First Festival

[jonr71]

So after having the van sitting on the drive for a few weeks and the occasional use, we are finally off to test it at a festival. 4 nights with no EHU and a fridge full of beer. Any suggestions for things to consider to prolong battery life? What if batteries are getting very low, should I turn things off to prevent longer term battery damage?

 

[capt kirk]

4 nights, shouldnt be a problem with just the fridge, my batteries are five years old in nov but still do 4 nights with fridge and lights. Just dont run them down flat, just keep an eye on the voltage and if it gets below 12 volts run your engine for a while. also get your fridge nice and cold while on hookup at home. We leave ours on level 3 and that seem to do the job.

 

[Pineweasel]

Agreed, 4 nights with newish batteries will be no problem. I do 5 nights at each Glastonbury and I've only run the engine to top them up once, when the batteries were 7 years old.

 

[Stu@rt]

Just be aware that your DPF won't thank you for any long term engine idling though.

 

[jonr71]

Just be aware that your DPF won't thank you for any long term engine idling though.

Idling will be a last resort. I have an EcoFlow River Max and solar panel that I plan to use for top up. That should do me unless its cloudy all weekend.

 

[johnyboy]

As others have said 4 days should not be a problem, in the last nine years I have only had to start the van to top up the batteries once, and if you have solar that won't be an issue.

 

[Carl_______________]

We have done 3 nights and only got to 80% of battery

Just take a power bank to charge your phones, I have a largish Anker power bank from Amazon

We are on route to our first festival too, enjoy

 

[LowMan]

We're just back from Green Man festival. 4 nights no problem and our Van is now 9 years old. Just make sure you've given it a good 24 hour top up before setting off. Have a great time x

 

[Perfectos]

Keep the fridge full as practical, limiting the air void.
use a cooler bag to limit the amount of access required to the fridge, I.e. after every Beer (take out several cans at a time slip them into the cooler bag. )
pre chill everything before it goes in the fridge. Cans of beer can be pre chilled to zero Degrees C.
pre frozen ice packs placed in the fridge before departure, under the drinks, help keep the temp low and save the battery / fridge from working so hard to maintain / regain temp Initially, rotate the cans as you use them, so the ones sitting on the ice packs are replaced by ambient.

have a great Festival

 

[Alan Andrews]

It is not just about leisure battery charge. Also consider the engine battery.

Anything run from the dashboard will run down the engine battery. The biggest culprit being the radio. Yes it turns itself off after 20 mins but we frequently hit the radio button to bring it back on.

 

[johnyboy]

It is not just about leisure battery charge. Also consider the engine battery.

Anything run from the dashboard will run down the engine battery. The biggest culprit being the radio. Yes it turns itself off after 20 mins but we frequently hit the radio button to bring it back on.

GPWM - we always turn off the power assist door for this reason

 

[Stu@rt]

It is not just about leisure battery charge. Also consider the engine battery.

Anything run from the dashboard will run down the engine battery. The biggest culprit being the radio. Yes it turns itself off after 20 mins but we frequently hit the radio button to bring it back on.

We always carry one of the tiny battery jump starters as a "get out of jail free" option in case that happens. Well worth the £70 or so I paid. Have never had to use it on the Cali - but have been a "jump start hero" for friends and family 3 or 4 times (So it definitely works). Well worth the peace of mind they offer. The one I have has crocodile clips for jump starting engines, 12V cigarette lighter lead for accessories and USB outs for phones etc. I bring it in for charging probably every 6 months or so and have only ever found it drop to 75% capacity. After jumping a 2.2 diesel it still had over 50% left. All in its neat little case that is small enough to live in the passenger door pocket. Might be worth considering?

 

[66tim99]

If its sunny and you're able, park drivers side to the south to keep the fridge on the shady northern side. If you can't, consider something like this to shade the fridge.
https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/shop/p...t-g2-240-x-170m-use-5102-vw-california-awning
I'm off to my first festival in the Cali this weekend as well - Feastival in Oxfordshire.

 

[Alan Andrews]

We always carry one of the tiny battery jump starters as a "get out of jail free" option in case that happens. Well worth the £70 or so I paid. Have never had to use it on the Cali - but have been a "jump start hero" for friends and family 3 or 4 times (So it definitely works). Well worth the peace of mind they offer. The one I have has crocodile clips for jump starting engines, 12V cigarette lighter lead for accessories and USB outs for phones etc. I bring it in for charging probably every 6 months or so and have only ever found it drop to 75% capacity. After jumping a 2.2 diesel it still had over 50% left. All in its neat little case that is small enough to live in the passenger door pocket. Might be worth considering?

Yes I'm the same. Ours has a tyre pump also.

Was bought at Maplin's just before they closed, so was able to get a bargain.

In fact is the first thing I pack when we go away. Again like you, never needed for our Cali, but has been used for the odd stranded driver.

 

[Photo Nan]

4 nights, shouldnt be a problem with just the fridge, my batteries are five years old in nov but still do 4 nights with fridge and lights. Just dont run them down flat, just keep an eye on the voltage and if it gets below 12 volts run your engine for a while. also get your fridge nice and cold while on hookup at home. We leave ours on level 3 and that seem to do the job.

Do a boost charge on route to top up your battery to 100% that might help you.

 

[jonr71]

Thanks all - just back. Everything went pretty well. We were lucky that the fridge was on the North side of the van so it didn't get any direct sun. We had the van on hookup the night before and cooled all the drinks and added some ice packs just before departure. We limited opening of the fridge, but couldn't avoid having to add ambient temperature cans a couple of times. I had a 160w solar panel and an ecoflow river max, I was able to fully charge it in one day and top up the batteries via that. Battery level never dropped below 12.4v. 2 phones and 2 watches charged every night plus lights and the fridge and constant use of the electric sliding door. We ran the heater for 20 minutes too - mainly because we'd never been able to test it because it was so warm. All in all, the van performed brilliantly and delivered us 4 days off grid without a flicker.

 

[GrumpyGranddad]

Something we did before a trip in the heatwave this year was to freeze a bottle of milk and put that in the Cali fridge just before leaving. The idea was to give the fridge a bit of a ‘helping hand’. Takes several days to thaw so worked perfectly for us on a week long trip.

 

[66tim99]

Bit of VW camper porn from Feastival last weekend.