[paul mather]

All you WFP experts out there. How do you power your pump in the van. Which have you found better? Attaching it to a constant live, ie; sidelights, so it runs off your vans battery or buying a battery and charging it up each night.

[abacus]

Hi Paul I run my vans off of a large lessure battery I can get two days out of it  120ah about £70-£80 you can get them cheaper if you look around
I charge them at night  econamy 8 electric price with halfords automatic charger again not the cheapest but will not overcharge the battery and helps maintain it
car batteries are not designed for constant charge drain all day also when you come out in the morning you know if the battery is charged or not
when the charging units on the van go wrong or you get a battery drain you will not know untill you have driven out to start work
I friend of mine had a problem with the fan belt charged the van enough to start but not his second batery so it kept letting him down half way throgh thee day he could not find the fault for some time
anyway you should not run it of the van battery either a seperate battery and charger or a seperate battery and fit a split charcher to the van.
regards grant

[Roy Harding]

Hi Paul

I have a leasure battery and a split charge relay, the relay decides which battery needs the charge and charges the one that requires it.

So you install  and forrget it.

Roy

[Alex Gardiner]

I would agree with both of the above solutions, however if you run a deisel vehicle you no doubt already have a large caoacity alternator, all I have ever done is simply upgrade my battery to the largest best quality battery that the vehicle will take and it's as simple as that.

No doubt some will disagree with this solution but I have been running my 2 systems this way for 5 years now and have had no problems.

Alex

[paul mather]

Thanks guys. I run a little suzuki supercarry & to be honest the battery looks pretty small on it. I know on occasions I have been working outside & have left the radio on for a couple of hours & then when i've come to start the van it won't turn over.  The battery is in a very strange place under the floor in the hold & I can not fit a bigger battery in so I think the answer is a seperate battery possibly with one of the split charge relay thingies

[DaveBrown]

Paul, you'll have to post some pics when its all sorted - I'm just about to start the switch and have come to the same kind of conclusions - ie Gardiner set up, etc - hope your changeover is smooth bro!
dave

[paul mather]

Roy,
What is a leisure battery?

[jeff1]

Roy,
What is a leisure battery?

Paul a Leisure battery is the type they use in caravans, they are for cycle use, ie use it charge it, use it charge it,..were as a car battery isn't made for this purpose. have a look in your local halfords shop to see what there like, and then shop around for a cheaper one.

[paul mather]

Thanks Jeff just typed leisure battery in an ebay search. Do you think I need to go for a 110 AH as was recommended & is it true you have to have a dedicated leisure battery charger as a listing on ebay says a normal charger won't do the trick?

[jeff1]

Thanks Jeff just typed leisure battery in an ebay search. Do you think I need to go for a 110 AH as was recommended & is it true you have to have a dedicated leisure battery charger as a listing on ebay says a normal charger won't do the trick?

Paul
I don't know what current a pump draws, but i would think it would be quite low 5-6 amps maybe, but the higher the Ah of your battery, the longer your battery will last, between charges.
You should really use a dedicated charger for a Leisure battery's, that gives a monitored charge, normal car chargers can cause to much heat in the cells and reduce the life of your battery. My motto is if your going to do a job do it properly.

[paul mather]

Yep I agree. Have seen a 110 AH battery on Ebay delivered for £58 & a heavy duty charger for £34. Sadly the people who do the batteries don't seem to do the chargers so I can't cut down on postage. There are a couple of outdoor shops in my area so will check them out 2morrow, sometimes they will price match an internet price.

[jeff1]

Yep I agree. Have seen a 110 AH battery on Ebay delivered for £58 & a heavy duty charger for £34. Sadly the people who do the batteries don't seem to do the chargers so I can't cut down on postage. There are a couple of outdoor shops in my area so will check them out 2morrow, sometimes they will price match an internet price.

go for it Paul,
Ask the guy's on here, they may be able to point you in the right direction, for a cheaper deal.

[Roy Harding]

Hi Paul

I have a 110 amp leisure battery paid £48 two years ago, this will stay up for a week without a charge, but a split charge relay from a local man cost me a £5 pluss £25 to fit it.

But be carefull get a sealed maintance free one as I had one that was not and acid would trickle out, and they have to be vented properly. But you dont have that trouble with the maintance free ones.

roy