Query about a leisure battery

[celticvillan]

Hi

We have bought a trailer tent, to sample a little luxury this year, and are thinking about getting a leisure battery, for a light, and maybe charging our mobiles and camera battery.

Is it worth it, and would it do these things?

Sorry if these are really simple questions, when I have looked through previous forum topics they are more related to batteries in camper vans.

Thanks for any tips.

[guypjfreak]

Hi

We have bought a trailer tent, to sample a little luxury this year, and are thinking about getting a leisure battery, for a light, and maybe charging our mobiles and camera battery.

Is it worth it, and would it do these things?

Sorry if these are really simple questions, when I have looked through previous forum topics they are more related to batteries in camper vans.

Thanks for any tips.

[paul1664]

Perhaps a better solution would be a battery booster. Its basicallyy a fat car battery with an easy to carry handle, with 3 pin and USB outputs, inbuild torch, etc. Plus you can use it to start your car on a cold morning! Halfords have a selection.

[celticvillan]

Thank you, I will look into it.

:-)

[grumpyhack]

Leisure batteries are designed to hold their charge for longer and have more life than the average car battery. Worth investing in. We had a trailer tent and with low voltage strip lights and sensible use the leisure battery comfortably lasted the week.

We used Calor gas for cooking and also to power a 3 way fridge (240v/12v/Calor). The fridge was one of our best investments. Kept fresh food chilled and fresh and also cans nice and cool.

Edited January 21, 2014 by grumpyhack

[eFestivals]

you dont even have to use a leisure battery and normal car one will do just as well for just 5 days ....hope this rambling helps

except there's a reasonable possibility of screwing the normal car battery.

Leisure batteries are designed to be run right down before a re-charge, whilst starter batteries are designed to give a high output (for starting). If you run a starter battery right down as you might a leisure battery, the starter battery will fail far sooner.

[eFestivals]

Perhaps a better solution would be a battery booster. Its basicallyy a fat car battery with an easy to carry handle, with 3 pin and USB outputs, inbuild torch, etc. Plus you can use it to start your car on a cold morning! Halfords have a selection.

Thank you, I will look into it.

:-)

I use one of these, but if charging phones or running non-LED lights from it, it might struggle to last the distance - it of course would depend on how many phone charges you do or how long you run lights from it.

PS: do NOT use the inverter (the 240v output) for charging phones (or anything else if possible), use the 12v output (with any adapter, if required) - inverters are very inefficient, so it'll take around twice the battery juice to charge a phone via 240v than it would via 12v.

[parsonjack]

Why bother with the expense of a battery though....either take spare batteries for your mobiles etc or charge them from your car (which will be with you in the CV field) and get a decent couple of LED camping lights for after dark.

[guypjfreak]

i didnt mean take your actual car battery just an old spare one if you use it properly it should last 5 days easily especially if you use a trickle charge to keep it topped up .............a leisure i grant you is designed to hold a charge and all that but if you ONLY wont to use it for 5 days its a lot of ££ to dish out .

if on the other hand you have a wagon like me or a trailer or caravan like grumpy then sure a leisure battery is ideal .

[artl]

i bought a standard 70Ah car battery for camping 6 years ago - it is stillgoing - festival a lot [5 a year on average and camp a lot - no power] strong. Buy LED lights - ebay is cheapest - delivery from china is slow but have always got them. Get a standard USB adapter - about 15 quid = job done. Also consider buy a cheapo phone [around 15 quid from tesco etc - battery will last the distance and takes less to recharge]