Symbol leisure battery

The leisure battery fitted to my Symbol is of 85ah capacity and is fitted under the driver's seat. Its physical size is critical in that there is a bracket welded onto the plate below the seat which limits the battery size that can be fitted and also is used to anchor the battery.
Now I would like to fit a larger capacity leisure battery under the seat. Has anyone achieved this and if so how? What battery did you use and what mods did you make under the seat?

squip

Most of the Boxers had this arrangement and I tried without success to get a larger battery in that cradle. I have however since seen a (only) slightly larger cradle fitted which enabled a 100 AHr battery to be fitted.

I was lucky inso far as I was able to park outside my 12v suppliers premises, remove the seat and try different batteries (to no avail) Suggestion, measure up the very maximum length you can fit in - without a cradle, (its not going to slide very far and you can lash with a strap). Then phone a specialist leisure battery supplier such as Tayma in N.Wales (they do mail order) and tell them you want details of the largest capacity battery that will fit in that space.

I was lucky with this van, Ford have crammed the vehicle battery and an auxilliary under the seat so AS had to put under a bench seat, so I fabricated a cradle to take an Exide 150ah leisure battery

Roli,
Thanks for that. I had been looking around the Tayma website and thought that may be the way forward.

squip

squip wrote:The leisure battery fitted to my Symbol is of 85ah capacity and is fitted under the driver's seat. Its physical size is critical in that there is a bracket welded onto the plate below the seat which limits the battery size that can be fitted and also is used to anchor the battery.
Now I would like to fit a larger capacity leisure battery under the seat. Has anyone achieved this and if so how? What battery did you use and what mods did you make under the seat?

squip

Why don't you fit an extra leisure battery. I put an extra 85ah battery in the compartment housing the water heater & space heater, it's not in a battery box which isn't recommended (no room for this) but the example I bought is totally sealed, in fact the supplier said it can be used upside down. I connected it, pole to pole with extra thick cable & fuses to the battery under the seat. All this coupled to two 40watt solar panels on the roof means I never have to go near electric hook-up or campsites. Great!

About nine years ago I replaced the original 85 Ah leisure battery with a Numax 110 which I assume was 110Ah. It was always a bit of a squeeze getting it in and out, but it was just about feasible. Whether current Numax 110 batteries are the same geometry as then I can't say, but I do still have the battery outside (awaiting transport to the tip) so could measure it if that's of interest to anyone?

Bartfarst

Hi All,
Might just be room for a second 85 ah battery under the drivers seat, the compartment on our symbol measures 350 front to back & the battery is 170mm wide. It would mean modifying the cradle though.

Tim.

Hi to all,
I managed to cram an extra 85 amp leisure battery under the drivers seat, but had to modify the cradle that it sits in to do this.
The cradle Is difficult to remove, I had to loosen the seat frame from the van floor to get it out.

As long as the extra battery is the same size as the original it will fit. I used some plastic trunking to space the two batteries apart & to safely run the extra wiring through the trunking. A couple of wide straps secure the batteries together and around the modified cradle.
The extra leisure battery I bought had plugs on either side for the vents, so I got a 'tee' piece from the local aquatic dealer to link the two
breathers so any gasses go out through the original vent hole in the van floor.

So far, Its worked well. We can stay anywhere without a hook up for more than a couple of days, using the tv, blower heater etc.
One thing to note is to be carefull when moving these batteries in & out of the cradle & to be aware of the seat frame & the risk of shorting
out the battery terminals.

If anyone is interested I'll post some pics.

Tim.

Hi Squip.



I had the same dilemma with fitting an extra battery in my Exec same Boxer base vehicle. Got over it by fitting another 85 amp battery under the passenger seat. Connecting both batteries together with the cable from some jump leads under the cab carpet (nice space where habitation floor meets the cab).No hump in the carpet. Fitted quick release battery lead connectors and a fused link on the possitive terminal. Made my own battery tray but you can buy one, you need to drill a hole through the floor to let out any nasty gases. You do have to remove the seats and the seat box on the passenger side to do this though. With the solar panel, another fitting story. I have gone for 9 days without EHU using plenty of lights and TV relying on the batteries and solar top up alone. Don't know how long I could go as you get a bit worried everything will start packing up after that length of time. Especially if the sun ain't shining. Might test it out sometime.



Just an alternative idea.



Cheers Whisky.

Hi dogseal,

If you do happen to have some pics of your mod I would be interested.
Have been toying with solar panels but not yet convinced!
Thanks

Hi all,
I modified the under seat battery mount plate and fitted a 100 amp Elecsol battery. We've spent 5 days wild camping with a fold out plug in 40watt solar panel and had plenty of power for tv laptop 300watt inverter etc. What I've found from experience is it's not the size of battery but the quality the previous 2 cheapo leisure battery's wouldn't start the Eberspacher I had to run the engine to start it, with the Elecsol it starts up straight away. I do have some pics of this simple mod if any one is interested.

Hi all,
Thanks for your interesting replies.
Whisky,
I cannot fit an additional battery under the passenger seat as the seat box has been replaced with a lower on so that Mrs feet can touch the deck.

Winter camper
I think your route is the way to go. I too have looked at the 100 ah Elecsol and can see that it would fit with some mod to the cradle.Trouble is that just before my latest trip I realised that the leisure battery was failing so had to quickly buy another. I did not have time to mod the cradle before setting off. The only battery of the original size that I have been able to buy is a cheapo so it won't last very long. Like you I start the engine when firing up the diesel heater. I have doubled the thickness of the wires from the battery to the diesel heater as a precaution against voltage drop. Difficult to say if it did any good.
I suppose I should remove and mod the battery cradle over the winter so that I am prepared when the latest battery fails.
squip

Hi Squip,
Where did you get your lower passenger seat-frame from?, my missus complains of dangling tootsies when dining.
I still think the best place for an extra leisure battery is the compartment housing the Truma & Eberspacher, so easy to fit & handy for the cable to the solar panels. I don't have to go near a campsite ever again!
Regards, Mike.

Mike,
I'm sorry but I can't help you with the lowered seat box. We bought the van [second hand] from Heart of England Motorhomes and when we were trying it out Mrs complained about the seat height. So I arranged that Heart of England would fit a lowered box before the hand-over of the van. I think they charged £150 but could be wrong. Perhaps a call to them would give an answer although it was 6 years ago.

squip

One source of lowered seat boxer is [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] located in Yeovil.

peugeotboxer wrote:Hi dogseal,

If you do happen to have some pics of your mod I would be interested.
Have been toying with solar panels but not yet convinced!
Thanks

Sorry for the delay!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Tim.

Thanks for the pic Dogseal - it gives me something to think about. I'm finding it really dificult to do little jobs on the van or to plan jobs like a possible battery mod because now I have to keep the van in storage and it requires a definate plan to fetch it rather than just popping outside to suss out an idea and perhaps have a measure up.


squip

Hi to all.

Just replaced both leisure batteries as the originals are on their way out. Main problem was them not holding charge if not on hookup.
Normally it will do 3 or 4 nights away without hookup, even at this time of year. I've been lucky to get 2 nights out of them the last couple of trips away.

As my van is used all year round I decided to bite the bullet & replace them with 2 new matched 75 ah instead of the original 85 ah unmatched batteries as fitted, according to the shop where I got them from the 75 ah batteries are the same as 85's, the way they calculate the amps has changed.

I'm no expert on this, does anyone on here know anything about the new amp calculation?

Tim.

Hi to all, bit of an update on the leisure batteries.
I've had less than a year on the new batteries, they were bought from a large camping gear retailer near me ( Towsure) & they are junk. Main problem with them was not holding their charge as well as the old batteries. I took them back & got a refund. I've got 2 new matched Varta 75ah's fitted now, not cheap but we will see.

Tim.