More Power

[tony_5098273]

I want to add more power to the van as we do a lot of caravaning where there is no on site electric therefore using the van battery for lighting and using a lcd tv.

Being new to caravaning can anybody tell me how to connect a second battery in line with the battery Ive got using double the power.

I have another battery with a box with same amps, I need to know how to connect.

Any help would be appreciated. Tony

 

[Cockovan]

I would suggest the simplest way is to use one battery until it is flat then swap it for the other one.

 

[Damian]

Tony, connect Positive (+) to Positve(+) and Negative(-) to Negative(-).

This will give you double the amp hours at 12 volts, however,both batteries will discharge equally so when one is flat, so is the other.

 

[spj]

Hi Tony,

It is better to use one battery and then the other but I use two 110 amp batteries wired together as it is more convenient.

Connect positive to positive and negative to negative but put an inline fuse in as near to each battery as possible on the positive line, I use a 15a fuse and 30 amp wire so if any thing goes wrong the fuse will blow and the wiring can not cause a fire. Also before fitting the batteries I checked the levels and charged each one seperatly with an automatic charger, and I kept checking the voltage, when I got them the same I let them stand overnight and rechecked the voltage, both were nearly the same and I fit them, this seems a bit over the top but a battery is only as good as its worst cell, a battery has six cells and two batteries wired in paralell like this will perform as one twelve cell battery so they need to be matched as well as possible.

If your second battery is mounted inside your van it will need venting outside. I use this system and use a 15" lcd tv with a 12v Sky box and I know it is ok for 5 days and more, I see people with solar panels on a two day rally and cannot understand why they bother, one battery in good condition will be fine for a three day bank holiday weekend and two should go a week with careful use and they are much cheaper than solar or generators.

spj.

 

[paul_374300602]

When I owned a sailing boat it had two batteries and a switch which could be selected to connect either battery no1 or no2 or both at the same time.This related to the charging and the battery in use so if battery 1 was switched on that one was being used and being charged at the same time if a charging current was available ie the engine running or in the case of a caravan a mains hookup. this is a standard system in boats where a flat starting battery at sea can be a very serious problem. The switches as I remember are about