It's time to replace our Leisure Battery ? 100 Ah minus as we use our Mover regularly. Several different types available now I believe ? Advices invited thank you.
New Battery recommends please?
- Thread starter TerryIvybridge
- Start date
Before we Sold our caravan we brought a Tanya 120Ah Leisure battery and the new owner says it still going so far .
How much do you actually use your motor mover?
A motor doesn't really take much out of a battery. The manual for mine says average current is 20 amps, so taking a 100 AH battery from full to 50% charge would mean using it constantly for 2.5 hours.
Sorry, I can't recommend a battery. I've been using an old 80Ah car battery (that I happened to have sitting in the garage for over a year) without issue. I don't go 'off grid' and use my motor mover for maybe 5 minutes to hitch up at home then however long it takes me to pitch up on arrival at site.
The OP is seeking advice on a replacement battery not mover, but the links are useful anyway.
I should read!!! I tend to skimp over things 😡
It may be useful to know the make model and year of theTerry’s caravan.Latest Caravans rely heavily on 12v so that should have a bearing on the final choice
I bought mine from Tayna too - a 110ah one as the caravan apparently can't have a bigger one than that.
I've been using Tayna for years for batteries.
Steve
I have to use our Mover in order to get off, and on our drive. 90 deg turn in and out and slight up hill going in. Ex Lorry Driver so no problem reversing it in (apart from drive-thru' speeding cars/vans?) but clutches these days are not up to the job as they were years ago.
When replacing a caravan battery, It helps to know what 12V dc equipment you have and what your usage pattern is.
For example, If you use your caravan off mains power for extended periods, then you will need a battery with big Ah rating, and because the battery may be significantly depleted before its recharged, it will need to be a "leisure or traction type battery that resists dropping its plate material when discharged. It will need a peak current rating (Cold Cranking Amps) that can cope with maximum current your caravan needs. The common big draw appliance is a caravan mover which can peak out at about 100A for a fraction of a second when you start to move, but generally the current drops back to a much smaller value once the van is moving. Whilst this may seem an alarming amount of power, the fact is most people don't run movers for very long, so the actual power used is often greatly overestimated.
But if you only need a battery to run a caravan mover to position the caravan before connecting to an EHU, then based on what I have said above, you can get away with a much smaller and cheaper car battery, provided its CCA is enough for the mover.
For example, If you use your caravan off mains power for extended periods, then you will need a battery with big Ah rating, and because the battery may be significantly depleted before its recharged, it will need to be a "leisure or traction type battery that resists dropping its plate material when discharged. It will need a peak current rating (Cold Cranking Amps) that can cope with maximum current your caravan needs. The common big draw appliance is a caravan mover which can peak out at about 100A for a fraction of a second when you start to move, but generally the current drops back to a much smaller value once the van is moving. Whilst this may seem an alarming amount of power, the fact is most people don't run movers for very long, so the actual power used is often greatly overestimated.
But if you only need a battery to run a caravan mover to position the caravan before connecting to an EHU, then based on what I have said above, you can get away with a much smaller and cheaper car battery, provided its CCA is enough for the mover.
Whilst this may go against the grain with some on here we changed to a lithium battery last year. Costs a bit more than a LA or AGM battery however I believe the benefits are worth it. More usable capacity, lighter (ours was half the weight of LA), 10 year warranty and doesnt discharge when not in use. With a solar panel it stays topped up in winter even with the alarm, something our LA never did as within 6-8 weeks it would be dead. You do need to check out your charger though as if its not suitable theres the additional cost of replacing for one with a lithium profile but I found the battery manufacturer very helpful in this regard
I can save half the weight of a LA battery by only taking one gas cylinder - so the weight-saving doesn't justify the extra cost for me.
We change to a Fogstar Drift ECO £209, less than half the weight and twice the capacity.
So true, but largely overlooked as being key to what best suits.
IMO there is little point in spending the high investment needed to store energy for off grid use, when doing that is not a client requirement. As already pointed out a mover does not require much "energy", but requires power to be available.
I looked at the ECO however the lack of heating put me off. We take the van to the highlands every year in winter and the temps can get very low, didnt want to risk damaging the cells if it charges in low temps. Went for the 105ah drift - £350 but has heating and longer warranty
Its not just about weight saving - charges better, more usable power, better warranty, doesn't discharge, bluetooth app so can manage battery. If you use off grid or cant easily plug van into mains to charge battery IMHO its a better option.
Some people look on these things purely from a cost basis at the time of outlay. I look at it from getting the best I can for my situation and use. If it costs a bit more upfront but makes my life easier or better than the standard then I am happy to pay the money - hence paying for lithium. It doesn't suit everyone's needs however we do caravan off grid and cant always get the caravan plugged in to charge and so lithium was a no brainer for me. The fact it saved me 12kg of payload was a bonus, plus a can always have a full cylinder of gas
Since I do need a new battery, I checked out the Fogstar Drift ECO 100AH but the costs mounted up as I'd need the onboard power supply disabling as it doesn't give high enough voltage for a lithium battery plus the cost of a suitable charger that does. Since we only caravan off-grid 1/2 nights/year lithium's advantages would pass us by.
Unfortunate, but reinforces the case that it doesn't suit all situations. We were fortunate that our onboard charger does charge the battery fine and had this confirmed with Fogstar although the charging is generally switched off becasue the solar panel manages the battery very well. Had the onboard charger not been suitable I dont think we would have gone that route as the cost then really does mount up
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