new battery time again

Harrytherid

Harrytherid

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I am now ready to renew my leisure battery again and would like updated advice as to which way to go. My last one was via (terrible memory for names and can't think for the life of me) who told me of a battery slightly taller than the original but which seemed to be very good until I blew it up and burnt out much of my wiring with the help of Gorilla glue which might love to stick stuff but is not half so good as they say it is and let me down badly. I have now made the area secure for the higher battery so if that is the best I shall get one of them.

Must rig up a temporary hoist to get the very heavy seat off again, what a stupid design to put the battery under the seat when it is so hard to remove. My very helpful neighbour is nearly as old as me with a dodgy ticker so I do not want to overload him again.

By the way, when I replaced my alternator, the local engineer who did it had trouble sourcing the correct alternator and installed the nearest appropriate one he could find. Unfortunately ,it turned out, the original had had a built in split charge relay and the new one did not and after an expensive but useless session with an auto electrician who wired it up so that I had to remember to switch it manually (remember, I am 82 so no chance) to split the charge, I bought a split charge relay with meter for about a tenner on eBay and rewired the system myself (using Halfords jump start cables). Works a treat now but the battery is caput and needs topping up after about half an hour of use with water pump and just one or two led lights.
 
Go get a lead carbon battery and drop in, 1500 cycles and nothing to change in the sys you have, my van is as yours, switch 200amp relay of ebay.
Its handy if strter batt is down as you can bring it in and get going.
lead loach.png
 
Thanks for the replies Chaps. I was under the impression that the battery I bought for the leisure end was a lead/carbon battery so there would seem to be a significant amount of confusion. Never mind, what I want now is a leisure battery though I have recently renewed the starter battery so maybe that was what my search found. My earlier question still stands and thanks Trev but £194.98 seems a bit dear for me though if that is what I have to pay I will do so. Does "my van is as yours", mean that you have a MC Louis 670G too eh? or just that your battery is under the seat as well.

So far as dodgy starter battery goes I bought a Lithium jump starter for about £50, just in case, well you never know, and it works a treat,

And Dave, we both knew that that battery was too tall when I bought it but I was happy to raise the seat up 20mm and did so with some nylon spacers. In my LHD wagon it is the passenger seat and my wife has a short body so appreciated the additional height. I used two extra screws to cope with the marginally increased overturning moment. Unfortunately Gorilla Glue did not stick the nylon to the painted steel very well and that was the cause of the burnt out wiring, that and the difficulty of putting the very heavy seat down on the spacers without putting a lateral load on them. I now have a couple of wooden beams across, in addition to the spacers, so that can not happen again. The wooden beams prevent the battery from contacting the underside of the seat and play no part in the structural strength of the installation.
 
Just a few comments .....
I would NEVER have recommended a Jennox Battery as a Leisure Battery - they are a Starter Battery (and a very good one. I put one in my car to replace the original 7 year old Bosch and now the engine starts on a key turn again despite it sometimes sitting unused for over a week).
A Lead/Carbon Leisure Battery will ALWAYS be a fair bit more than a typical Starter Battery. That is just the way it is.

You said "we both knew that that battery was too tall when I bought it but I was happy to raise the seat up 20mm and did so with some nylon spacers." I have no recollection of any conversation like this :unsure: . I have had conversations generally where I have made comments such as "battery will be too tall to fit under the cab seat. You need to look for a different one" as I doubt I would suggest raising a seat 20mm to allow a battery to fit - and especially to accommodate a battery that is not really suitable for the purpose anyway!

Generally speaking, the space under a cab seat is always height-limited. people find ways around this by removing all the carpetting to allow the battery to drop down lower; or have the battery on its side, or more easily, fit a low-height battery specific to under-seat fitment.
If someone is after a fairly low-cost battery and they need to fit it under a cab seat, this battery is one I will often suggest they consider - https://www.alpha-batteries.co.uk/12v-xtreme-110ah-agm-leisure-battery-xr1750/ . I have installed and supplied lots of these for VW T4 and T5 campers where they just clear the height and width restrictions of the cab seat. They are no longer my preferred Lead battery, but still a good option for those situations that demand a low-height solution.
 
Yes Dave, sorry if I did not explain myself adequately but you definitely told me the battery you were recommending was too high otherwise I would not have known. We did not go into details about how I weas going to achieve it, so far as I recall, but having investigated digging out the floor, though that is still a possibility for an even taller one, the spacers is how I did it. So now I am still looking for recommendations for a replacement which is allowed to be that bit larger and hopefully a little cheaper than the £194.98 that Trev is recommending. Ideas will be gratefully received.
 
Harrytherid said:
Tayna batteries are offering what appears to be that battery for 179.98 inc. carriage but only a 1 year guarantee.
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If you're a CAMC member you can get a further 10% off from Tayna too.
I've used those carbon batteries that Trev linked too and they were very good, I've just took mine out and replaced them with Lithiums but I've kept the Carbons which were still going strong to drop back in when I sell the van, they are still going strong after several years and have lasted longer than any standard AGM I've used previously. I guess the question is do you want to pay half the price for something that's only going to last half long? Essentially that'll mean twice the hassle of swapping the battery again in the near future.
 
merl said:
If you're a CAMC member you can get a further 10% off from Tayna too.
I've used those carbon batteries that Trev linked too and they were very good, I've just took mine out and replaced them with Lithiums but I've kept the Carbons which were still going strong to drop back in when I sell the van, they are still going strong after several years and have lasted longer than any standard AGM I've used previously.
Click to expand...


merl said:
I guess the question is do you want to pay half the price for something that's only going to last half long? Essentially that'll mean twice the hassle of swapping the battery again in the near future.
Click to expand...
This is a key point that is often made as a reason to go to Lithium but is often forgotten about when considering a better type of Lead Acid battery.
Yes, you pay more up front with Lead Carbon batteries, but you recoop that expense a bit down the road when you DON'T have to replace the batteries again in a couple of years time as they have been exhausted.

And again, not only is there the cost of the batteries themselves, but if employing someone to fit them, the cost of the person to swap them out, or just the sheer hassle of doing it yourself, especially if they are under a cab seat.

I installed a pair of 300Ah Lithiums recently in a motorhome where the original Lead Batteries were installed under the cab seats - one under each seat. We took out the 'main' leisure battery under the passenger seat and TBH it is such a pain taking out Ducato seats, the secondary Lead battery under the drivers seat is still sitting there, doing nothing and disconnected, but the benefit of removing it was nowhere near enough to make it worthwhile to take the drivers seat out and put it back again! (needed access to the passenger seat base area so that was non-optional).

If I were buying a battery to fit under a cab seat, I would look for the longest lasting battery I could find for it before looking for the cheapest battery :D
 
Seems as though the 12v 115ah leoch agm lead carbon deep cycle (lcdc12-115-g31-dt it shall be unless anyone has any even better idea. Not being still a member of CAMC I shall just have to swallow the £179.98 and turn the hearing aids off when Julie expresses her opinion. Thanks for the help all who contributed.

I have made my seat a .little easier to remove by replacing that really awkward nut with a captive nut and the screws are all Alen sockets so spanners are not required and by rotating the seat they are all accessible from above. However, some kind of hoist would definitely help so a few bits of CLS will be called into play or maybe a temporary table to enable the seat to slide over onto it. Must experiment.
 
Harrytherid said:
Seems as though the 12v 115ah leoch agm lead carbon deep cycle (lcdc12-115-g31-dt it shall be unless anyone has any even better idea. Not being still a member of CAMC I shall just have to swallow the £179.98 and turn the hearing aids off when Julie expresses her opinion. Thanks for the help all who contributed.

I have made my seat a .little easier to remove by replacing that really awkward nut with a captive nut and the screws are all Alen sockets so spanners are not required and by rotating the seat they are all accessible from above. However, some kind of hoist would definitely help so a few bits of CLS will be called into play or maybe a temporary table to enable the seat to slide over onto it. Must experiment.
Click to expand...
If the nut you speak of is the one that is accessible on the inside I would not bother refitting it personally. It;s main purpose to me is to provide the initial locater of the seat and the other 6 or 8 bolts are plenty to keep the seat secure.
 
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