When I bought this caravan just over three years ago I had a motor mover fitted and never gave the battery a second thought when I did use the mover I thought this is abit slow compared to watching other caravanners manouver their vans, then last year I was talking movers to a fellow caravanner and it turned out he had a 115ah leisure battery , I checked mine and it was only a 70ah, my point is surely the dealership should of mentioned the fact that I had only a 70ah battery not enough power for a motor mover, so now I have a nice new 115ah from Halfords battery on board for this years manouvering,
Motormover/ Battery
- Thread starter camel
- Start date
Hello Camel.
I have done several calculations in the past to show how long a caravan mover is actually used for when uncoupling and positioning on site, and most times the mover is running for less than 5 minutes. Typically it will use about 1Ah of battery capacity to position a caravan. To put that into a comparison, using a 4A rated televison for 15min would use the same amount of power.
Its all about current times time, and although a motor mover may use quite a lot of current, its only used for very short periods of time. This being the case a good quality 70Ah battery in good condition and with reasonable charge should cope with caravan movers with no problems. You should have no concerns if you use a site with a EHU to keep the battery topped up.
If a problem arises, then its usually the condition of the battery due to age or poor charging.
Motor movers use electric motors. These have a big current demand when you start them up (Stalled current) Your battery needs to be able to supply this, and is indicated by the batteries peak or cold cranking current rating. (Different types of batteries can have big differences in this rating)
This peak demand normally lasts for less than a second after which their current demand drops considerably.
Some mover manufacturers have designed soft start systems to reduce the initial peak current.
When the first caravan mover was was first seen at public exhibitions, a fully weighted trailer was demonstrated for about 30 minuets in every hour the exhibition was open. A 70Ah battery lasted all day and was only changed each morning as a precaution.
I suspect you old battery was somewhat past its best.
I have done several calculations in the past to show how long a caravan mover is actually used for when uncoupling and positioning on site, and most times the mover is running for less than 5 minutes. Typically it will use about 1Ah of battery capacity to position a caravan. To put that into a comparison, using a 4A rated televison for 15min would use the same amount of power.
Its all about current times time, and although a motor mover may use quite a lot of current, its only used for very short periods of time. This being the case a good quality 70Ah battery in good condition and with reasonable charge should cope with caravan movers with no problems. You should have no concerns if you use a site with a EHU to keep the battery topped up.
If a problem arises, then its usually the condition of the battery due to age or poor charging.
Motor movers use electric motors. These have a big current demand when you start them up (Stalled current) Your battery needs to be able to supply this, and is indicated by the batteries peak or cold cranking current rating. (Different types of batteries can have big differences in this rating)
This peak demand normally lasts for less than a second after which their current demand drops considerably.
Some mover manufacturers have designed soft start systems to reduce the initial peak current.
When the first caravan mover was was first seen at public exhibitions, a fully weighted trailer was demonstrated for about 30 minuets in every hour the exhibition was open. A 70Ah battery lasted all day and was only changed each morning as a precaution.
I suspect you old battery was somewhat past its best.
Prof,
I could not agree more with you about the 70ah battery being capable of manouvering the caravan it certainly did but it was at a snails pace, personally I can count the times on one hand when I've used the mover on site ,like others on here I'm a retired LGV driver so I normally end up helping others at times on site to manouver on to their pitch but it is useful for mounting my pavement to put on the front to wash off,
The Prof’s calculation is faultless.
Powrtouch however , recommend a minimum size battery at 110ah. A CYA policy I suspect.
That does not explain your slow movement.
My TA with a Powrtouch is painfully slow but it is moving nearly 2 tonnes. FIL SA @1300kgs was fast. How heavy is yours?
Has it always been slow?
Dodgy connections at the terminals on the motors can cause inferior performance.
Powrtouch however , recommend a minimum size battery at 110ah. A CYA policy I suspect.
That does not explain your slow movement.
My TA with a Powrtouch is painfully slow but it is moving nearly 2 tonnes. FIL SA @1300kgs was fast. How heavy is yours?
Has it always been slow?
Dodgy connections at the terminals on the motors can cause inferior performance.
As DD states , check all the connections from the battery to the Blue Box (Power Touch) I found all mine were Slack. A lot of people fitting them are , Fitters NOT engineers..
"70ah battery being capable of manouvering the caravan it certainly did but it was at a snails pace, "
The speed of a caravan mover assuming all other things are equal is the voltage delivered to the motors. As there is no difference between the fully charged terminal voltage of 70 or 110Ah battery. So there should be no difference in speed. The only thing that might be different is the length of time the mover would work for, but that would be much longer than any normal caravanner would need it for.
The symptoms you described point to either a battery at the end of its life, or possibly as others have suggested loose terminal connections.
Perhaps try refitting the original battery after a proper charge and double checking the tightness of connections might confirm the explanation?
The speed of a caravan mover assuming all other things are equal is the voltage delivered to the motors. As there is no difference between the fully charged terminal voltage of 70 or 110Ah battery. So there should be no difference in speed. The only thing that might be different is the length of time the mover would work for, but that would be much longer than any normal caravanner would need it for.
The symptoms you described point to either a battery at the end of its life, or possibly as others have suggested loose terminal connections.
Perhaps try refitting the original battery after a proper charge and double checking the tightness of connections might confirm the explanation?
Damian
Moderator
Just for information:
The Classic single axle mover will move a van at 25Cm/Sec
The Evolution, both single and double, the rate is 28Cm/Sec
Powrtouch recommend a minimum battery capacity of 85 A/Hr but preferably 110 a/Hr
The Classic single axle mover will move a van at 25Cm/Sec
The Evolution, both single and double, the rate is 28Cm/Sec
Powrtouch recommend a minimum battery capacity of 85 A/Hr but preferably 110 a/Hr
I manage with a 75 amp battery but it is slow. In practice I normally reverse onto pitches to save the hassle of setting up the mover unless I get a particularly difficult one. The mover is normally used just to put the caravan back in storage, so the speed does not worry me. It is a Powertouch though and I think it is slower then previous movers.
Hello all, not sure if you are aware, but you can alter the speed of the motor on a Powrtouch, perhaps you are in 'slow'?. This can be altered on the handset.
How do you know it's slow,have you measured this.It's easy and straightforward.All you do is mark out a measured distance and time how long it takes the van to travel the measured distance and convert this to mph or whatever speed is specified in the product specification.
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