Hi fellow Caravanners,
I am new to Caravan life and just starting my first restoration. I am after advice in battery requirements and any recommendations that can be offered about the best batteries and how many needed.
Any advice, hints an tips greatly appreciated.
Welcome to UKCS. Not my expertise, but I’ve found out so much by using the search function. There are lots of questions about leisure batteries & lots of answers.
The experts will be along soon…
So many answers depending on a bunch of variables that only you know!
First perhaps some questions that narrow down your use of the caravan which HEAVILY influence what is best for you:
Do you want to tour with the van or leave on a seasonal pitch?
Do you want to go 'off grid' with no EHU mains supply, always, never, occasionally?
Do you have any Solar panels?
Do you have Motor Movers?
Is your lighting old style incandescent or fluorescent lamps, or all modern LED?
As a bit of info. Most if not all electrics, with the exception of heating and fridge on mains setting, run off 12v system, now that can be battery and/or the mains to 12v battery charger/converter. Even when running heating or fridge on mains or gas, the controllers work off 12v, so a 12v supply is essential. The fans of heaters, and water/toilet pumps run off 12v too.
Whatever type of battery you choose, it's physical size is limited by the dimensions of the battery locker, in turn that limits the capacity of the battery that can be employed. Car starter batteries are not really up to the task of the duty cycles caravans impose, so a dedicated leisure battery is the best investment for decent life expectancy.
Typical leisure battery would be a single lead acid of around 80-110Ah depending on use. Lithium batteries are often suggested, and are superior in some ways but most standard fitted caravan chargers are not ideal for lithium batteries, so a new/addition charger is also required, and Lithium batteries are much more expensive than Lead Acid and are not quite a straight substitution with pros and cons to both.
Batteries are not maintenance free! They are certainly not fit and forget, you do need to periodically charge them to keep them in good order (3 months max seems to work well), otherwise in the case of lead-acid types if they run down too much the damage is permanent and cannot be recovered by simply recharging! Some folks keep them on a maintenance trickle charge.
There's a start, feel free to come back with more question if you need.
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Topic: Leisure Batteries
via mobile 18/4/2026 at 10:22am
