Amps Down Then Up To Munster

The bright morning sunshine peered through the blinds and shouted, wake up! Yeah, another glorious day. Days like this are what make travelling a pleasure and if you combine this with 14 hours of daylight (in April!) then life just feels rather special.

Craig not happy chappie with his batteries

Every morning Craig checks the motorhome panel to check all is expected with the utilities and over the last few days he has not been too happy with the battery readings. They are a registering 12.3, which is a lot lower than we would expect. We’ve hardly used them plus we’ve had some good long drives and some reasonable solar, so they should be reading a lot higher.

In our first year of travel we used lead acid and in our second year we used AGM. Overall, the lead acid performed slightly better than the AGM, so just before we set off Craig swapped the AGM batteries for the lead acid batteries.

The cells were full and the batteries were full charged before installed. We tested them over a few weekends and all seemed fine.

We pondered, wonder if all 3 batteries are performing? At this point, we decided to run each battery for a period of 24 hours and see how each battery operated. A test of their performance and a process of elimination if one is ‘dud’…or so we hope. First we checked each cell was full..yip. Then we checked each battery reading via the independent meter, all reading around 12.5. Then we disconnected all the batteries and then reconnected just one. Craig then went around the side to switch everything back on and we noticed the engine battery was receiving all the charge?

Something did not feel right and despite what the manufacturers say, we are not convinced the maximum 2 volt charge to the engine batteries is truly how it works. With that we wondered if all the charge was going to the engine batteries rather than the leisure? So a change of plan.

Disconnect the engine battery from solar and just charge up the leisure batteries. We reconnected all 3 batteries and now its a case of waiting to see how they perform.

With half a day gone we finally had a shower and then some lunch before tootling off to Munster.

Munster Gardens

The drive along the motorway was short and sweet but I laughed all the way. Craig spotted some goats and he couldn’t remember the name for baby goats “kids”, so he referred to them as goatlets. It was one of those words that just made me chuckle and once I started, I just couldn’t stop.

We arrived in Munster and clearly car parking is an issue with cars parked bumper to bumper, up kerbs and on any bit of spare land. Oh this is going to be fun! We headed straight for the coach park in the centre of the city. On a large dirt and dusty piece of land stood 1 coach, a couple of campers and a dozen or so cars. We pulled up to the kiosk and after a while we worked it was €14 to park but no services and not 100% sure we could park overnight. We opted to look at the next place on our route. Just a few kilometres out of the centre, Freilichtmuseum Muhlenhof car park was nice and clean. Little parking bays surrounded by trees and minutes from the waters edge. Perfect.

Windmill at the open air museum

Walk along the lake with Munster in the distance

Muhlenhof is a small open air museum located on the banks of the beautiful lake Aasee. Inside the museum are a number of rural historic dwellings with furnishings and two 16th century windmills. Outside the museum are walk ways and endless parks, which are superb on days like today. We strolled in and around the museum and around the lakes and parks with Munster city in the distance with the cathedral towers dominating the sky line. Another glorious sunny day to stroll hand in hand whilst watching Mac n Tosh run wild and play ball.

Parking Spot

Our sleep spot tonight. Freilichtmuseum Muhlenhof car park in Munster. Free with overnight parking permitted but no services, however the sport centre does provide toilet and fresh water facilities. Set in recreational area, so lots of people walking in and around. Very nice area of the city.