Charging the battery?

[Flo]

Well yet again the Winter months have passed and have not got round to giving the van a little run. If I plug it in to mains at home for a time does it charge the main battery or just the leisure one?

Will keep fingers crossed that it starts tomorrow and I will run it up the road for a few miles.

[Derek]

Our Duo Hylo EHU only charged the leisure battery.

[ant]

It all depends on age. The early C15 upto about 1996ish used to charge both batteries, but it was pointed out in order to do that the two batteries were effectively joined together in the charger and could therefore run down together too.
Ant

[jayjay]

The EHU on mine didn't charge anything, you had to give the engine a run out to charge both batteries. That was a Bedford Rascal pickup and demountable though.

I charged the leisure battery once as it was running down with an ordinary trickle charger plugged into the mains EHU. You could put your engine on trickle charge overnight if really flat, then take it for a run.

Edited to add: I usually started my camper up at least once a fortnight and left it to just idle on the drive for 15-20 minutes or so, just to warm it up and keep the fluids running through, as I didn't tax it over winter last year, so I couldn't take it for a run.

[Caz]

When mine was flat the other day I ran a cable out to it and connected a battery charger - just as quick as plugging it into the mains, and as I'm not sure how it's wired up it wasn't worth trying the EHU. I believe a charger would do it quicker than the on-board one anyway? That has certainly been the case with caravans I've had.