Battery Problems

Having had 48hrs of agro with an insurance company regarding renewals and false promises I go out to the van and the battery is flat. When we bought the van I told the dealers that the battery was passed its best, the date on the battery being 2008. No sir its ok we have checked it. First cold day after being stood for a week it wont start.
I have ordered a battery,80 Amp not 65 as fitted. The front battery is a leisure battery and the second leisure battery was new when we bought the van so I am  hoping this will be all that's needed.

Yeah you're lucky to get more than 5 years out of a battery unless it's really looked after and then might go on for a few more years, but 8 years is pushing it.

A dealer will never pay for anything unless they have to though so I see things like that as just consumables you have to put up with.

Although some may not agree, I keep the van hooked up all year round charging the leisure battery which has a battery master to top up the vehicle battery, this is still the same vehicle battery since new 2002, thinking about putting a new one on, but as so much seems to be bolted onto the positive terminal and is difficult to check I might just wait until it fails

My engine battery is 8 years old. The original one with the van when new failed after about a month and I replaced it with the present one. Should have been replaced under warranty but as we needed the replacement straight away it was more convenient to just buy a new one - never did get round to claiming off Fiat.

I replaced our 8 year old leisure battery earlier this year as that started to run out of power after a day whereas we had been lasting 3 days off hook up. 

I keep the batteries fully charged whilst at home - installed a hook up point at the back of our shed.

The thing is waiting till it fails means that it'll always fail at the worst possible time and in the worst place.
The vehicle battery on my van was original, and like you I thought at 8 years old I'd put off replacement a while.
It failed to crank the engine over after a cold night of free camping on a remote beach just below Oban, miles from anywhere and at sea level, no chance of bump starting...
I had no jump leads to try starting it from the leisure battery, which I wasn't sure about anyway, so what I ended up doing was boiling some water and putting a hot water bottle around the battery for ten minutes, which just revived it enough to start the engine.
A run up to the town and the nearest motor factors changed the battery for me in 5 minutes.. Peace of mind..
Al.

I get what you are saying but we have a new van on order so don't really want to start spending any more money!

My next purchase will be a battery master. The solar panel keeps the leisure batteries topped up so I so I may as well make better use of the spare charging.
By the way I bought my new battery from Advance Battery Supplies. Four year guarantee, 80 Amp, delivered next day for £70. I couldn't get the equivalent for less than £100 in our area.

Yes, I also fitted a battery master type device on return from that trip, they can be bought for little over £20 online. A very good investment.
Al.