parking on a hill

[linkshouse]

well im feeling someone may be feeling acerbitous

Impressed ?

Ah, I was going to ask what the second word was.

 

[linkshouse]

Very! It's not the one I was thinking of so I've learned something new there! And what a great word

Oooh! Does that mean there's three?

 

[linkshouse]

Coming back to the original question, 45deg is extremely steep and steeper than I would’ve imagine any normal motorhome, or indeed car could safely navigate here are the recommendations for a Land Rover Defender

 

[delicagirl]

thank you. i did revise my estimate in an earlier post to more like 33 degrees.

 

[linkshouse]

thank you. i did revise my estimate in an earlier post to more like 33 degrees.

Sorry, I hadn't noticed that.

33 degrees is still very steep. It's only 7 degrees short of the point at which the Defender is at risk of falling over (sideways) and I would expect with the higher-profile a motorhome would be more susceptible than a Defender.

If your slope really is that steep then I would suggest you would need to be very careful maneuvering as sideways on you could be at real risk, especially whilst moving.

Not being arsy, honest, just trying to help.

Phill

 

[mark61]

Pretty certain it's not a side gradient, otherwise I doubt the post would have been about batteries.

 

[delicagirl]

thanks for all your concern for me. i have a steep square parking area at the front of my house and i park diagonally across it driving into it to the top right and the rear of the van is at the bottom left. it is not on EHU. i use it as my daily vehicle. i measure the batteries via a 12v socket gadget most days and it seems strange that even if i have taken it out for a decent run the previous day it is dropping to 12.7 overnight. it normally is 13-13.5 when i get home after a decent run. i have an engine and 2 leisure batteries all the same size - 110 and about 3 years old and all connected on a split relay. am i worrying un-necessarily ? i am a bit of a worrier i know !!!

 

[Deleted member 5816]

I would think a reading of 12.7v when the battery is at rest the day after use is an indication of a fully charged battery.
What is it after being stood foe several days. Is this the same reading for all the batteries.

I don’t quite follow the parking spot if you drive into the area by the top right hoe does the rear of the van get to the bottom left. Is there more than one entry to the parking area. Do you reverse in ?


Alf

thanks for all your concern for me. i have a steep square parking area at the front of my house and i park diagonally across it driving into it to the top right and the rear of the van is at the bottom left. it is not on EHU. i use it as my daily vehicle. i measure the batteries via a 12v socket gadget most days and it seems strange that even if i have taken it out for a decent run the previous day it is dropping to 12.7 overnight. it normally is 13-13.5 when i get home after a decent run. i have an engine and 2 leisure batteries all the same size - 110 and about 3 years old and all connected on a split relay. am i worrying un-necessarily ? i am a bit of a worrier i know !!!

 

[landoboguy]

I came across this along while ago.

HOW CAN I TELL IF MY BATTERY IS CHARGED OR NOT? SIMPLE ANSWER, WELL, MAYBE NOT SO SIMPLE:

The simplest method requires that you use a voltmeter to measure the voltage between the positive (+, red) and negative (, black) posts (lugs, or terminals). For this method to work at all, the battery should sit idle for at least a couple of hours. When the battery is not being charged and not delivering charge to a load, this is the rule of thumb. For a 12 volt, leadacid battery, the voltage measured between these two points should be between 11 and 13 volts. The closer the voltage is to 13 volts, the closer the battery is to being fully charged. The closer the voltage is to 11 volts, the closer the battery is to being “dead”. The exact value or the voltage that you measure will be different depending upon the style of battery, and the age of the battery.

MORE DETAILED ANSWER:
Lead acid batteries are made up of cells. Each cell is approximately 2 volts, so a 12volt battery has 6 individual cells. It turns out that a fully charged 2volt cell has a voltage of approximately 2.15 volts. Oddly enough, a fully discharged 2 volt cell has a voltage of 1.9 volts. That’s only a difference of 0.25 volts on each cell from fully charged to fully discharged. So a 12volt battery will measure at about 12.9 volts when it’s fully charged and about 11.4 volts when it is fully discharged.
That’s a total of 1.5 volts that represents the full range of charge on a 12volt battery.

To make a good guess at how much charge your battery has left, you can assign a percentage of charge remaining that is directly proportional to the battery voltage. Let’s see how we can do that. If the battery voltage is 12.15 volts, how much charge is left? Beginning with 11.4 volts representing no charge or 0% charge available, subtract 11.4 volts from the voltage that you read. So 12.15 – 11.4 = 0.75 volts.

Since there are only 1.5 volts above 11.4 volts that represents the full range of charge, we can divide the difference that we just calculated by 1.5 volts to get the percentage of charge remaining. 0.75 volts / 1.5 volts = 0.5 or when expressed as a percentage, multiply by 100 and get 50%.

Here’s the procedure written as a formula that is applicable to 12 Volt Batteries:

OPEN CIRCUIT BATTERY STATE OF CHARGE (SOC) CALCULATION % Charge = SOC %

Charge = ((Measured Battery Voltage – 11.4 volts) / 1.5 volts) x 100 Equation 1

That seems easy enough. So what’s the catch? In order for this formula to work, the battery must be in a rest state. In other words, the battery should not be supplying power to any type of load. The experts say that the battery should remain at rest for at least 24 hours to get an accurate measurement, but in a pinch a couple of hours are good enough to make a reasonable guess.

The only way to be absolutely sure that your battery is fully charged is to do a load test. It is best to have the battery dealer do this for you. We only mention it here because it is possible for a battery to indicate a good voltage, but then immediately when you try to use it, it acts like it’s dead. This doesn’t happen very often, but it is a possibility.

 

[delicagirl]

i was discussing batteries with my new neighbour who is a long established diesel engine expert/inspector..... he thinks i am worrying too much as in this cold weather a battery reading will fall much faster than in a warmer season (irrespective of the solar panel dimension.)

landloboguy - is a load test the same as a drop test ?

 

[landoboguy]

i was discussing batteries with my new neighbour who is a long established diesel engine expert/inspector..... he thinks i am worrying too much as in this cold weather a battery reading will fall much faster than in a warmer season (irrespective of the solar panel dimension.)

landloboguy - is a load test the same as a drop test ?

Yes same thing, but variances count if for instance sealed versus none sealed wet battery. They both load up current and measure how big a drop over how short a time and then measure the resulting remaining voltage. I wouldnt think you need any load or drop testing though DG as your getting 12.7 anyway I think you said didnt you.
And even when you have 12.4 your still 75% charged

 

[delicagirl]

Yes same thing, but variances count if for instance sealed versus none sealed wet battery. They both load up current and measure how big a drop over how short a time and then measure the resulting remaining voltage. I wouldnt think you need any load or drop testing though DG as your getting 12.7 anyway I think you said didnt you.
And even when you have 12.4 your still 75% charged

thanks - i learn so much from this forum. i never let my batteries drop below 12.5 when i am out and about before going off for a run somewhere.