Second leisure battery? Forums

tco

Ok guys let's have your thoughts on these ideas. Having just acquired our first motorhome and having come from narrowboating, where (at least) two leisure batteries are the norm, I find there is ample space to install a second under floor battery box (if I can find one!) adjacent to the original.

We intend to camp mostly on sites where there are no EHU's and are concerned that a two/three day stay may exhaust the current single battery. So I am thinking of installing a second one, wired in parallel to supplement the original. I have checked and I do have payload capacity.

Does anyone know where I can get such a battery box?

One other thing, Is there any reason why I cannot buy an £80 flat screen freeview 240v TV from Tesco's and run it off an inverter, rather than pay £300 for one with a 12v input.

Regards

Tco

clodhopper2006

Personaly I've never heard of an underfloor battery box. Would it be accessable for maintenance? You could maybe get one fabricated for you but cant you get another battery alongside the one you have now or uprate to a higher Ah rating?
No reason at all why you cant run a TV throuhg an inverter. They are power eaters though but a lot of folk find most TV's are powered from a black box supply that outputs 12V to the telly. Many have said they just bypass the box and plug into the van 12V. If you do this you will need to ignore all those who will tell you you will fry your telly doing this.

Bob

tco

Thank you for your reply Clodhopper. How can I describe the battery box? Let's see.

It is a rectangular plastic box, about the depth of a normal battery, with a rim flange around the top edge. this flange supports the box which hangs down through a similare sized rectangular hole in the floor of the 'van.

Thanks for the tip about the 12v supply to mains TV's I guess the next question is how to identify the correct supply point.

Tco

silverlocks · Central Rally Co-ordinator

Go for the tesco option, I have telly and sat box working thru 300 watt inverter connected direct to 2nd hab bat but not in parallel. keep inverter close to batt and you will find it lasts for about 24 hours continuous use, just depends how long you want telly on each day how long it lasts, we get 4 days no prob and 8 days if we carefull, just OH soaps and my news and weather

some-where-in-oxford

You should be able to get a plastic battery box from any caravan or motorhome dealers accessory shop.

I've seen them for about six quid at the motorhome shows. They often come with a strap to hold the top on.

http://tinyurl.com/6lfaso

google - motorhome battery box

Lots of links.

Rapide561

Hi

I agree re the television - I use a cheapish telly - and if needed, run through an invertor. I will add, however, that when watching SKY TV and the TV is connected to the invertor, the signal sometimes breaks up. Not sure if the invertor is causing some form of interference.

As for the battery box - no idea - but agree having two batteries is a good idea.

R

TheFoxes

Hi, try www.marinestore.co.uk. I haven't used them personally, but I have been looking for battery boxes for when I relocate my leisure batteries and these are the only ones I have seen so far.
(sorry I haven't sussed out how to insert a direct link to the page yet)
Regards Paul

or have I??

tco

It looks like it!

Tco

JQL

I got a cheap 15" LCD from Curries which has the usual 240v to 12v power brick so the TV is basically a 12v model. I bought a 12v regulated power supply from

Vennwood

Hi tco,

Another tip to eek out the battery amps when off EHU - you can buy replacement LED bulbs for your internal lighting - makes one heck of a difference on battery usage - it can reduce your amps to a fraction of the current H4 usage. We bought a 17 inch LCD screen for £99 and found it used a 240 volt transformer to supply 12 volts to the TV - we have used it both ways with no ill effect

Pete