Question on batteries

[RichardW1]

Hi All

We are going away at the weekend for 2 weeks using CL elec and batt sites and I've just found out that my van battery is useless. As things are tight rather than spend £75 plus on a new 110-amp battery for the time being would it hurt to use a car battery I've got spare instead. I've got a 6yr old abbey aventura would the van charge the battery when on electric and would it run the van ok when not.

Cheers for any advice

Richard W

 

[Gareth111278]

Hi Richard.

I'm sure, so long as it fits in the box a car battery will be fine. As I understand it lead-acid leisure batteries are just car batteries They are not so good at providing cranking power but better at providing lower output over a long time. It should work fine.

Yes the caravan will charge its battery when hooked up to 240V & also when you are towing it, providing you have a 12S [grey] socket fitted.

Hope this is useful, pleae e-mail me any questions as i never remember where i've posted! garethtremenlli@gmail.com

 

[dave991]

Hi Richard.

I'm sure, so long as it fits in the box a car battery will be fine. As I understand it lead-acid leisure batteries are just car batteries They are not so good at providing cranking power but better at providing lower output over a long time. It should work fine.

Yes the caravan will charge its battery when hooked up to 240V & also when you are towing it, providing you have a 12S [grey] socket fitted.

Hope this is useful, pleae e-mail me any questions as i never remember where i've posted! garethtremenlli@gmail.com

Hi Richard

When i started caravaning several years ago i used a car battery with my first van. Had no problems.

Dave.

 

[david_374456662]

it will be fine when pluged in to mains but wont last long when not as car batteries are not deep cycle and it will prob wreck the battery if you let it go dead alot car batteries like to be fully charged all the time they are only on the car to start it then altinator takes over

 

[Steve L]

Hi Richard.

You should have no major problems using a car battery to run the 12V system on your van for a few days. As the car battery is designed to discharge at full capacity over a short period of time, the only piece of equipment I would avoid using is an inverter. Inverters are designed to run low wattage 240V appliances, TV's for example, from a 12V battery. On a normal leisure battery you could expect to run an inverter quite trouble free, but on a car battery, it might consume the battery power a lot faster. The consumption would probably equate to trying to start your car engine without a spark, which would cosume most batteries within an hour. So long as your running simple lights etc, you can expect a car battery to last 3-4 days.

You mentioned a 110amp battery. By virtue of it's size a truck/tractor battery is of simlar proportions and would offer more juice. One of these will offer close to 110amp/hr of power, whereas a car size battery will only have around 60-70amp/hr on offer.

It would be worth you feeding back on your experience using a car battery, as there will be a lot of people trimming their expenditure this year and for a few to come due to the recession and they will benifit from any tips and advice we can give.

All the best.

Steve L.

 

[RichardW1]

Hi

Thanks for your replies

We used to caravan 15yrs ago with a pretty basic van. We'd go away for a fortnight with 2 car batteries and connect to the car at night and we would just about get through. These newer vans seem heavier on batteries. We will be stopping on CL sites for about 4 days each time alternating between batt & elec so hopefully we'll be ok. Staying in the country this year to save money so will go with the car batt and if I have a problem I'll buy while away as I would have bought one eventually.

Will feedback how we get on.

Thanks for all your help

Cheers Richard W

 

[RichardW1]

Hi

Thanks for your replies

We used to caravan 15yrs ago with a pretty basic van. We'd go away for a fortnight with 2 car batteries and connect to the car at night and we would just about get through. These newer vans seem heavier on batteries. We will be stopping on CL sites for about 4 days each time alternating between batt & elec so hopefully we'll be ok. Staying in the country this year to save money so will go with the car batt and if I have a problem I'll buy while away as I would have bought one eventually.

Will feedback how we get on.

Thanks for all your help

Cheers Richard W

 

[RonD]

Richard,

I always use sites with hook ups and so I just have a 40Ah car battery to give me a bit of power for pump and lights if the mains fails. It's handy when in storage also for the 12v vacuum etc. Works fine for me!

Ron