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

Been there, done that, got the flat battery to prove it. Short hops in winter are basically useless for charging — by the time the alternator's warmed up and the split charge relay's done its thing, you've parked up again. Net gain: practically nothing.

Switched to a Victron Orion-Tr Smart DC-DC charger about two years ago and it made a genuine difference. Unlike a basic VSR, it actually charges properly regardless of how short the drive is — kicks in fast and pushes a proper charge profile into the leisure bank. Worth every penny.

Few other things worth considering:

• Solar — even a small panel (100W+) does more in winter than most people expect, as long as you're not parked under trees or in the shade all day
• Shore power when available — obvious, but don't be proud about it
• Check your battery state — if it's an old AGM that won't hold charge anyway, no charger in the world will fix that

Running Fogstar Drift lithium in my motorhome now which helps massively because it actually accepts charge quickly rather than sitting there being fussy like the old AGM did.

What's your current setup — VSR, DC-DC, or something else? And what battery chemistry are you running? Makes a big difference to how you approach this.

@ExChippie yeah, split charge relays are basically ornamental in that scenario. Swapped mine out for a Victron Orion-Tr Smart DC-DC charger and it's transformed winter short runs — kicks in almost immediately, pushes a proper charge profile rather than whatever the alternator feels like doing that day.

Worth checking your alternator output too — modern Euro 6 engines run smart alternators with variable voltage, so a standard relay setup can actually pull charge back out of your leisure bank. The Orion handles that properly.

On my motorhome I've got it paired with a 200Ah Fogstar Drift lithium — even a 20-minute town run puts meaningful charge back in now rather than barely tickling it.

What battery chemistry are you running? Makes a big difference to how you approach this.

@MrBodge65 bang on with the Orion-Tr, got one in my van and it's night and day vs the old relay setup. Worth mentioning though — make sure you've got it set to lithium profile if you're running a Fogstar or similar LiFePO4, the absorption settings matter more in winter when the alternator's working harder anyway.

Also worth checking your cable run length — long thin cables between the batteries will strangle your charge current before it even gets going. Went up a gauge when I rewired mine and gained a noticeable difference.

Short drives in winter are always going to be a compromise tbh. I keep a small 240v charger plugged in on hookup nights to make sure I'm starting full each morning rather than relying on the drive to top up.

@ExChippie my shepherd's hut setup taught me the hard way that short runs in January are basically just moving the problem to a different postcode — solar's the only thing that's actually saved my Fogstar batteries over winter, even a small panel doing something while the alternator's doing nowt.

@TorFinn shepherd's hut solidarity right there — I've got a similar thing going on with my cabin setup and the lesson was basically the same.

One thing nobody's mentioned yet: battery chemistry matters massively here. I switched to a Fogstar 100Ah lithium last spring and even with my ancient split charge relay still in place, the acceptance rate when it does get a chance to charge is so much better than the old AGM. Lithium just gulps it down whereas lead acid sort of... sips politely and then says it's full when it isn't.

Still want to upgrade to the Victron Orion-Tr properly eventually but honestly the battery swap alone made short winter runs noticeably more useful. Not a complete fix obviously — solar still does more work in summer — but worth considering alongside the DC-DC conversation.