What leisure battery for a newbie?

[RabidSalmon]

Hi all, just got back from our first camping trip in the new Bongo and am now hooked! I would like now to purchase a leisure battery but am unsure what to get. To be honest I am a gadget freak so all i'd pretty much need it for is to charge them (3 iphones, ipad and possibly a DS). Are they good enough to charge them all over a weekend? We do not need it for lighting or cooking etc. Many thanks in advance.

[westonwarrior]

you would need a tray, a charging system and the battery

for the tray and or the charging system look no further than willinton on ebay

for the battery any leisuer battery over about 85amp hours will do, though a 110 would be best as it will last longer.

all caraven suppliers will stock batterys and you can chack the sizes and prices against online sellers.

[RabidSalmon]

Thanks for that, appreciate the quick reply, i'm thinking of just a battery connected to a cigarette lighter using crocodile clips. I have an adapter that then splits it to 3 cigarette lighters and 2 usb chargers, quite basic but cheap lol. I would then charge it from home before we go. God, i'm such a cheapskate lol.

[g8dhe]

You really don't want to carry lead acid batteries inside the Van, and given that the Bongo has a spare battery position behind the nearside headlamp it really isn't recommended!
You will probably want to move the internal lights and blinds over to a L/B and probably also the Radio so that you don't have to have the ignition on at anytime when parked up. The Willinton Kit mentioned is by the far the easiest way but yes its not that cheap and a battery is going to set you back around £100. The nice thing is that it will charge from the alternator when you driving around so very little chance of it going flat, unless you park up without moving for the entire weekend. A L/B will certainly run the items you mentioned no problem for a weekend.

[wormey]

You really don't want to carry lead acid batteries inside the Van, and given that the Bongo has a spare battery position behind the nearside headlamp it really isn't recommended!
You will probably want to move the internal lights and blinds over to a L/B and probably also the Radio so that you don't have to have the ignition on at anytime when parked up. The Willinton Kit mentioned is by the far the easiest way but yes its not that cheap and a battery is going to set you back around £100. The nice thing is that it will charge from the alternator when you driving around so very little chance of it going flat, unless you park up without moving for the entire weekend. A L/B will certainly run the items you mentioned no problem for a weekend.

Agreed with the above, Maplins sell solar panels that can top up your battery during the weekend trips and you can also charge your gadgets straight off the panels through a regulator even on an over cast day.

[Poohbear]

Why not just charge the gadgets off the normal cigarette lighter socket in the Bongo? It seems a lot of hassle to go through just to charge a few gadgets and charging off the main battery isn't going to flatten it.

[AlliDelta]

Willinton kit £105

115 ah Battery from my local garage £105

All fitted in less than an hour, and have never had any problems in our last 3 outings, I run my laptop interior lights and phone chargers from it for the evenings and it never skips a beat. Also was fun to fit too.

[Mattylad]

I agree, the willinton kit is awesome, no messing around with buying your own cables or relays. Fits straight in, only takes an hour to fit. I use an 85AH battery which will happily charge two mobile phones, run blinds, radio and cabin lights for a full weekend. Then usually the drive home is sufficient to re charge it no messing with having to stci a battery on charge before you leave and then have it inside the bongo with you.

Matty

[dave_aber]

For what you are trying to do, which is quite light-duty, you might be as well to just use the starter battery and carry a jump-start pack with you just in case you do flatten the main one. You can get a starter pack for about £65 or so.

Of course, most starter packs have a fag lighter socket built-in, so you could just use that to charge up your gadgets.

You might even get one to fit in the space behind the nearside headlight.......