question for lorry owners....leisure batteries

goneshowjumping

goneshowjumping

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we are fitting a leisure battery to our lorry, to run lights and water pump, i have a guy who can supply the battery, all the parts and fit for £140. I have never gone down this route so not sure if this is fairly priced and wondering if i can make it any cheaper by buying my own battery as he is charging £90 for parts (including battery) and £50 labour.
if i do buy my own battery what sort am I looking for?
 
That sounds about fair, we paid roughly that a few months ago, and tbh its alot a faffing around depending where your main battery is to hook it up to etc.
 
Ask him what size battery he is getting you. The bigger the battery the longer it will last.

And but fitting what does he mean? Is your lorry already wired up? If it is then fitting is just putting the battery in place and doing up the connectors - not worth paying someone £50 to do that.

If you lorry isn't wired up and he is going to also connect it so that it charges as you go down the road, and if you have a fridge get him to sort the 3 way out on that too then £50 is a good.
 
We have a relay that automatically lets the leisure batteries charge as we drive and then disconnects them when the engine stops. We run the living/leisure at 24 v and have a step down widget to 12v for any 12 v items.
 
make sure it's a really good quality battery. it should come with a 2 or 3 year guarantee, for starters. find out how powerful it is. is it going to be back-up for engine-starting battery, or totally separate? £90 sounds cheap to me, i just had my 2 batteries replaced (under 2 year warranty, hooray) and they were going to cost £140 each + vat iirc...
 
goneshowjumping said:
no my lorry is not wired up for a leisure battery, and it will be done so the battery charges as we drive. i dont have a fridge so no worries there.
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sounds too cheap as a proper charger or converter would cost this, sadly its best to have a mains charger and plug it in at home its rare to have the lorry run long enough to fully charge it so its not very sucesfull having them set up to charge of the lorry the leisure battery only lasts about a season as it never gets fully charged causing it to fail because of sulfation...
 
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Yes it sounds too cheap. A Durite split charge relay is £30 plus vat ,A proper leisure battery is going to be circa£80. Both sides of the split charger MUST be fused as there is power to it from both sides.Also where is the leisure battery going. If you have it inside ,remember it contains suphuric acid and the vapours from the battery will damage anything in the same locker.If you have your leisure battery connected directly to your main battery without a split charge relay ,it is an accident waiting to happen.
 
The other thing you may need to take into account is the vehicle 12v or 24v as if a 24v charging system you will need two leisure batteries.more cost.
You can charge 12v leisure from a 24v system but expect to pay about 250 just for the controller.
 
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Mike007 said:
Yes it sounds too cheap. A Durite split charge relay is £30 plus vat ,A proper leisure battery is going to be circa£80. Both sides of the split charger MUST be fused as there is power to it from both sides.Also where is the leisure battery going. If you have it inside ,remember it contains suphuric acid and the vapours from the battery will damage anything in the same locker.If you have your leisure battery connected directly to your main battery without a split charge relay ,it is an accident waiting to happen.
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Yes and if you want to see examples of bodged and amateur electrics the best place to look would be in a horse box !!!!!!!!
 
Whilst having a mains charging setup is good.. if you are going down this route you still need to be able to charge whilst the engine is running -otherwise you are totally 'goosed' if you are away for a couple of days and have no facility for mains hook up. Mains hook up at events can also be quite expensive.

Ditto the above comment re charge of inverter... we were just pricing them up as ours had failed and were shocked at how expensive they were. If anyone is looking to buy, look at ABLEMAIL in manchester - we returned the non working unit to them (it was fitted about 6 years ago when the lorry was built) - they tested it and replaced it Free of Charge as they said there units are designe to last a lifetime. We were 'gobsmacked' and what a pleasant change!!
 
popsdosh said:
The other thing you may need to take into account is the vehicle 12v or 24v as if a 24v charging system you will need two leisure batteries.more cost.
You can charge 12v leisure from a 24v system but expect to pay about 250 just for the controller.
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yes true and not very sucsefull in a horse box as they oftern dont get run enough to charge the main baterys fully let aloan the leisure batery !!! I see these systems in ambulances and security vehicles I work on, it works fine to charge the auxiary baterys as they are running for long periods most days and they also have plug in systems to charge them when they are standing idle, I would recomend having a mains charger fitted and have it so you plug in at home or if you havent power where you park then maybe a solar panel of about 50watts or more would be the best investment, if you are away for days at a time a petrol powered generator is a good idea
 
goneshowjumping said:
thanks guys for the advice, will talk to the guy doing it to find out exactly what he can put in.
TBH im now seriously confused! lol
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Oh sorry if Ive put a spanner in the works!!! .. I think you need to work out what you are going to do with it , if its just the odd over night and being able to see inside the lorry with a few lights esp if they are led type limited use you most likely would be fine useing a leisure batery and charging it up with a normal cheap car charger before you use the lorry and then again when you get home would be fine , If however you want run a TV and someone is in the lorry alot or you are going to stay away for a few nights then you might need more power so ether more capacity(2 baterys) or some way of charging it up when your away from home, best is with a built in charger so you have a lead that plugs in at home or in to a hook up point at big shows or a small generator then you can also work a microwave toaster kettle etc .... you can also have a charging system that runs of the lorry but this would mean running the lorry engine which uses diesel and can drive other folk insane with the noise and fumes!! and not realy put much back into your batery as it takes about 12 hours to fully charge a leisure batery from flat so running the lorry isnt a great idea hope this helps...
 
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Just replying in my wife's login as i am the one who quoted for the job.

First off, the £50 labour was just to cover me working on the lorry for the day, harldy a reward for drilling holes and routing cables etc while laying under a lorry!!
I'm a auto electrician and a mechanic of 18 years so i know what i'm talking about and wont be just throwing in another battery connected to the main battery.

The battery in question is a brand new Landrover 950AH battery so plenty man enough to power a few lights and a water pump. ( we are using the same type battery in our lorry powering lights, water pump, tv freeview box and a power inverter!!
£50 was said for the battery as i can't give a garauntee for the battery but would gladly have sorted it IF there were any problems down the line.
These battery's are around £150 to buy with a two year garauntee, or obviously a battery of choice could have been bought and supplied!!

The battery would have been fitted inside the vehicle somewhere ( hard to know where as i hadn't even viewed the vehicle so again, the £50 labour was a quick guestimate )

£90 for parts, Which INCLUDED £50 for the battery was the cost of the parts to me, no money to be made on top! Remember this was a job to help someone out who my wife knows!
Included in the £90 was, 950AH battery, new battery clamps, a self switching split charger, a fuse box, fuses, wiring, connectors etc, no add ons, no " oh, i needed to get this aswell so it's an extra blah blah !! "

The battery would be charged seperatly from the main battery and would only charged once the main battery is fully charged, would be wired seperatly from the main battery allowing the leisure battery to power lights etc without draining the main battery at all.

A fuse box would be added off of the leisure battery so every circuit is independantly fused.
All cabling would be rated correctly for the appliance being fed using NEW 2 core mains cable.

So not just a case of taking the wires off of the main battery and putting them onto a second battery.

I doubt anyone on here could get their lorry wired properly for a split charge system with ALL parts included for £140 all in - If you can, please let me know and ill send jobs their way, charge people £160 and make £20 for doing nothing!
 
hayleyc said:
Just replying in my wife's login as i am the one who quoted for the job.

First off, the £50 labour was just to cover me working on the lorry for the day, harldy a reward for drilling holes and routing cables etc while laying under a lorry!!
I'm a auto electrician and a mechanic of 18 years so i know what i'm talking about and wont be just throwing in another battery connected to the main battery.

The battery in question is a brand new Landrover 950AH battery so plenty man enough to power a few lights and a water pump. ( we are using the same type battery in our lorry powering lights, water pump, tv freeview box and a power inverter!!
£50 was said for the battery as i can't give a garauntee for the battery but would gladly have sorted it IF there were any problems down the line.
These battery's are around £150 to buy with a two year garauntee, or obviously a battery of choice could have been bought and supplied!!

The battery would have been fitted inside the vehicle somewhere ( hard to know where as i hadn't even viewed the vehicle so again, the £50 labour was a quick guestimate )

£90 for parts, Which INCLUDED £50 for the battery was the cost of the parts to me, no money to be made on top! Remember this was a job to help someone out who my wife knows!
Included in the £90 was, 950AH battery, new battery clamps, a self switching split charger, a fuse box, fuses, wiring, connectors etc, no add ons, no " oh, i needed to get this aswell so it's an extra blah blah !! "

The battery would be charged seperatly from the main battery and would only charged once the main battery is fully charged, would be wired seperatly from the main battery allowing the leisure battery to power lights etc without draining the main battery at all.

A fuse box would be added off of the leisure battery so every circuit is independantly fused.
All cabling would be rated correctly for the appliance being fed using NEW 2 core mains cable.

So not just a case of taking the wires off of the main battery and putting them onto a second battery.

I doubt anyone on here could get their lorry wired properly for a split charge system with ALL parts included for £140 all in - If you can, please let me know and ill send jobs their way, charge people £160 and make £20 for doing nothing!
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UM I think if you re read the other posts most of us thought it was too cheap for the job!!!!! as a durite charger 24 to 12 is around £200 for a kick off then labour and terminals and a leisure battery, as a starter batery isnt much good for a deep cycle aplication... I would see it closer to £500 myself, mind i always do my best to steer folk to a mains powerd charger and a simple hook up as previously said its unlikely a lorry is run for the 12+ hours it would need to fully charge a fairly well discharged battery ....
 
i had merely posted on here as I have no clue about leisure batteries! I wanted to hear what other people had done and what type of battery I needed!
i was not saying anyone was ripping me off, or giving me a dodgy deal, i just didnt understand the whole leisure battery thing!
it is confusing for someone that doesnt know and i just wanted to ensure that i got the right battery for what i needed.
sorry for any confusion caused to either party!
 
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