Leisure battery

[thejinx]

I have a battery 12v 110ah. Will this be good enough for a leisure battery? Is it to powerful or not powerful enough? Cheers

 

[Happystamps]

110Ah is a good sized leisure battery- used to be the biggest 12v leisure battery you could reasonably get your hands on, possibly still is.
Make sure it's a leisure battery though. You're probably fine considering the size (common LB size), but if it's a regular (big) starter battery, you run the risk of warping the plates if you're constantly running it flat.

 

[chad]

My LB is this size - it's the biggest that I could find that would fit opposite the starter battery

 

[thejinx]

It is not a dedicated leisure battery but it is free.

 

[Happystamps]

Well then there's your answer Maybe it'd be worth popping on a low voltage battery cutoff at 10V or so to stop it getting fully drained.

 

[BJ1]

110Ah is a good sized leisure battery- used to be the biggest 12v leisure battery you could reasonably get your hands on, possibly still is.
Make sure it's a leisure battery though. You're probably fine considering the size (common LB size), but if it's a regular (big) starter battery, you run the risk of warping the plates if you're constantly running it flat.

Ok - let's get this straight. Plates only warp if you over charge a battery whether leisure or starter. Leisure battery plates also warp if you suddenly withdraw a lot of current, like connect them to starter. If you constantly run any lead acid battery flat, no matter if it's a starter or leisure, you will screw it up by sulphating the plates. Lead acid batteries all do this when flat, so all need to be charged if they are to last. Leisure batteries are built to charge and discharge relatively slowly. Starter batteries will cope with high charge and discharge rates and make perfectly good leisure batteries providing they always have above 40% charge in them. I've used them as LBs for years on boats, because you always have the option of using them to start the engine if the starter battery fails. Bigger issue on boats as a dead engine 45 miles offshore is a bigger deal than a dead engine on the side of the A30

 

[aogrady]

^^^^ WHS

If it's free, nothing to loose - as long as it isn't flattened to much, like <11.5V you'd be right. Maybe a onsite charger or solar panel on the roof to keep things topped up? I've a 80W panel on my roof, does the job nicely - though ATM, my bus is parked under the house, no sun so it's hooked up permanently to my 20A charger, which will boost from flat at a 20A charge current, and then tick over much lower, with both the 115aH leisure, and the starter battery both at around 13.9 -14.1V, my T-Max split charging system see the main and float charge and connects both batteries together

Cheers,

Alistair

 

[Steve B]

You could also do what the PO did to my bus - swap the leisure and starter batery around in the engine bay. With no spare wheel well to contend with, you can get a big batery in!

They did a neat job of it too to be fair.