph). They do make an exception for ABS equipped trucks and buses, but even then I don't think it was more that 125KPH. I know this because I liked to take advantage of the limited number of Auto Bahns that still are speed limitless. However, doing so also meant having to dodge the trucks when they tried to pass each other. Not a big problem in the multi line sections, but when you reach a section with two lanes in each direction, you better take care. I learned that having a fast car, like say a 7 series BMW, is a want, but having a fast car that brakes well is a must. What's a liter of petrol going for these days? I bet it makes our $ 2.80/ gal look like a bargain.

[olley]

Hi Geeche, I suppose it's what your used to, I drive into the towns, and aslong as I stick to the main roads its ok. If you start going up the side roads you can get in alot of trouble.

Buses and Artic's are all bigger than me and they go most places.

The majority of RV's are in the UK, it's difficult to import them into the rest of europe especally France or Spain.
Last year in 1 month of traveling abroad I only saw them in campsites, and they all had UK plates.

Your right about the speed limits,only cars are unrestricted on the autobanns. Still an RV doing 200kpm would be a sight

A litre is anywhere between 94-102p the supermarkets are having a price war, thats about £3.55 a US gallon, say 1.85 for the excange rate thats $6.57 a US gallon.

I have an LPG conversion and thats 40p down the road, still dearer than your petrol.

We are off to France Thursday evening for two weeks, really looking forward to it.

Olley

[Geechee]

olley,

Sorry but I can't stop with the questions. You said you have a LPG conversion. Is it an 8.1L or Ford V10? Is it a Winnebago option for the UK? I am very interested in things like that and I haven't come across any on this side of the pond. In my life before retirement my work was producing diesel fuel systems. We produced some multi-fuel systems, but for engines used mostly in the oil fields. Here in the USA, a number of cities have converted to LPG fueled buses and work trucks. This is our first MH (been boater all our lives) and since we were not sure if it was for us we tried to keep the cost down. When we replace the Brave I would really think about a diesel or if available an LPG coach. Enjoy your holiday.

Geechee

[olley]

Hi geeche, sorry for the delay in replying, we have been travelling down to the south of France, now at a site near canet-plage.

Unlike the USA wi-fi is still very rare in Europe except at home, I am connecting up using an expensive dial up data card in my laptop (gprs)

As far as I know Winnebago or any other manufacturer don't do any mod's for the UK market, it's just not big enough. I guess its less than 500 units of all kinds a year?

The LPG market over here is growing, but slowly for cars, as it's a long payback time. For petrol RV's it big, as it makes such a difference to cost's and resale value, even then I am looking at 15,000 miles to break even, if you add in the extra for resale.

Mine is an 8.1 cost £3,500 to convert, they had to drop the fuel tank and reduce it by about a third to fit two 100 litre LPG tanks behind it. I get just about 1.4 miles to the litre.

LPG is easily available in the Europe, except Spain, but there are at least three different connectors

CNG and pure bio-fuel is also available but very, very limited. In Britain bio-fuel attracts 50% of normal fuel duty making it almost as expensive as normal fuels, while LPG has only 5% of normal.

Our chancellor is not going to give up any of his enormous tax revenues, no matter the effect on the environment.

Anymore questions please ask away apologise's if I am a bit slow in replying.

Olley

[Geechee]

Bonjour olley,

I have not had the opportunity to visit that portion of France. Would love to do so sometime. The Med coast must be really nice. Thanks for the response. Based on my reference books on the subject your reported fuel economy is right on. They project a 20 - 25% reduction if fuel injected (15 - 20% with a carburetor)over the same engine on petrol. Based on the what a majority of 8.1L are reporting, I calculated usage at 5.5 MPG while your's is even beter at 6.2. Are you utilizing a carburetor or the OEM fuel injectors? How are you calculating the payback period? What are you using as cost advantages other than fuel cost? Any problems with transport on ferries or passing through tunnels, etc.. I take it you had to transit the Channel by way of the Chunnnel (SP?) to get to France? We took a ferry from Nova Scotia to Prince Edward Island and they were very particular regarding the MH's propane tank. Let me know when you get tired of all the questions. Enjoy the holiday and all the topless lassies. Not much chance to do so this side of the pond and at this stage in my life hardly worth it.

Au revoir, (now I have used all the high school French I can remember in one posting).
Geechee

[olley]

Bonjour geeche, yes the south is very nice, and the weather unlike Britain is a bit more sunny contrary to what some people say we have always found the French very friendly, and the vino is cheap.

My conversion uses a gas carb, conversions using multipoint fuel injectors are available, but the inlet manifold has to be removed so they can drill and tap eight holes in it, I have some doubts whether this is always done, I suspect in some cases they just drill in situ. So being a bit of a worrier I went for a gas carb. Which is also cheaper.

I believe the gas carb's, conversions are Canadian while the multipoint are Dutch or Italian (Tartarini) and all the LPG tanks come from Poland.

The suppliers claim almost an identical mpg with multipoint and 10% less with a gas carb, as LPG has an energy density about a third less than petrol I do not see how these figures are possible. Call me a sceptic if you like. I call them something different.

We cannot use the tunnel, LPG for domestic fuel in a fixed, or loose in bottles is allowed, LPG in fixed tanks for propulsion is not. So it's the ferries for us, and as they are cheaper that's the way we would go anyway. None of the channel ferry's have any stipulation about LPG, they don't ask the question.

Along with most Britons, my French is very limited, still as a Dutch couple said to us while translating French into English for us "English is the language of the world"�

We are considering a conversational language course, but it's finding the time with work commitments.

au revoir Olley

[Geechee]

Olley,

I guess by now you should have come to expect there will always be one or more question each time I post. However, for a change the subject is your power setup and not just the LPG conversion. Is your coach equipped with a generator and the Winnebago installed 110v 60 Hz AC/ 12v DC (30 or 50 amp) systems or have you converted to 220v 50Hz AC /12v DC. If it has a gen is it also fueled by LPG?

I looked on the web and saw a campground at Canet-Plage. It is located across from the beach to the south of the city I think. I don't remember the name, but its advertising was directed at the UK so I assume it is where you are staying. What kind of facilities and services do they supply to the MH campers?

We came back from an extended trip to the west coast the end of July with numerous stops at vineyards so the opportunity to drink good and cheap wine would be a very big plus for us. We made many stops in the Napa Valley and Sonoma in California and my wife purchased too many not so inexpensive bottles of wine. Just to protect our monetary investment, we had to buy a wine cooler when we got home. Bad thing about the whole adventure is that the same wine at the local discounters is much less than the price at the winery. Oh well it made her so very happy to taste all the offerings and soak up the ambiance. For me it was a very small price for piece in the family. I too have had pretty good relation with the French accept for some of those at the Charles de Gaulle airport Air France counter. Most of my time has been spent in the Alsace region and the only problem was if you spoke French to them they answered in German, but if you responded in German they then did so in French. If you spoke English, will then they always spoke to you in French. However, they were always very accommodating and helpful. In all my travels I had one of the best dinning experiences ever in Metz were no one spoke the others languages very well and the menu was written in script that none in my group could decipher. A wireless phone and calls to the mother of the owner / Chef, who spoke perfect English, made for a most enjoyable evening.

Continued enjoyment for your stay and please partake of a bottle or two for us,

Geechee