Club 80-90 Forums

Had problems of a flat battery at the RTTH event. Can only put it down to possible use of my radio, do you agree or not??

Am thinking of wiring it up to my leisure battery, any comments and how the hell do I do it

geez what a dick head I am, only got to look at the wiki and its all there

Definately recommend a split system and it needn't cost the earth if you have a spare battery to hand. Chickenkoop and I did ours in a couple of hours although we're just using two ordinary batteries. After a day or two (depending on whats used), the second battery may need a charge but at least you could start the engine still and if you have to, go for a 20 odd mile stint to charge everything up again. Works fine for us as we only run lights and small low-consumption items on the second battery. And don't forget the 'voltage meter mod' so you can see whats going on - again a cheap addition.

just gone and got the bits, now about to sort it, fingers crossed.

Pays you to carry a portable sound system with its own power if you're planning on staying anywhere more than a day or two if you don't have mains hook up. I'm running a wholly 12v system now, with a 12v 'Ranger Power Pack' thrown in, that can be plugged into mains. It will charge batts if need be - delivers 17amp max. That was more a lucky find as they're over £300 new.

Our radio is routed to the leisure battery. We also carry a spare battery in the van and rotate them.

There speaks someone else who has been down the flat battety route

Switch in place and works, whoopee, but one last problem, what wire do I use for the 'radio memory wire'? I have a yellow which is a continuous power supply and a red which is a switched power supply. and then i'll leave you alone

I just wired the yellow to a constant live and the other from the ignition switch

If your wiring off the leisure battery then you can connect the memory and the switched supply together to a single 12V feed from the leisure battery (via a fuse). The switched supply usually connects to the ignition side so that the radio can't be left on when the ignition is off but this doesn't apply to the leisure battery (as lomg as you don't leave the radio on). The worst radios for draining batteries are those that have a remote control. Why manufacturers dreamt that one up, Gord knows?????

Agree with AngeloEVS on this. Wire both up to second battery, that way you won't get a flat main battery.