Caravan Battery Chargers
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For an expert explanation of leisure vehicle battery chargers, John Wickersham style, the Camping and Caravan Club has provided this;
They also provide information on battery types and their maintenance;
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I’m open to learning and in my experience of lead acid batteries, I've not had the need for intelligent chargers. If you don’t abuse them, they will give you good service.
The battery on my Bailey is over four years old and has never been removed or charged independently. Just the onboard charger and the solar panel.
Well I've learnt something today. On looking up the data sheet to the Truma solar charge controller, it states that it is a multi stage intelligent controller. So I can assume that may well have contributed to the healthy battery on the caravan. I’m happy with that and wouldn’t personally go out and buy another gadget to add to other must have but never used essential caravanning equipment in the garage. 🙂
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ocsid, thanks for the correction. John Wickersham was a great communicator, both on TV and in the written word.
The link to the article explains in more detail what I was summarising. 13.8 volts is insufficient to recharge, though I must confess that the idea that it would get the “extra” voltage through the car when travelling is interesting.
With the simple 13.8 volt supplies (they are not really chargers as the article explains) it is important not to leave the van permanently connected as the current is not controlled and over the long term will cause premature aging.
Normally it is recommended that if your van is in storage you remove the battery and recharge once per month. Bear in mind that if it is stored for a long period and gets down to 50% or so then the simple power supply on the caravan will NOT fully recharge and you will get permanent degradation unless you use an intelligent charger. I had a spare battery and switched periodically as there was no power at our storage location.
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