Club 80-90 Forums

Where do people put their leisure battery? I was looking at possibly locating it in the space behind the starter battery. Anyone got an opinion on this? Just seems like a logical place but I am sure there is something obvious that I am missing. Don't really want to locate it in the van space if I don't need to.

Most seem to be under the passanger seat on a RHD

Yes that was the initial thought but can seem to find a battery that will fit flush and a decent Ampage. What Amp is yours?

Depends.....
I have an inverter in my closet in the back so I put the leisure batteries on the bottom in the cabinet. But I stripped my car so had al the possibilities to hide the wires.

regards,
Floris

From the Club 80-90 "wiki" = "Leisure batteries that fit"

Thanks

I have 2 traction Trojan 6v batteries looped into a serial 12v circuit next to where the existing leisure battery compartment is. Ok you lose very marginal floor space, but you never need hook up again!

Moved mine a few times. Prefer to keep it inside for ease of access but until recently it was in a cupboard. I've just relocated it in the (often) unuseable space below the wardrobe to one side of rock n roll bed, which by the look of it will accept any size of leisure battery. For me, being unrestricted on height or size of battery is way more important.

Just stripped mine out and building units from scratch.

In compartment behind driver's seat on mine (LHD Westy). Removed the tin lid (just kept carpet flap) so I could get a slightly bigger battery in as it was hard to find one that fitted otherwise. Using a standard automotive battery as leisure batt (works fine but they don't like being deep-cycled). I worked out previously that a proper Elecsol 100 AH leisure battery should fit that space. There's a similar space on the other side also. HTH.

nesty wrote:I have 2 traction Trojan 6v batteries looped into a serial 12v circuit next to where the existing leisure battery compartment is. Ok you lose very marginal floor space, but you never need hook up again!

Nesty how do you find the traction batteries can you pop up a photo of your batteries fitted, how are you venting them?

cheers
irishkeet

2 x 100Ah batteries, one under each seat.

ebay number ( 171258461691 )

explorer battery, alpha-battery-man - about £85 each, 5 yr guarantee.

Fit in the space almost perfectly. In one corner of each recess there is a little hump, I just nibbled a small piece of plastic edge away with side cutters so it sits flat (about the size of a grape), insulated the top of the battery and the battery covers close nicely.

The less than honest Alfa Battery scam? raises its ugly head again....

Where as nearly all battery manufactures (sellers) use the amp hour rating based on a 20 hour discharge scale, Alfa (Xplorer) are one of the few sellers/manufactures to quote based on the 100 hour discharge scale....And for one reason only! because most of the buying public are ignorant of the difference!

This battery (The Xplorer) is Quoted as a 100AH 750cca @ 100 hr Very Impressive indeed until you apply the normal 20 hour rating.

This battery when using the STANDARD 20 hour rating is actually:

85AH 750cca @ 20 hr

So at £84.99 its actually very expensive and not even what I would describe as a 'quality' brand..like Bosch, Varta or Exide.
NOT 5 years warranty^^^ but 4

Interestingly....I think 'the word' got out, because when we first started seeing this battery being advertised (2/3 years ago) they never included the '100 hr' in the advert...now it is there, presumably so they can point to it when they get caught out.



Martin

California Dreamin wrote:The less than honest Alfa Battery scam? raises its ugly head again....

Where as nearly all battery manufactures (sellers) use the amp hour rating based on a 20 hour discharge scale, Alfa (Xplorer) are one of the few sellers/manufactures to quote based on the 100 hour discharge scale....And for one reason only! because most of the buying public are ignorant of the difference!

This battery (The Xplorer) is Quoted as a 100AH 750cca @ 100 hr Very Impressive indeed until you apply the normal 20 hour rating.

This battery when using the STANDARD 20 hour rating is actually:

85AH 750cca @ 20 hr

So at £84.99 its actually very expensive and not even what I would describe as a 'quality' brand..like Bosch, Varta or Exide.
NOT 5 years warranty^^^ but 4

Interestingly....I think 'the word' got out, because when we first started seeing this battery being advertised (2/3 years ago) they never included the '100 hr' in the advert...now it is there, presumably so they can point to it when they get caught out.



Martin

Martin, What are you using yourself?

An unmatched Combination.....admittedly.

80ah EXIDE Type 110 starter battery under the drivers seat (here it is..a real squeeze) I took a punt on this battery at £30 from a guy who had only had it fitted on his BMW for 5 weeks before selling his car on fitted with the original battery. A punt because I really wasn't sure if it was too wide. As you can see it fits like a glove and with the metal battery box lid closed and not catching (this particular battery has a low profile of 175mm) standard height is 190mm.



Same as: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Type-110-Car- ... Swp5JWYFD7" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And then a Lucas 110ah leisure in the small cupboard left of the fridge (if you are familiar with the Westy Cali layout) Connected in parallel with a 60 amp Maxi fuse.
Kept in check as one bank with a 100watt solar panel and of course on the split charger when moving.

I'm not suggesting that this is by any means the best setup available but it works for me and it wasn't particularly expensive.
I have no issues using 'STARTER' batteries, after all, it was good enough for WESTFALIA who also used a standard starter battery from the factory. You just need to be aware not to discharge below 50% .
My Solar charge controller has an LCD display and I've rarely seen my batteries dropping below 65% on an evening. With the 100watt solar on the roof,even on the dullest of days, the charge control panel is flashing 99% charged by 2pm the following afternoon, as early as 11am if its sunny..so I simply never have to worry about 'Deep Cycle' issues.

I would also point out that even true leisure batteries DO NOT like to be deep cycled, they are just much more resilient to it...so don't think for one second that Leisures can't be damaged by being heavily discharged, they can.

Martin