Polens cretin designed leisure battery place!

The leisure battery for my Auto sleeper Polensa had died so I thought I'll just nip out, buy a replacement and bung it in.  How wrong I was.  The first job was to look for a 110ah to replace the 85ah that the tight wad who previously owned the vehicle had put in.  Then I discovered that the 110 ah leisure batteries were all to long because the idiot who designed this vehicle was to thick to understand simple design factors such as placing the battery where it could be accessed with ease. 
I then looked into how I was supposed to remove the existing battery having found that it was bolted in with no space to get a spanner other than a long box spanner onto the nuts.  Its many years since I have needed to use such tools so my next task is to tidy the garage and hope that in doing so I find the appropriate tools but the sun is shining so its a cup of tea time and if I don't find the box spanners at least it gives me the excuse to go on a tool shopping spree.

Hi,
I remember box spanners, tend to use sockets nowadays, do halfords still do free fitting?
Chris

Bearing in mind places where I sent the precise measurements returned a suggested battery that was three inches longer than the size I sent I will give Halfords a try and if they do the fitting they've got the job.  But the question still exists, "How can vehicle designers make such a dogs breakfast of designing a simple van?

In fairness, the vans themselves are general purpose vehicles that can be adapted for a lot of different uses, and the leisure van market is only a small part of that.

As an example, the VW T5 is designed to have an optional second battery under the passenger seat from the (VW) factory, and this is not easy to access. However, its primary purpose is to power auxiliary heaters, extra lighting and additional equipment for things like ambulances. So it's not really intended to be accessed/changed by the driver/owner - in most cases these batteries would be maintained and replaced in a workshop, where removal of a front seat would not be unusual for that sort of work.

Some converters choose to use this location for a leisure battery and others do not, and there are pros and cons to each approach. Bilbos for example do not use the under-seat location for their leisure batteries - but the downside is that they have to use space elsewhere to fit one where it is more easily serviced by a motorhome owner. A/S (in the Trooper) do use an under-seat location - harder to maintain but it frees up space elsewhere in the van for other things.

The RAC changed my battery, came to our home, removed the drivers seat fitted new battery and made sure all was well.
It probably cost a bit more (can not remember how much) but the battery came with a four year no quibble warranty, and the man who fitted it also drove a motorhome and said that with the way we use the van we may well need a new battery again in four years. we didn't.
Pete