All the locks on my van are broken so I rely on the central locking via the drivers door.  Its a bit of a pain and I have new barrels to fit when I find the time.

Today I went back to the van to get my phone and none of the doors unlocked.  this is a problem because there is a bulkhead between the cab and the hab area.  The back door does not have any means of unlocking it mechanically at all.

The drivers battery was flat…..

There was a brief oh shit!!! moment then engaged the brain.  I had fitted a Battery to Battery charger behind the drivers seat a few months ago so thought I know.  I will try cross linking the two + terminals and letting the leisure batteries put a bit of charge into the Engine battery.  I put a bit of 6mm wire between the two terminals and kept hold of it for 5 minutes to see if it got warm and by how much.  It did get a little warm so I wasn’t going to leave it there.  I then got my spanner out and disconnected the engine side and attached this to the leisure side.  Now this cable is 25mm and it worked fine.  I started the engine using the leisure batteries and left it to run for an hour.

This was not an ideal situation but I don’t have 240V here and don’t have a 12v battery charger spare.  My last one burnt out…..

I am now glad I got this fitted.   I am going to put in a  100amp switch that will disconnect the engine battery from the charger and connect it to the leisure batteries for future emergencies.  I will use one that has a key so I can’t leave it connected while driving.  I need to think on this a little while.

I had better get the locks fixed as well while I am at it….