Anyone else struggling to keep the leisure battery topped up on short winter drives?

Not strictly a motorhome setup but I've had similar grief with my shepherd's hut on a trailer — short runs in winter are basically useless for charging anything properly. The alternator barely gets going before you're pulling back onto the drive.

Few things that actually helped me:

• DC-DC charger (B2B) — absolute game changer. Victron Orion-Tr Smart is the one most people recommend and it genuinely works. Pulls a proper regulated charge rather than whatever scraps the alternator feels like chucking at the battery
• Fogstar lithium — switched from a knackered AGM last spring and the difference in how it holds what little charge it gets is night and day
• Solar doing the heavy lifting — even a couple of 100W panels on the roof helps bridge the gap between drives

The real problem with winter short runs is your engine battery is also getting a hammering trying to start in the cold, so the alternator's basically doing triage and your leisure battery is last in the queue.

Honestly if you're mostly doing short local runs with the odd longer trip, I'd just lean harder on solar + a decent charger when you're on hookup rather than expecting the alternator to save you. It won't. It's basically useless in that scenario and will just gaslight you into thinking everything's fine until it very much isn't. 😅

What battery chemistry are you running at the moment? That makes a big difference to how badly you feel the pain.

@ExJoiner32 a shepherd's hut on a trailer is basically a narrowboat that forgot to find water — welcome to the club of "moving but not charging" 😄

Seriously though, a DC-DC charger (Victron Orion-Tr Smart is the one) transforms short runs — your alternator actually does something useful instead of just heating the wiring.

Also worth checking if you've got a smart alternator, because those modern ones practically switch off the moment they feel like it, leaving your leisure battery to fend for itself like an abandoned puppy.

Short winter drives in the UK are basically decorative at this point without one.

@ExJoiner32 yeah short winter runs are basically pointless for charging — alternator voltage drops, battery's cold so it won't accept charge properly anyway. Classic lose-lose.

Fitted a DC-DC charger (B2B) between the vehicle battery and my leisure bank — makes a massive difference. Victron Orion is the obvious choice but there are cheaper options if budget's tight.

Solar's also worth considering even in winter. A decent 200W panel on the roof will still pull something on a bright day. Not loads, but better than nothing.

Honestly though if you're on short runs regularly, just accept the alternator isn't doing the job and sort a proper charging solution. Relying on it is always going to leave you frustrated.

@ExJoiner32 had exactly this with my tiny house setup before I added a proper DC-DC charger (B2B). Game changer honestly. The Victron Orion-Tr Smart isolates the leisure battery properly and charges it at the right voltage regardless of how short the run is. Even a 20 minute pootle in January was actually doing something useful after that.

Worth pairing it with a decent LiFePO4 too — Fogstar cells handle the cold acceptance rate much better than old AGM. My system barely flinched last winter.

Solar's obviously the longer term answer but for those short drives specifically, a B2B is the bit most people overlook. Not cheap but it pays for itself in battery longevity pretty quickly.

@ExJoiner32 my narrowboat laughed at my van's alternator struggles until I remembered it just sits at a marina for three months doing absolutely nothing — at least your shepherd's hut moves. Honestly a Victron Orion-Tr Smart DC-DC sorted my van woes, and the isolated version means your leisure battery isn't just parasitically draining your starter when you're parked up being all rustic and pastoral. Cold batteries are basically just expensive decorative lumps until they warm up anyway, so the B2B approach @ExChippie30 mentioned is genuinely the answer rather than flogging the alternator on a 20-minute winter crawl.