A new year of caravaning - leisure Batteries

[Caravan newbie]

Hi everyone.

Having got the caravan back from Spain and in to storage at the end of last year. It's now time to focus on the year ahead and get some much needed upgrades. Firstly, a new place to store the caravan with better facilities and cheaper! Brilliant!
But leisure Batteries, has anyone got any preference on batteries, which are the best and which are a solid, good middle of the road type battery?

Thanks in advance.

 

[otherclive]

Hi everyone.

Having got the caravan back from Spain and in to storage at the end of last year. It's now time to focus on the year ahead and get some much needed upgrades. Firstly, a new place to store the caravan with better facilities and cheaper! Brilliant!
But leisure Batteries, has anyone got any preference on batteries, which are the best and which are a solid, good middle of the road type battery?

Thanks in advance.

Banner have an excellent reputation, but quite frankly there are several brands that will give good service. I’ve always used lead acid, but others will use AGM. Much depends on what you plan to do. If the majority of time is on EHU a cheaper battery lower amp hour would suffice. Whereas if off grid a larger capacity would be required.

One of the biggest factors affecting battery life is how the user looks after it.

Brands such as Bosch, Varta , Banner, Yuasa are well thought of, and a cheaper option as Numax has been marketed for a long while.

Best to have a look at one of the online retailers to see the range of prices and capacities.

 

[Caravan newbie]

Thank you Clive, I appreciate your feedback.

 

[otherclive]

CN you might find this tech sheet helpful in explaining leisure batteries. There are three grades and not surprisingly the grades will affect prices. But testing to demonstrate compliance with the advertised grade is not totally transparent or necessarily independent. So it’s something to bear in mind when choosing. Never easy in the caravan field is it ?

Leisure Battery: A Guide To Leisure Batteries - The Camping and Caravanning Club

Selecting the correct leisure battery for your camping needs is not easy. This guide is designed to explain battery construction and help you on buying and maintaining one.

www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk

 

[RogerL]

Hi everyone.

Having got the caravan back from Spain and in to storage at the end of last year. It's now time to focus on the year ahead and get some much needed upgrades. Firstly, a new place to store the caravan with better facilities and cheaper! Brilliant!
But leisure Batteries, has anyone got any preference on batteries, which are the best and which are a solid, good middle of the road type battery?

Thanks in advance.

It may be worth defining your particular style/needs of caravanning - for instance if you ALWAYS use sites with EHU and never go far on the motor mover, then a small car battery would suffice - but if you usually go without EHU and have a distance or gradient to cover with your motor mover then a very high capacity battery is needed.

I caravanned, successfully, for 35 years using old car batteries then in 2019 bought my first leisure battery, a Yuasa L36-EFB as recommended by various contributors here but last year my AWS technician declared it at end of life so I'm reverting to using the 8+ year old Varta AGM battery that's just been replaced in my car and still has State Of Health (SOH) 80% - if It'll fit the battery box, that is.

 

[Caravan newbie]

It may be worth defining your particular style/needs of caravanning - for instance if you ALWAYS use sites with EHU and never go far on the motor mover, then a small car battery would suffice - but if you usually go without EHU and have a distance or gradient to cover with your motor mover then a very high capacity battery is needed.

I caravanned, successfully, for 35 years using old car batteries then in 2019 bought my first leisure battery, a Yuasa L36-EFB as recommended by various contributors here but last year my AWS technician declared it at end of life so I'm reverting to using the 8+ year old Varta AGM battery that's just been replaced in my car and still has State Of Health (SOH) 80% - if It'll fit the battery box, that is.

Thank you Roger, you make a good point about the motor mover and it was something I thought about following my post.

 

[Ferrodo]

A reasonable solar panel permanently hooked up will pay dividends for battery life. My battery is now approaching eight years old and still good. I am expecting it to croak soon but I can’t moan. Lead acid Yuasa.

 

[otherclive]

Thank you Roger, you make a good point about the motor mover and it was something I thought about following my post.

Unless you envisage having to use a mover a lot it’s surprising how little current a mover actually uses. Over the years my batteries have tended to the 100-110 amp hours. One experience that doesn’t often get factored in is that a mover can be the only means of exiting a wet/ muddy CL. I’ve been unable to exit on three occasions, al with 4wd cars and one having all terrain tyres. By taking noseweight off of the nose wheel the mover enabled me to get the van onto a hard surface. Please don’t ask how I reduced the noseweight, as I can’t afford a divonce 😱

 

[Buckman]

Unless you envisage having to use a mover a lot it’s surprising how little current a mover actually uses. Over the years my batteries have tended to the 100-110 amp hours. One experience that doesn’t often get factored in is that a mover can be the only means of exiting a wet/ muddy CL. I’ve been unable to exit on three occasions, al with 4wd cars and one having all terrain tyres. By taking noseweight off of the nose wheel the mover enabled me to get the van onto a hard surface. Please don’t ask how I reduced the noseweight, as I can’t afford a divonce 😱

Actually when using a motor mover the voltage dips quick a bit so assume it is using a lot of power. This was shown to us when the technician fitted the motor mover.

We only have a 95amp battery for our T/A, but hardly ever go off grid and I cannot remember the last time we had to use the motor mover.

 

[otherclive]

Actually when using a motor mover the voltage dips quick a bit so assume it is using a lot of power. This was shown to us when the technician fitted the motor mover.

We only have a 95amp battery for our T/A, but hardly ever go off grid and I cannot remember the last time we had to use the motor mover.

Perhaps I should have said “amp hours” rather than “current”. Irrespective Prof John has posted numerous times giving the take off from the battery and showing that once moving current draw reduces considerably. From memory my first Reich mover specified as 80 amphr battery as a minimum. It’s not unlike your car starter battery and it’s CCA rating matched to the vehicle needs. Initial cranking current drops off as starter spins up. Voltage will vary during the cycle on a mover

 

[Buckman]

Perhaps I should have said “amp hours” rather than “current”. Irrespective Prof John has posted numerous times giving the take off from the battery and showing that once moving current draw reduces considerably. From memory my first Reich mover specified as 80 amphr battery as a minimum. It’s not unlike your car starter battery and it’s CCA rating matched to the vehicle needs.

I assumed that is what you meant so no sweat there. Just to add that we have an AGM battery so not sure if that makes any difference as 95ah should be 95ah no matter what sort of battery you use, but unsure if there is a difference between a car battery and a leisure (A) battery. I leave that to the experts to inform me. LOL!

 

[otherclive]

I assumed that is what you meant so no sweat there. Just to add that we have an AGM battery so not sure if that makes any difference as 95ah should be 95ah no matter what sort of battery you use, but unsure if there is a difference between a car battery and a leisure (A) battery. I leave that to the experts to inform me. LOL!

I was using the car battery as an analogy. But there’s a post above which describes using a car battery on the caravan but minimal use of the mover.

 

[ProfJohnL]

The concern with caravan movers is the pulse of fairly high current it needs to get the movers motors turning. The motors effectively present a stalled load to the battery and the current they try to draw is limited only bet the dc resistance of the windings and the wiring between the mover and the battery.

Some big movers can have Peak currents of around 80 Amps occur whilst the motor is stationary and first started, but as soon as the shaft starts to move and radially accelerate, the motor produces a back emf which opposes the current flow and reduces it to a much more manageable level. The initial pulse will usually last for significantly less than a second, unless the mover is jammed or overloaded.

Most lead acid caravan batteries (properly charged) should be able to cope with such a short pulse with no ill effects. Yes, terminal voltage will instantly fall ( becasue that how batteries behave) but a caravan battery in good condition should maintain its terminal voltage above 11V when under load.

Caravan or leisure batteries are designed differently to car starter batteries, and they are less able to deliver super high currents but, when a car starts it may need to draw 500 to 600Amps! That would be too much for a caravan battery to manage, but they should cope with 80 to 100A of a caravan mover.

In practice I know of several people who always caravan on fully serviced pitches, so they don't tend to need a 12v battery to run the caravan, but they do need a battery to run a mover. So far they have managed with small (35Ah) small car starter battery with no problems. The battery is simply recharged by the caravans on board charger.

 

[Buckman]

In practice I know of several people who always caravan on fully serviced pitches, so they don't tend to need a 12v battery to run the caravan, but they do need a battery to run a mover. So far they have managed with small (35Ah) small car starter battery with no problems. The battery is simply recharged by the caravans on board charger.

However if using the motor mover in a storage yard and then no chance of it being charged until the next time the caravan is hooked up.

 

[ProfJohnL]

However if using the motor mover in a storage yard and then no chance of it being charged until the next time the caravan is hooked up.

If it's a small battery it easy enough to remove it from the caravan and take it home with you.

 

[otherclive]

If it's a small battery it easy enough to remove it from the caravan and take it home with you.

I always removed my batteries when in store. More an anti theft protection but also to hook up to my CTEK charger.

 

[Hutch]

However if using the motor mover in a storage yard and then no chance of it being charged until the next time the caravan is hooked up.

I have moved my caravan , 1645, kg. Well over 100 yards, with no problems, so just shunting around a storage yard should not be a problem, but it is a SA.