Fairford - extra leisure battery

Hi all 
Another question!
Has anybody fitted a second leisure battery and if you have where? Looking for ideas

Thanks karl

We haven’t , no but do have a solar panel......is that perhaps a consideration? I’m not sure where I’d put a second battery. Space is at a premium already, especially if you are taking grandkids with you and might be carrying an awning and it’s bits

What is your base vehicle,I have a 2014 Warwick duo on a Peugeot boxer and it has a second leisure battery under the passengers seat

I thought you had an 80w solar as standard. What makes you think you'll need s second battery? Perhaps you're looking for problems that may not exist.

I'm going to alter title to a more meaningful one. The second line of title does not appear when members use ''posts since last visit' which most members do

Thanks for the replies, my van does have a 80watt solar panel with a 105ah leisure battery as standard, a lot of sites I wish to visit don't have hookup and I will be parked up for 2-3 nights at a time my concern is in the colder weather will I have enough power to run the heating for this amount of time

Karlburn wrote:Thanks for the replies, my van does have a 80watt solar panel with a 105ah leisure battery as standard, a lot of sites I wish to visit don't have hookup and I will be parked up for 2-3 nights at a time my concern is in the colder weather will I have enough power to run the heating for this amount of time

You will struggle and have to manage 12v power use carefully. As you are living in the van (rather than storing it), I recommend you turn OFF the Solar smart charging and divert all of the solar energy to the leisure battery. Things like Truma Inet and TV amplifier consume power and should be disabled. Whenever you don't need power, turn off the power unit (not just at the control panel) but be aware that will prevent the fridge operating on gas but in cool weather, I don't expect that would be a problem.


A second leisure battery will eak out the use IF both batteries are fully charged when you start but do remember that two batteries will take longer to charge than one so don't expect a couple of hours driving to recharge to full.

I’d imagine it couldn’t go under the passenger seat, it swivels.....I presume your year of model does too.

In the winter you really need a hookup to power heating on electric but you have the option of using the gas too, though I believe the fans to distribute the heating, powered on gas will use the 12 v when  not on EHU, I’m unsure how long you will get doing it this way with help of solar panel.

I'll agree with Peter on this, he's much more knowledgeable on electrics/batteries than me. Between October and April we only use sites with hook-up so have never encountered heating problems. Even small sites of both major clubs have hook-up if in fact they open over winter. For the rest of the year we manage fine with 80w solar and 105amp battery.

Karlburn wrote:Thanks for the replies, my van does have a 80watt solar panel with a 105ah leisure battery as standard, a lot of sites I wish to visit don't have hookup and I will be parked up for 2-3 nights at a time my concern is in the colder weather will I have enough power to run the heating for this amount of time

The Truma Combi 6E specs say it draws an average of 1.3A from the 12V when on gas (heat & water). I usually allow about 0.5A for each set of LEDs lights.
It looks marginal if you were thinking of running the heating 24*7.

I will test it out over the weekend, I’ve measured up and I can just get a 105ah battery under the drivers seat so it does look a possibility if I need more power

A third battery..mmm, thinks. well, the battery, or batteries do run down on the fairford, even with solar if you leave the zig on, we turn it off most of the time when we are absent from the vehicle. We have had flat vehicle battery, even when it was new if you leave it switched over to vehicle on zig. But generally, it all stays fairly charged with average use, check acid levels etc also. A third battery will only help if you increase the 80w solar panel to two in my opinion. You could modify the existing battery under the seat, change things around a bit and fit an extra large battery, almost the same size as the vehicle battery, but again, that is just more to charge up. Personally i would not bother, sorry to have to say that, i just cannot see any reason or benefit

The benefit for me would be to get a extra night or two off grid in the winter, my battery’s would always be fully charged when I set off as I have ehu at home

Don't forget your limited supply of gas. In the cold weather earlier this year people were only getting a couple of days out of the gas tank.

Peter Brown wrote:Don't forget your limited supply of gas.  In the cold weather earlier this year people were only getting a couple of days out of the gas tank.

Seriously? A 20 litre tank is equivalent to over one and a half Calor 6kg bottles.

Paulmold wrote:

Peter Brown wrote:Don't forget your limited supply of gas.  In the cold weather earlier this year people were only getting a couple of days out of the gas tank.

Seriously? A 20 litre tank is equivalent to over one and a half Calor 6kg bottles.

There were several such reports at the time but it was unusually (for UK) cold.

We once filled our tank in central Spain this year, and the pump just kept going and going, you get used to how long it usually takes, but this filling station, it was on and on and on. I panicked and stopped it manually in the end. The gas then lasted two weeks of normal use before the indicator showed one light off. In Luxembourg we also found the tank fills more than the UK. In fact, whenever we have filled in the UK the indicator lights struggle to have a full set, even when just filled, the stations do not seem to have the same capabilities to fill as high as abroad to us. Portugal is not an easy place to find gas, many stations have closed. When we did find it, it was usually in an out of the way place. we now have a site we visit to check on up to date stations before we head on those directions

solar panels 'run' on light not heat....so daylight is al, that's required...
we use plenty of C&CCtemporary holiday sites (THS) with no EHU.
ok, we have two leisure batteries and a 100w solar panel, but we can run (pretty much) indefinitely during spring, summer, early autumn..
I even charge electric bike batteries via an inverter...although not every day.
many caravanners (who won't have twin batteries) stay on these sites for weeks.
ok, as you move to late autumn and there is less day.ight and more other stuff is required (tcv on longer, heating fan running longer on 12v) the balance shifts quickly.
having said that, if your needs are small (a few LED lights and not too much heating, which is gas powered) it can be done...especially if the vehicle is driven from time to time.
after all. our van keeps all batteries charged, even in winter, with no EHU when on the drive between trips...
why not get out there and do a few days testing....this will give you an accurate idea how long your current system will sustain you....including the gas...

bolero boy wrote:solar panels 'run' on light not heat....so daylight is al, that's required...
we use plenty of C&CCtemporary holiday sites (THS) with no EHU.
ok, we have two leisure batteries and a 100w solar panel, but we can run (pretty much) indefinitely during spring, summer, early autumn..
I even charge electric bike batteries via an inverter...although not every day.
many caravanners (who won't have twin batteries) stay on these sites for weeks.
ok, as you move to late autumn and there is less day.ight and more other stuff is required (tcv on longer, heating fan running longer on 12v) the balance shifts quickly.
having said that, if your needs are small (a few LED lights and not too much heating, which is gas powered) it can be done...especially if the vehicle is driven from time to time.
after all. our van keeps all batteries charged, even in winter, with no EHU when on the drive between trips...
why not get out there and do a few days testing....this will give you an accurate idea how long your current system will sustain you....including the gas...

Thanks, we have just done two nights and used everything as normal so we see how we get along