Easter coming up Time- To Check Out Your Caravan Battery

Its Time To Check Out Your Caravan Battery

As people know who are regular caravaner’s will know most up to date modern caravans are equipped with three sources of power, these are gas, the 12volt battery and the mains electricity that can be found on either at home or on the touring caravan sites.

If the caravan owner runs out of gas or the mains electricity are not available, then they have will have their 12volt battery to fall back on. This will power the caravan lights, and water pump along with your other 12volt appliances, obviously providing that your leisure battery is in tip top condition  and has been looked

This caravan will be fitted with the larger 110 amp leisure battery

after and charged over the winter dormant period.

Caravan owners will realise that they have actually got at least two 12volt batteries, they have a car battery and the one that they use on the caravan (some have more than one). The car battery is different to the leisure battery that you will have fitted in the caravan, as it is primarily used to start the car using CCA (cold cranking amps) and because of this the car battery has different plates inside the battery. These plates are perforated to give a larger surface area, which gives the battery more power when starting your car.

The caravan battery is supplied with thicker plates for more power storage;

 this storage can be used at a later time, say in the evening to power the 12volt electrical items, such as the TV or radio. Although it is generally recommended not to use the leisure battery for starting your car, we know of late that people with 4x4 vehicles have started to us the 110 amp leisure battery as a starter battery and a winch operator and they say that they work fine. You learn every day as they say.

In the past five or six years a new breed of leisure battery has come onto the market and has been heavily publicised at the large caravan and touring vehicle shows, up and down the UK. These batteries come in the trade names of Numax and Lucas are developed by the giant battery company Johnson Controls of America. These batteries have now stood the length of time that to me proves there worth and in my opinion I think that they are an excellent product and should be considered if you require a new leisure battery for you caravan. These batteries come in different sizes to suite your caravan’s capacity requirements, and have replaced the more expensive AGM batteries.

The AGM batteries though are coming back in fashion because of the increasing use of caravan owners using solar panels to re-charge their batteries and this enables them to go to more places that may not require the electric mains to charge up their batteries. The AGM battery has a far larger capacity to charge and dis-charge and is indeed known as a Deep Cycle battery and is more suitable for the use with solar power panels. These batteries are old technology and are made by many different battery companies, a popular one is the 70amp battery, and anything above this is a very heavy battery to move around. The weight of the battery should be taken into consideration, when buying your new battery as some are as much as 30 kg in weight.

The size and weight of the caravan battery are very important

This is due to the fact that most modern caravans have integral lockers and this may restrict the size of the battery that you can fit. The size of the locker would also depend of the size and make of your caravan, but it is still worth checking your size restrictions before you buy your new battery. The older caravans would put

Smaller rigs like this vintage VW will usean 85 amp caravan battery

the battery in any old place, even beside the gas bottle, but the new safety conscious caravans have a separate locker where the battery fits and this could also restrict the size of the battery so it is well worth the effort of measuring the old battery, or buying one with the same measurements as the old battery, do not be tempted to buy a bigger battery just for the sake of it.

You will usually find that most caravans come with an 85 amp leisure battery. In my opinion this battery is adequate for the regular caravaner that goes away for long weekends and a couple of weeks holiday a year and the weight of this battery is easy manageable, if you have an awkward place for the battery to fit. If you have one of the larger caravans and have more electrical gadgets then you should go for the 100 amp leisure battery or the 110 amp leisure battery, bearing in mind that these batteries are heavy to lift.

Here are some examples of the power that some of the common equipment will use.

An average fluorescent light tube    0.75 amps current for 5 hours  uses 3.75 amps per hour                                         

An  average colour TV                         3.00 amps  current for 2 hours uses 3.00 amps per hour

Two reading lamps (his and hers)     2.00 amps current for 2 hours uses 3.00 amps per hour

Water pump                                          7.00 amps current  for 0.25 hours uses 1.75 amps per hour

These figures are just a guide and may slightly differ from one caravan to another. For more information …http://www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/helpandadvice/technicalhelp/power/your-leisure-battery/

Eric Roberts

Hi I would like to introduce myself. I have worked in the Garage and tyre and I am MD for online battery companywww.batteriesontheweb.co.uk. I have worked for a couple for national tyre companies in my younger days, before starting my first business. I now own a garage and MOT testing centre, here in the UK called Pellon Tyre and Auto-centre, and I am a keen blogger about anything to do with cars and their related products that will help my business. We are members of Point-S and Motor-Codes and are also a Unipart Car Care Centre and of course Tyre-safe.