Semi traction wet lead acid batteries?

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Negativegravity
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Semi traction wet lead acid batteries?

Post by Negativegravity »

Morning all, we are planning on upgrading our leisure battery in our van when we redo our interior later this year. Currently we have a smaller battery in the engine bay but the voltage drops to 12.1v over night when running the propex and then the low voltage disconnect cuts in.

I will be moving the battery location to inside the van and into that awkward space to the side of the rock and roll bed along the side of the kitchen units. Should be plenty of space there and I can fit any size battery I’d like (or two in parallel). Just browsing online and I found this beast:

https://www.alpha-batteries.co.uk/225-a ... e-battery/

However it suggests that a “Semi traction wet lead acid battery” is more suited for wild camping (which is often what we end up doing).

Any thoughts? Isn’t 250ah the same regardless?

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kevtherev
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Re: Semi traction wet lead acid batteries?

Post by kevtherev »

I use my van all year round without hook up.
It's my hotel room.
After many years of trial and error I have finally settled on the perfect combination.
I had a Webasto HL32 petrol heater that I liked on in the evening and all night.
It drew 2.6A starting, while fast heating at 3.2kw, then when desired temp reached it cycled down to 1.3A running at 1.6kw output
To have this happen without any concerns boiled down to over capacity in the power.
I have settled on this set up.
Batteries are semi traction 6V AGM type wired in series.
With a combined rating of 250a/h
They are recharged with a 150watt solar panel.

I have just fitted a propex 2kw gas heater
It draws 1.6 A with no start up draw it can switch on and off with impunity.

A few things of note.
With the heater on average for 12hrs (thermostat)
On the same solar panel.

I had 2 x 110ah 12V lead acid "leisure" batteries in parallel.
At the end of the fourth night they were down to 50%, if the weather was sunless.

The AGM batteries suffered no such fate.
They have never dropped below 75%.
The propex draws no extra amps for starting.
I think this is a contributing factor along with the battery type

I hope this helps
AGG 2.0L 8V. (Golf GTi MkIII)

Negativegravity
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Re: Semi traction wet lead acid batteries?

Post by Negativegravity »

Thanks Kev, will take a look into 6V batteries. They seem much cheaper, and doubling them up gives twice the available charge for essentially half the price

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