# Hello from not so newbie camper



## ssusan (Jul 15, 2009)

Stumbled across this great site and have been reading posts all night ,My Hubby and me (I sounds to posh) LOL. have a kontiki swift and have been camping for 4 years now  but we always stay on sites ,now we would love to try the freedom of wild camping but we are totally confused about we can watch the TV a couple of hours each night, were so worried about draining the battery and getting stranded.we have a small roadstar 12v TV .also our leisure battery is 110 (i think)
Could someone please explain in simple terms will we be OK to use the TV,do we plug it into the ciggy lighter or the 12v plug, sorry to be so dumb but having always stayed on sites with electric we have not had to worry about this before. being the wrong side of 50 finding it a bit difficult to get our heads around it, 

Thanks

Susan


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## jogguk (Jul 16, 2009)

Hi susan (I'm new here too)

Without getting techy A 110ah battery (charged and in good condition) will easily give you a good few hrs viewing and also allow for running the water pump and a few interior lights

Not familiar with the electrical control panel in yout MH or what happens when you plug in to site power, but no matter at this point.  The leisure battery should be isolated from the engine battery, so in theory even if you drained it flat it would not affect the engine battery or the ability to start

Use the 12v plug as this  most certainly will be powered by your leisure battery. The ciggy socket especially it is on the dashboard may be powered by the engine battery, so unless you know for certain (check by disconnecting the leisure batt and see if it is still live)

Do a few simple tests while on site next, don't plug in the site power and see how long you can run the tv, lights extractor fan etc.  Maybe you could test at home if you can leave the TV on with the van locked?

This is the least techy way to do it, and you will have an idea of how long  the battery will last until the lights start to go dim (or the voltage gauge shows less than 11v)

John


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## Deleted member 3270 (Jul 16, 2009)

HI SUSAN,
how old is your kontiki ? as i think the older ones had a roker switch on the control panel that you can run from either the leasure battery or the veihcle battery if so always use the leasure battery , also have a look at the rear of the t.v and see how many watts it uses on 12volts, we had a 12 volt roadstar and it ran at 48watt. we have 2 .110 amp leasure batterys and found that over a couple of nights in the same place it would flatern the batterys, so we now have a 10 inch flat screen that only uses 8 watt and have no problem.but good advice from john try it at home and see how long it lasts. ooh and welcome to this great site, ( wendy & keith )


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## ssusan (Jul 16, 2009)

Thanks so much for an uncomplicated answer  I think we have read so much about this that we have become totally mixed up.

OK at the weekend we will run the TV from leisure battery only and see how long it lasts ,somewhere we picked up that it is not good to flatten the battery completely is this right? also how do you check how much power you have left and how do you recharge without using electric?.

So many questions but want to understand what were doing before taking the leap to wild camping.

Susan


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## ssusan (Jul 16, 2009)

Hi Wendy and Keith,

It's a K reg. 8 watt TV sounds much better could you point me in the right direction on where to buy one please. also read somewhere that you can buy them that have there own battery pack but again how would you recharge if wild camping?

Susan


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## Deleted member 3270 (Jul 16, 2009)

HI susan,
your van should have a split charging system which means when that when your engine is running it also charges the leasure battery , not sure of your control panel does it have a needle gauge which shows volts in the leasure battery and when switch over shows volts vehicle battery? re-t.v we got the it from our local market the chap has a t.v shop in driffied.


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## Proff (Jul 16, 2009)

Hi and Welcome to the site. 
We have spent one night on a paid site with electric hook up in 4 years....

My Battery  experience twopennorth>
We run 2 x 110 leisure batteries.
Did an experiment by running TV, DVD and freeview plus all lights and covered our solar panel to get a true result.
We managed 14 hours before voltage drop switched TV off 
Also our main vehicle battery was totally untouched.
Started and drove for around 2 hours and all batteries were reading fully charged again 

We are intending doing it again soon, as we have now replaced ALL lights with LEDS including the flouros over the Hymer kitchen area and the 4 bulbs in the Hymer vanity light in washroom...I reckon we'll get at least 24 hours now 


PS.  Always remember to uncover your solar panel after conducting this type of experiment as an old sheet will wrap around your status aerial and stream out like a Flag causing great merriment from friends and family 
DAMHIK !!!


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## ssusan (Jul 16, 2009)

At last I'm beginning to understand  So I think the way to go is buy another battery and a low watt TV and then consider the lights.

Going to run a test with the van on the drive at weekend when hubby's home.

Just one thing does the van have to be driven to recharge the battery or can you just run the engine 

Thanks a million wish i'd found this site years ago.

Susan


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## Deleted member 3270 (Jul 16, 2009)

HI susan,
You can just start the engine and let it run,But its better if you go for a quick drive,
Also consider getting a couple of stickon l.e.d. lights from the pound shop then you dont need to use your main lights, only costs you pence for new batterys.
hope this helps ,
also if your unsure just post a thread on site where you intend to go on your first( wild ) and iam sure one of our friends would be there to help if you got into difficulties.


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## ssusan (Jul 17, 2009)

Hi again I'm back .been having a play around with the telly tonight and think we know what were doing now. but would like to get a flat LCD , seen a few "normal" TV,s a lot cheaper than the 12v ones, is it right that if they have a dc socket on them that we could use these ones to connect to the 12v (does that make sense). also i cant seem to find what the wattage is on the normal tvs are they all different.

Susan


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## Deleted member 3270 (Jul 17, 2009)

Hi ssusan,
please dont go down tha route,not good for wild camping 
we got our 10in 8watt with free view for £90.00.
but its only digital and not analogue.
if you can wait i will try and find the web address for you i have it somewhere in the van


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## ssusan (Jul 18, 2009)

only thinking of the small portable type not a big screen .but that price sounds great I'll look forward to seeing whats on the website you bought yours from. The 9" road star 12v/240 we have uses 50w .. soon drain our battery wouldn't it compared to the flat screens.

Susan


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## Chrissy (Jul 18, 2009)

*T'asda*



ssusan said:


> Hi again I'm back .been having a play around with the telly tonight and think we know what were doing now. but would like to get a flat LCD , seen a few "normal" TV,s a lot cheaper than the 12v ones, is it right that if they have a dc socket on them that we could use these ones to connect to the 12v (does that make sense). also i cant seem to find what the wattage is on the normal tvs are they all different.
> 
> Susan



Hey Susan

We got our small LCD TV's from ASDA / Wallmart and one even has integrated DVD player.  We don't actually use them in the van as we like to get away but him indoors tells me that they are 12v compatible - maybe worth you having a look as they are good prices too at ASDA generally.

Oh,  welcome by the way 

Chrissy


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## kimbowbill (Jul 18, 2009)

hi and welcom 

sorry to cause more confusion but i have wired an inverter up to my leisure battery this converts the 12v to 240, i might get shouted at here  but it works for me, i get about 6 hours viewing, then the engine recharges it, its probably not the right way but who cares, but now i have met up with fellow wild campers, i dont really need the TV cos certain folks ply voddy and coke down my neck and i'm alway too p.. drunk to watch it, sorry no paragraphs today, not had my lesson (ongoing joke)

take care and enjoy


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