I have been told that driving does very little to charge a leisure battery. Roadpro sells a product for a couple of £100 that you fit and then the leisure batteries will charge quickly when driving otherwise you woul have to drive hundreds of miles to charge them. The answer would be to consider buying a generator. We saw those cheap generators at Newbury that are about £250 and quite quiet. I think they would charge your batteries very quickly. Solar panels would be the other solution.

Alternatively whenever I am on a get together with Sylvia ( as in vicdicdok's partner) and I see her running on the spot for a hour each morning I always think she should be harnessing all that energy to charge the batteries up. Maybe link a bike to an old fansioned car generator (pre alternator) and pedal instead of run

stew

 

Thanks for the reply. So how much use would you expect from a leisure battery without charging?

 

There are people on the site able to give you equations etc to work it out. Depends on how many batteries, what size, how old, and then what size equipment you are using.

stew

 

Thanks for the reply. So how much use would you expect from a leisure battery without charging?

"how long is a piece of string" :lol: ....but I think what you are after is an average estimate ....so for a medium sized van with one Leisure battery (85amp/hr or larger depending on the van)....with a sensible/carefull crew, at least 3 days/nights in the summer but up to 5 if you are ultra carefull with the power. Maybe just 2 days/nights in the winter (if you have blown air heating) and only use the lights when necessary.

With "kids and mother in law" all using the lights and the flush and the TV ..1 day and night if you are lucky. :lol:

Mike

 

Hi,
As Mike says, this is a 'bit of string question'.
There are various ways to go, extra battery, generator (not the most friendly with neighbours), solar panel(s), boosted charging, etc.
This topic has been covered extensively in the past, I would suggest a good search of the forums will give a lot of info.
It all depends also on where you intend to go and how long you want to be independent for and how much you are prepared to pay.
I spent five months away, mostly in Portugal this winter totally without hook-ups.
A more specific question would be easier to answer.

 

Hi, we have 1 - 110ah battery and if we are touring ie. moving every day some days only 20 miles but others perhaps 100 miles then the 1 battery is quite sufficient we have left the Trauma heating on over night on a couple of occasions and it has been fine, we don't watch much TV perhaps 1 to 1.5 hours a night usually just to get the news and weather ?

Hope that helps, we have quite a big MH and it has 3 downlighters in the shower area, we also use the spot lights for reading until quite late ?

 

Hi,
As Mike says, this is a 'bit of string question'.
There are various ways to go, extra battery, generator (not the most friendly with neighbours), solar panel(s), boosted charging, etc.
This topic has been covered extensively in the past, I would suggest a good search of the forums will give a lot of info.
It all depends also on where you intend to go and how long you want to be independent for and how much you are prepared to pay.
I spent five months away, mostly in Portugal this winter totally without hook-ups.
A more specific question would be easier to answer.

Thanks BillD. We are looking to spend up to a year touring and looking for a house to buy in France or Spain spending till Nov in France and Nov - March in Spain and maybe Portugal driving North again around next April.

Ideally, as newcomers to MH's we will probably spend much of the time on sites but if possible would like to do some wild camping as well.

How did you maintain your battery for 5 months without hookups? Do you have a gen/solar?

 

Hi,

we also have a single 110 Ah leisure battery. And when wild camping in deepest German winter (temperatures below -15 deg C) the battery lasts without any problem for 48 hours without recharging. At our normal consumption, which means Truma heating running all day and night, hot shower every morning and having several (halogen) lights on for several hours a day. One evening watching a DVD on the laptop (running via an inverter) is also included. It would even last longer if we were really conservative.

We have neither solar panels (would not be very effective in winter anyway) nor a genny. Fridge is running on gas when wild camping.

BTW, if the wiring is good enough (not too long in relation to thickness) then the alternator can easily charge the leisure battery up to about 80-85 per cent of nominal capacity. It is the remaining 15-20 per cent that only a (good) mains charger can do.

Best Regards,
Gerhard

 

i agree try to use the gas a bit more and i dont think you will go far wrong,if it does go low a drive to a site and electeric for one night will see you on your way again

 

It obviously depends on what you use from your leisure battery, We used the 12 inch portable television on the first evening of our first trip in 1993, it rapidly flattened the new battery and has never been used since. We have been away many times for periods od 6 to 16 weeks without connecting to mains hook ups and only short travel distances ( average 25miles) a day over the whole trips and never had problems other than having to run the engine while lighting the gas Fridge. Would probably be different if we ran the fans on the heating but find it is not necessary in such a small space, other than for the toilet compartment early in the morning.
Try it before spending a lot of money, unless you are a tele addict.
Ray.

 

As Topic

Good day All

With current van's 110amp battery and 100w solar panel it would appear we can last at least 4 days and maybe considerably more using a bit of commonsense by switching off unnecessary lights, Truma etc. It is our first set up as described so I have been keen to keep account of the charging ability of said SP. Even in dull weather it charges some amps. Our excellent Weaco refrigerator runs only on 12 volts. What I want to know is where do all these amps go to when the sun is boiling the SP and said leisure battery is fully charged?

In our experience on previous vans you do NOT have to drive vast milages to keep the battery topped but remember the alternator should charge the VEHICLE battery first. I'll shut up as am not a "sparks" type fellow!.
Safe roads to all

Ken........with Wanderwagon3

 

In my murvi, I have a solar panel and a box of tricks controled from this modern looking control which seems to work very well, lets me see how much power I am using and tells me the amp hour total.

I also have dimmable lights to save power all from the same panel, it works great

 

Re: As Topic

What I want to know is where do all these amps go to when the sun is boiling the SP and said leisure battery is fully charged?

Hi Ken,

you almost said it already: If you don't use the power from the solar panel while the sun is shining on it, the SP will just get a tiny little bit warmer, and radiate off all the energy in form of heat.

Best Regards,
Gerhard

 

Just two things to add

If you run your battery down to flat you will seriously shorten its life. perhaps to a few months! Ideally never take it below 50% charged. I plan to take mine down to 10% charged on occasions and accept that my battery might not last 4 years.

Try and top up your battery with a mains charge every so often that way the battery gets charged up beyond 85-90% full and you help prolong its life.

Regards Frank

If you want to know more read my series of articles about solar click on

This link for part 1

 

Hi Oldgit72,

My setup is 2x110 AH batteries (lead acid) supplied via a Sterling battery to battery charger. This ensures that when the engine is running the batteries get a very good charge and fairly quickly. There is a lot of info. about these chargers on this site or look at Sterling's site.

I also have an 80w solar panel that feeds my leisure and engine batteries. SallyTraffic has provided a pretty comprehensive write-up about solar charging. Suffice it to say here that in Southern Europe this provides a very useful free supply - once you have the installation.

I do have a generator fitted, needed to run the air-con., but rarely use either.

We are not telly addicts, maybe once a week or so.

We have a 300w invertor for charging cameras and laptop or telly, etc.

We can usually last for about a week without needing to run the engine.

I can only say this works fine for us.

 

BillD,

I need to fit a Sterling b-to-b charger before our French summer sojourn. I was wondering whether there was much standby drain, or, given I have a split charge arrangement already, I could simply connect it up downwind of the relay so that it is physically switched off until the alternator is charging.

Did you do yours/ do you know how it's done?

Dave

 

Hi Dave,

One of the great things about it is that it is very simple to DIY instal.

It requires 3 cables (quite large but they give sizing instructions).
1. Connects alternator to BtoB,
2. Connects BtoB to earth,
3. Connects BtoB to battery.

The entire operation is wholly automatic and as far as I am aware there is no drain. It is a sophisticated piece of electrickery

The hardest part on a Ducatto is getting at the alternator! I didn't actually do it because of my physical problems but I told 'my man'what to do. Providing you can crawl around and solder on largish connectors you shouldn't have any problems.

The siting of the Btob needs to be somewhere it can get a reasonable air supply (it is suitable for engine room mounting) and ideally to keep the cables as short as possible. In my case I had fitted a gas tank so I installed it in the released gas locker.

You can't fit it downwind of the split charger as this would defeat the object, it needs to fool the alternator and also the current provided is much heavier than the split charge will carry (up to 50 amps from memory).

Hope this helps, it does what it says on the tin!!

Good luck.

 

Bill,

Thanks. I've seen my spilt charge deliver 45A into the leisure batteries, so I reckon the cabling is man enough for the 50A the Sterling will supply. I intend fitting it behind the drivers seat box, as that is where the batteries are, together with the split charge relay, so all the connections necessary are right there and should be straightforward.

It is a bit of a rat's nest of wires, however, and I just need to identify which thick cable off pin 87 of a relay is to the leisure battery and which to the fridge. Yes, I know it should be obvious to trace by eye, but, believe me, it isn't! I think I'll just pull one and see if the fridge works off 12V; hardly sophisticated, but fit-for-purpose

Dave

 

we have 2x 110amp batteries for leisure use, plus an on board genny.we often spend a week or more in the New Forest with no hook up.only allowed 1hour morning and evening to charge up.we use tv and heating( warm air) plus lights.and manage ok.however, there seem to be new lights on the market now that use low power led's.and conversion to them is simple.often just change bulbs.will hope someone else has seen this as i have mislaid the details. as a matter of interest can one still get the old gas lights that used to be in caravans.used to light my ciggy off them. stopped smoking 35 years ago.oh well time passes.

 

Re: As Topic

Good day All

With current van's 110amp battery and 100w solar panel it would appear we can last at least 4 days and maybe considerably more using a bit of commonsense by switching off unnecessary lights, Truma etc. It is our first set up as described so I have been keen to keep account of the charging ability of said SP. Even in dull weather it charges some amps. Our excellent Weaco refrigerator runs only on 12 volts. What I want to know is where do all these amps go to when the sun is boiling the SP and said leisure battery is fully charged?

In our experience on previous vans you do NOT have to drive vast milages to keep the battery topped but remember the alternator should charge the VEHICLE battery first. I'll shut up as am not a "sparks" type fellow!.
Safe roads to all

Ken........with Wanderwagon3

Snap... I too have a similar set up and experience similar longevity. Its the fridge that eats the power, without the fridge on it would last weeks, maybe even months, hence why im after a 3 way fridge.

 

Hi,
As Mike says, this is a 'bit of string question'.
There are various ways to go, extra battery, generator (not the most friendly with neighbours), solar panel(s), boosted charging, etc.
This topic has been covered extensively in the past, I would suggest a good search of the forums will give a lot of info.
It all depends also on where you intend to go and how long you want to be independent for and how much you are prepared to pay.
I spent five months away, mostly in Portugal this winter totally without hook-ups.
A more specific question would be easier to answer.