I'm about to get a new battery for my car(75Ah) and was wondering if the old one would be Okay to use on the van as a secondary backup.
The one coming off the car is fine, it's just that it's getting old now and I want to replace it for safety sake.
If it's Okay to use on the van what are the implications, pluses and minuses, you know what I'm asking?
It should be fine to use as a backup. Car batteries aren't designed to be in a partly discharged state for any length of time, so in theory if you make heavy use of the battery it wouldn't last as long as a good leisure battery. But as it's an old battery anyway and only used as a backup I doubt that would be an issue. I can't see any other problems - just make sure the cells are topped up with demineralised water (assuming it's not a "maintenance-free" battery) and keep it fully charged when not in use.
Quote: Originally posted by iscacamper on 22/1/2012
It should be fine to use as a backup. Car batteries aren't designed to be in a partly discharged state for any length of time, so in theory if you make heavy use of the battery it wouldn't last as long as a good leisure battery. But as it's an old battery anyway and only used as a backup I doubt that would be an issue. I can't see any other problems - just make sure the cells are topped up with demineralised water (assuming it's not a "maintenance-free" battery) and keep it fully charged when not in use.
Thanks for the reply.
The old battery is maintenance free so should be fine.
Thanks
You may find the battery dosen't last very long. If you use a car battery as leisure battery you might get a couple of yrs out of it or less if its old to start with.
Have a read of this article from CC and note how in the tests several of the so called leisure batteries were in fact cranking batteries. CC Battery article
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Is it not true that the terminals of leisure batteries are the reverse of car batteries? i.e if the car + terminal is on the right hand side of the battery, on the leisure battery it will be on the left. If so the + & - leads might need to be swapped! (this would only apply if the terminals were not centrally mounted, of course)
Quote: Originally posted by Jimff5 on 24/1/2012
Is it not true that the terminals of leisure batteries are the reverse of car batteries? i.e if the car + terminal is on the right hand side of the battery, on the leisure battery it will be on the left. If so the + & - leads might need to be swapped! (this would only apply if the terminals were not centrally mounted, of course)
No, it's not true - batteries are available either way around, as car fittings vary.
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Topic: Car Battery for the van?
