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I have fitted 5 "extra" mains sockets to our Pathfinder to run our luxury items, but all of the main essential items are 12v. Lights, Water Pump, etc.

Mains circuits on caravan sites are notorious for tripping out and atleast once a year for as long as I can remember, we have needed to resort to our 12v only system for a few hours at least while the fault is searched for and rectified.

Electricians that are prepared to come out to a caravan park at night, inveriably in the rain  to search for one overloaded mains box, can be a bit thin on the ground.

A 12v battery in a caravan/camper is like a spare wheel on a car. You hope you will never need to rely on it but you are ever so grateful for it when you do need it.

Quote: Originally posted by homebird2003 on 15/10/2011

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I'm not technically minded so not sure if this will help but in our 1997  Countryman we had 3 x 240v sockets & 3 x 12v sockets.  When hooked up to EHU we could use all the 12v  sockets without a battery on board.

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We depend on the mains power supply to run essential medical equipment that we need at night, but because our only "reliable" source of power is in fact our 12v leisure battery, we also carry an Inverter for that equipment, should the mains supply fail.

So it really does come down to your own needs and lifestyle, to whether you feel that you need to carry a dependable back up power supply or not.

Quote:

A 12v battery in a caravan/camper is like a spare wheel on a car. You hope you will never need to rely on it but you are ever so grateful for it when you do need it.

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My experience is that they're a lot more like the 12 battery in your car (once the engine is running).

In the Pathfinder, the lights, water & toilet flush mechanisms are all 12V. If you try to run them without the battery my experience is they just don't work. Well, OK maybe the lights will work but there's not enough current for the water pump.

Thanks Paul, I've never used my Pathfinder without its battery, but that is good to know for the future.

We run with a 110ah battery which we keep in tip top condintion as we never know when we may need it to power us through a mains failure.