Club 80-90 Forums

We have recently bought our 1st T25 camper and will shortly start using it to do shows and to go to cornwall in the summer. Our van is an '86 1.6td reimo.

The van has no fitted electrical sockets or leisure battery etc, we have bought a plugboard from just kampers to save chopping our van up to fit sockets and a leisure battery.

In my garage I have a brand new 80ah battery, its not a leisure battery or is there a difference???

If I was to fully charge it and install it under the seat in the van, how long would it generally last for to run general things like phone chargers, kettles and a lamp etc??

Sorry if its sound stooopid but we are very new to it all!!

Cheers Guys!

I'm very new to this myself so I hope one of the guys will jump in and correct me if I'm wrong.

Firstly, a leisure battery is different, as it's a deep cycle battery, this means it's designed to be charged and then drained and charged etc. A regular car battery is only designed for short sharp bursts of power to start the engine (however, my second battery is not a leisure and works fine at the moment).

Your leisure/second battery will run whatever 12v products you have hooked up to it, in my case lights and fridge when driving.

For plugs etc which is 240v (this is where i might not be 100% correct) I need to be hooked up to the electricity at the campsite, this then runs my fridge, laptop, plug in heater etc.

If you mean can you hook up your leisure to a plug board, I don't think this is possible as one is 12v the other 240v !!!!!

I hope this helps

Emma x

Wow! cheers Emma,

Didnt know there was a difference between the 2! we just want to run some simple electrics when we go to Vanfest etc and sites that do not have a hook up! We are just trying to see what is the best way of going about it!

I think with your second battery so you can have your car stereo, 12v coolbox, 12v lights hooked up to it?? You will find out on here the way to work out how much each uses and what power of battery you have = life of use over weekend, if that makes sense??

Emma x

Thank You Emma, I'll need to invest in a leisure battery then! Our van just has a small starter battery and nothing else!

Fit some LED lighting as it is less power hungry and invest in a split charge system so the leisure battery it recharged as you are driving.

https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Ca ... it_charger

A kettle is beyond a leisure battery. Use mains hookup with a travel kettle or a gas hob for making brews

Cruz, you are a legend! cheers for your help!

DUMBODOGGY wrote:Cruz, you are a legend!

Not only in my own mind it seems

I don't fully understand; if you have a Reimo conversion surely there is built in 12v internal lighting?

There is a difference between leisure batteries and starter batteries but most people seem to use starter batteries anyway which seem to cope. I have an identical 'leisure' battery to my starter battery under the passenger seat - works fine PLUS I have the added advantage that if the starter battery goes kaput or is on it's last legs I can simply connect the two together using jump leads if required to help to start the engine.

This is the camper electrical section of the 'Wiki'. Read through the sections and you'll understand a lot more than you do now. https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Ma ... Electrical

Surely being a bona fide conversion you have all the wiring etc in place such as split charge system, internal lighting etc plus a three way fridge? Just a question of connecting the battery to the system?

You cannot use an electric kettle without hook up. Presumably the van also has a mains hook up facility with sockets too? When camped up without hook up you have to use gas for the fridge and cooker (to boil water etc)

You should only be able to run the fridge on 12v via a relay when the engine is running so that the alternator provides the power - a battery won't last very long powering a fridge.

Hi 1664, cheers for the reply

My van was a Reimo conversion as a day van, it has a poptop, rock n roll bed, a unit with a cooker etc but no sink or elec hook ups?

I even have all of the original plans from Reimo for the van and it doesn't have electric though!!

I wouldnt know where to start with a split charge system!!

Would something like this be anygood???

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MOTORHOME-SPLIT-C ... 129wt_1062

DUMBODOGGY wrote:I wouldnt know where to start with a split charge system!!

That's why there's a 'Wiki'

Everything you need to know is in this club somewhere - you just need to look in the Wiki or do a 'search'.....

putting your location in your club profile is a good idea too, might be someone close who could have a look at it. You never know, you might live 300 yards away from me...................

DUMBODOGGY wrote:Would something like this be anygood???

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MOTORHOME-SPLIT-C ... 129wt_1062

Yeah that's the sort of thing - although a few members (including me) have installed a larger rated split charge circuit as your battery can take a fair hammering these days what with all the 12v kit you could potentially drain it with.
The flatter your leisure battery is when you start charging it again, the higher the initial charging current from the alternator will be which can be above 30amps if the battery's run right down. But that would be fine in most circumstances I would have thought, and the worse case senario is it'll melt the fuse.

Mint!

That'll do then, I'll have a crack at that!!

Cheers All!!

and you're only in Brum - just up the road.............