My leisure battery failed a few weeks ago but it didn't cause any problems as we always have a pitch with electricity. In fact it was a surprise to discover that all the 12v stuff still works fine with no battery on board. Anyway I'm thinking of buying a motor mover so the battery needs replacing. Surely a car battery would be better in this instance as we never use the leisure battery for its intended purpose of lights, water pumps etc.
car or leisure battery
- Thread starter JohnGriffiths
- Start date
- Mar 14, 2005
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Hello John,
Ther is a technical difference between car and leisure type batteries.
The car battery is designed to allow very high discharge rates for short periods of time. Lesiure batteries are designed to allow long slow deep discharges.
Although motor movers do use quite large currents to get moving, the sustained high currents are very limited (less than half a second)The subsequent current to keep the caravan moving is not so much.
If you usage is only the motor mover then a car battery may be suitable choice, but if it is not likely to be kept well charged then the leisure batery is the correct choice.
Ther is a technical difference between car and leisure type batteries.
The car battery is designed to allow very high discharge rates for short periods of time. Lesiure batteries are designed to allow long slow deep discharges.
Although motor movers do use quite large currents to get moving, the sustained high currents are very limited (less than half a second)The subsequent current to keep the caravan moving is not so much.
If you usage is only the motor mover then a car battery may be suitable choice, but if it is not likely to be kept well charged then the leisure batery is the correct choice.
We found that our 85 ah failled pretty quickly once we had a mover fitted so we replaced it with a 110 ah which has been very good.
I can't really see the point of wanting to replace the leisure battery with a car battery as a 110 ah leisure battery can now be purchased for as little as
I can't really see the point of wanting to replace the leisure battery with a car battery as a 110 ah leisure battery can now be purchased for as little as
Thanks all. Issue wasn't the cost, just that I thought a car battery might be more effective as it seemed that a motor mover and a starter motor had something in common. As John L said, Leisure batteries are good for long slow discharge, surely not something a motor mover would inflict on a battery.
I used a car battery for years on the basis that my mover seemed to work much better with this than my old leisure battery. Car batteries are designed to deliver the sort of high currents that movers use, whereas some leisure batteries might struggle, or even fail. This year I bought a new carbon fibre construction battery from Elecsol. This is a leisure battery that is capable of delivering both high currents and sustained low currents. It is also comparitively light weight (25 kg for the 110 A/h version). Therefore it is ideal for a caravan with a mover. It was also "Best Buy" in the February 2007 Caravan Club magazine. Elecsol can be contacted on 0800 163298. I bought the 110 A/h version at
Hi all,
I was under the understanding that it was always good practise to have a battery connected to the caravan than just using the charger solely as a 12v supply.
I would assume this to be true because when the battery is connected it is shearing the load
Hi all,
I was under the understanding that it was always good practise to have a battery connected to the caravan than just using the charger solely as a 12v supply.
I would assume this to be true because when the battery is connected it is shearing the load
I was under the understanding that it was always good practise to have a battery connected to the caravan than just using the charger solely as a 12v supply.
I would assume this to be true because when the battery is connected it is shearing the load
Yes I think you are probably right. A mate of mine pointed out that I was in effect expecting the battery charger to run the 12 v supply. Probably not a good idea but fortunately I didn't use anything other than the water pump.
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