Campervan leisure battery and inverter combination

[Wolfer]

Hi,
I am looking for a bit of advise, ideally I would like to get before Thursday and fit a new leisure battery and inverter for our campervan.

Had it approximately 10 years, it was a self build Renault Trafic LWB, high top, and we've added more to it as time has gone on. The original battery has now died.

For information, van can run on the vans battery, just LED lights and pump for water, leisure battery, again just lights and water, and 240 hook up, everything.

Now that the battery has died, this is what I would like to do, and if you could advise on what best battery, and inverter I could get and fit this week.

• Replace the old battery with a decent leisure battery that can be charged normally.
• It will run the LED lighting , and small water pump when needed.
• On to of this though, i would like to run off further wiring, to a decent inverter, that can run say a small fridge, plus lights when no hook-up available.
• The more cycles the better.
• Not too fussed on size as i can move and adapt what I have.

So looking at advice on a good battery set up with all inverter and all wiring needed to have at least one 240 plug point to run a fridge, which at cooling draws 53 watts, in Eco mode only 39 watts, and less than 1 watt in steady state.

Any extras would be a bonus.

Appreciate any help and advice.

(leaving Saturday 5am, and are stopping at a hotel Saturday night, not hooking up until Sunday Eve, hence this extra ask of the battery)

Also, as we live rural, i'm thinking could be helpful if the power goes during winter just for some lights in the house.

[ruggedscotty]

Just finished an install -

might not suit you for quickness...


But

Get as much as you can onto the 12v system, or even look at 24v - there are a shed load of truck appliances out there that operate from 24v dc. you can use them instead of messing about with inverters, even the newer ones can be power hungry consuming power in the inverter process.

Mains pack - 240v to 24v to run when you have mains.

battery charger - 240v to 24v for charging battery

battery charger - 12v to 24v for charging from car.alternator.

[Scrump]

I have found the battery store reasonably priced for leisure batteries, I have used their AGM ones with no issues:
https://batterystore.co.uk/leisure/motorhome/

Rather than use an inverter to drive a fridge, it would be much more energy efficient to get a 12v compressor fridge. They can be found second hand (don’t get a 3 way fridge as they use a lot more electricity).

You haven’t mentioned charging but a solar panel would be worthwhile to top up the batteries.

[ruggedscotty]

Scrump said:

I have found the battery store reasonably priced for leisure batteries, I have used their AGM ones with no issues:
https://batterystore.co.uk/leisure/motorhome/

Rather than use an inverter to drive a fridge, it would be much more energy efficient to get a 12v compressor fridge. They can be found second hand (don’t get a 3 way fridge as they use a lot more electricity).

You haven’t mentioned charging but a solar panel would be worthwhile to top up the batteries.

If using an AGM battery then make sure you have a charge controller for the solar cell... so easy to wreck an AGM with the wrong charger.

A solar panel can absolutely overcharge a lead-acid battery. Even a humble 2-amp trickle charger can overcharge a FLA (Flooded Lead Acid) or AGM (Absorbent Glass Mat) battery if connected for more than a few days. If left connected for a week or more, battery damage is a real possibility.

[benp1]

I would seriously consider a portable power station (Ecoflow, Anker, Bluetti, Allpowers, Jackery etc)

Everything already built into it (including an invertor and solar input ability), will charge super quick off the mains if needed, and is portable for use outside of the van

[Wolfer]

Thanks guys,

This any good? Need to pick one up after work tomorrow..

https://tinyurl.com/3ur9k97n

If link works.

I know, leave everything till last minute!