Leisure battery setup recommendations

[Puma931]

Hi, Can anyone recommend a good setup for a leisure battery:
1) best places to buy the bits
2) where to locate the battery
3) type of charge (solar or split)
4) spec of battery
5) anything else?

I plan to use led lights, TV and cool-box fridge.

Thanks

Mathew

[mikeWalsall]

Maybe the simplest DIY way is to use a Willinton split charger kit which includes a fiber glass battery tray to fit into the nearside space in the engine bay ..

The supplied tailor made harness allows you to very easily wire the Fridge / blinds .. ciggy lighter .. radio (if it as an on / off switch) interior lights and what ever from the leisure battery ...



You may have to email Martin Bird as I think now he only makes the kits to order ..

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/willinton/m.h ... pg=&_from=

I would say get the largest leisure battery that you can fit in ..(usually around 100AH) ..

A good tutorial by one of the Forum members ..

http://www.g8dhe.net/bongo_images/Willinton_relay.pdf

[g8dhe]

That file is the original Willinton file, not a tutorial, when he stopped making the kits I grabbed a copy of the documents in case they disappear over time!

[mikeWalsall]

Ahhh .. right Geoff .. I saw your name was associated with the Google link so thought to mention it ..

[the.sasquatch]

You can get a split charge system from http://solarcampersolutions.co.uk/index ... 1-bongovsr

really easy to wire in not sure about a battery tray, think you'd be able to get one on ebay for much cheapness though

[mikeWalsall]

Martin uses a ready to fit battery tray in his kit ..

As the starter battery tray will fit into the N/S space I used a genuine Mazda one .. just needed to make a couple of simple brackets ..

[Puma931]

They no longer make or supply the kit

Maybe the simplest DIY way is to use a Willinton split charger kit which includes a fiber glass battery tray to fit into the nearside space in the engine bay ..

The supplied tailor made harness allows you to very easily wire the Fridge / blinds .. ciggy lighter .. radio (if it as an on / off switch) interior lights and what ever from the leisure battery ...



You may have to email Martin Bird as I think now he only makes the kits to order ..

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/willinton/m.h ... pg=&_from=

I would say get the largest leisure battery that you can fit in ..(usually around 100AH) ..

A good tutorial by one of the Forum members ..

http://www.g8dhe.net/bongo_images/Willinton_relay.pdf

[Dodgey]

1) - battery - many buy from Tanya online. There are one or two others for the same price.
2) Battery placement - that's been covered above.
3) Split or solar... this is my field (I'm solarcampersolutions) so I'll elaborate.

Solar - is great for continuous off grid power. It won't however, cope with a cool box. A compressor fridge, yes, but cool-box no - they use more than twice the power. A lot more than twice. It will cope with a compressor fridge and all your other bits - lights, radio, phone/tablet charging etc.
Split charge - many people have this in addition to solar as it covers you if the weather is grey. At least you can fire up the engine and top up your battery. I've never had the need to myself, but I only camp in summer...
4) Battery spec - as much AH as you can fit under the bonnet. This is genenrally 110Ah. The Numax 110 AH leisure battery is a common choice with a low battery tray. With a stock battery tray people tend to go with 80-100AH batteries.

Hi, Can anyone recommend a good setup for a leisure battery:
1) best places to buy the bits
2) where to locate the battery
3) type of charge (solar or split)
4) spec of battery
5) anything else?

I plan to use led lights, TV and cool-box fridge.

Thanks

Mathew