Oh no, someones stolen all the electricity! 🙁
Been away for 2 weeks on business, went to start the beast and there was a distinct lack of electricity. Luckily a jump start from the girlfriends car got it going, so I decided on a quick blat to get some charge into the batteries. About 2 miles up the road and the autobox wouldnt hook up and I was unable to pull away at a roundabout. Tried to put hazzards on and they didnt work. Tried shifting the autobox into low and 1 without success, just a sound like a pump running without liquid. Then the engine stopped. Arse! A properly shit position to break down. Phoned insurance who connected me to RAC and advised help would be at least an hour. Phone Police on 101 and advised them I was broken down in a shite place.
Luckily I had my "winter emergency bag" in the back. Donned a fleece and gloves and broke out the emergency mars bar. I also have a decent hi viz jacket. Not one of those "weekend walts" £10 screxfix tabbards, but £150 quids worth of Nordic jacket for working outside at airports. Stuck that on and directed traffic around the stricken wagon. Police arrived after about 20 minutes by which time I had rolled the truck back about 10 meters to clear the roundabout. They then proceeded to tow me to Morrisons petrol station which was great as I could finally get some hot coffee. RAC chap arrives about 30 minutes later and does some preliminary testing. Turns out one battery had a duff cell and was outputting 7v at 0A and the other battery was showing all cells OK , but 9v at 0A. Looks like they are both shot. He also tested the alternator, which was spining OK, but not putting out more than 9v, so looks like thats FUBARd too.
He plugged both batteries into separate chargers for 15 minutes and got a reasonable charge into both batteries. He also followed me the 2 miles back home which was reasonably uneventful, although the wipers didnt work and lights were dim as fuck. Still, it made it back OK. Now to source 2 batteries and an alternator.