I have acquired a small caravan and excitedly ready for take off this weekend. never been in one before and have no idea so going overnight to experiment with it all. I do not yet have a battery nor the £139 quoted for one locally. If I have a hook up do I need a battery or does the hook up do all the work...? advise for amateur pls
£139 for a battery is a wee bit dear you can get a 75/80amp
for around £60.
The hook up will do all the work but it is advisable to fit a battery as the charger will only kick out so many amps before it will shut down.
Agreed with Jeff, get your battery from elsewhere, such as Tayna Batteries; supplied my 110Ah battery for about £70.
Some older vans used a transformer/charger, so the 12v bits would run ok without a battery, while many vans do require a battery to be fitted. Might be a case of try it and see how your runs, but remember to suitably insulate the battery charger terminals so there's no danger of them contacting anything and causing a problem.
Has it got terminals for a battery? A caravan of that age might as pointed out only have a transformer. Anyway, try on it hook up & see if everything works, ie lights & water tap which normally work on 12v.
Make sure the loose battery terminals are insulated and not going to touch.
Get a cheap battery from a scrapyard, £5 or £10. Not perfect but it will get you by to test everything and even out the load on the charger/transformer.
We have a 1998 Rallye Compass and at present do not have a battery in it, Reason being the battery we had discharged over the winter how stupid I was not to remember to trickle charge it. The battery was inour old van when we got the newer van I put the battery in but it was not charging properly and getting quite hot so on our first trip I disconnected it. Haven't got round to replacing it yet. Everything on our van works without the battery attached
Quote: Originally posted by robert/julie on 04/10/2013
We have a 1998 Rallye Compass and at present do not have a battery in it, Reason being the battery we had discharged over the winter how stupid I was not to remember to trickle charge it. The battery was inour old van when we got the newer van I put the battery in but it was not charging properly and getting quite hot so on our first trip I disconnected it. Haven't got round to replacing it yet. Everything on our van works without the battery attached
It's not advisable not to have a leisure battery connected
as you may overload your charger .
Having a 12 volt battery in line helps to smooth out the DC current
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Topic: battery v hook up
