[Closed] Campervans and leisure batteries

Depends how long you are going to be staying somewhere without driving anywhere. If its going to be longer than a couple of days, I'd go with the leisure battery. Or if its going to be on camp sites with electricity, then just get a cable with a gang plug and breaker made up.

Yep.. i'd say they are essential for that.

I've just bought a new 100ah calcium leisure battery which runs the interior leds, fridge and stereo when the the ignition if off.

(i also have a split charge system)

Surely a laptop is going to draw a lot of power?

Yep, leisure battery.

Google Travelvolts, really good firm who'll sort you out with a kit ( it's not hard to fit)

Cheers all. Seen Travelvolts and had a look round the site too. Was just slightly put off by spending _another_ significant load of money on the van. I mean, ply and timber for a bed I can justify, but electrics?

Ok, another question: If I have LEDs hooked into the normal main battery circuit and connected as the interior door lights for the side door and the tailgate, would fitting a leisure batter and split charger mean that they would run off that instead of the engine battery when not running?

As for how long we'd be in one place, probably not more than a night, although there is a chance of staying places for weekends (maybe, if I can find places that have nice showers, etc for my wife).

If I have LEDs hooked into the normal main battery circuit and connected as the interior door lights for the side door and the tailgate, would fitting a leisure batter and split charger mean that they would run off that instead of the engine battery when not running?

You'd have to wire the interior lights off the leisure battery. For mine i've got a feed from the leisure battery into a fuse box for the various things i'm running: led lights, fridge, stereo

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I run the Ikea Dioder lights in mine which pull 0.5w per light

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The split charge system will disconnect the 2 batteries when the engine is off separating the leisure battery completely and stop the main from draining.

Balls.

I hate having to play with electrics and it looks like, if I go for the sensible route and get a battery and split charger, I'll need to rewire the interior Dioders to the leisure battery. I have a strong feeling I'll need to take the sodding roof lining down again to do that, or at the very least take the fuse box off.

Sods.

Dammit.

you need to split the main battery from the leisure for discharge - there are more efficient ways than a split charger IME.

Run nothing off the main battery as one day it wont start and you will be annoyed.

Junky, I'm open to ideas... Well, as long as it does not involve doing any serious rewiring.

Run nothing off the main battery as one day it wont start and you will be annoyed.

yep.. It took 1 festival with a flat battery to make me go out and buy a split charge and leisure battery. Everything runs of the leisure battery now

I'd try it and see, to be honest. If you decide you need one later on then you can do it when funds might be a bit easier to come by. Our bongo has a leisure battery which we've only used up once, when we didn't move for three days and used a powered cool box a lot. With just lights and chargers, moving more often and just keeping it in mind you'll get a lot more use before running low.

Get a plug-in charge level indicator (or wire one in permanently) to keep an eye on it and see how you get on before spending money you might not need to.

You've got pretty low demands. I wouldn't bother. Change your interior bulbs for leds (or use a torch/lantern if you are worried). Get an external usb battery pack to charge phones. Charge the laptop when you drive or use a tablet. You'll be able to leave the lights on for ages and charge the laptop occasionally and get nowhere near flattening the battery.