Had the FC out on the drive again today. It's the first chance we've had since we went away at Easter! Yesterday we hit Ikea for some bits and pieces and we spent today tinkering.
One of the handles was missing on the grill so we decided to replace them all with more sleeker metal tag handles - 96cm ones perfect fit and it really makes our old girl look more modern. We also decided to ditch the 12v light on the side of the wardrobe and bought this light which is mains and it looks very nice. We also added 3 mirrors to the the same side of the wardrobe so I have an almost full lenth mirror! (we don't have the wardobe on it's runner so it's stored on the floor with new light/mirrors facing up.)
We do however need some advice. We don't want a leisure battery (for many reasons, cost being the major one and the fact we always opt for EHU) so getting rid of the 12v light means the only 12v powered thing we have is the pump for the water. We have a whale pump and a dome switch on the floor so it's pretty basic I think? We only have cold water anyway and I don't want to wash up in the camper so really all it would be for is drinking/cooking water and we really can't justify spending over £50 (plus!) for a battery for us to only having running water. Is there anything else we can do that is cheaper than having a battery that allows us to have running water? We don't mind spending around £25 if we have to, but really can't justify spending more than that when I can fill a bottle from a tap and carry it to our unit!
Oh yes I forgot to mention I also bought this from ikea for the wardrobe and I can confirm it fits brilliantly! It's not quite as long as the wardobe so we can store heavy things on the bottom of the wardrobe and lighter things on the hanging shelves. The shelves are qyute sturdy and it also has small pockets at the side which are tricky to access but not impossible.
You would have to remove the existing 12v wiring which would have gone through to the battery and put a cigarette type plug on the end and plug it in, it should work as the water pump does not take many amps, depending on the pump.
Does the pump work when on EHU ?, if so then you must have a 12volt transformer somewhere in the pullman, if you do it will most likely be under one of the settee's or in a cupboard somewhere.if you do then you will not need a battery.
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the simplest solution is usually the hardest to think of ,go down to a local scrapyard and locate a sealed battery off a fairly new car ,it will do the job if you top it up regularly from a battery charger ,can't see one costing more than £20 probably a lot less .
its not written anywhere that you MUST use a leisure battery ,i would also advise getting one and not ditching all your 12v lighting in case of campsite power outages ,that happens quite often in my experience
Quote: Originally posted by the black fox on 29/5/2012
the simplest solution is usually the hardest to think of ,go down to a local scrapyard and locate a sealed battery off a fairly new car ,it will do the job if you top it up regularly from a battery charger ,can't see one costing more than £20 probably a lot less .
its not written anywhere that you MUST use a leisure battery ,i would also advise getting one and not ditching all your 12v lighting in case of campsite power outages ,that happens quite often in my experience
Aye a normally sealed car battery should do the job for what the op wants out of it.
Like Hanz, my Crusader has a Sargent PSU which means I have 12V when on EHU. Battery is not vital if you only use EHU. I had my FC for 2 years before buying a leisure battery. Unless the Pullman is different??
depends on the age of the unit ,my old early 90's pullman has a mains plug in EHU under the offside by the water pump inlet ,but i have never trusted it enough to try it out ,we use a 3 way hook up unit ,and plug the 12v battery into the wires that come out of a box in the right hand cupboard ..i feel safer like this than using 20 year old mains wiring