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Apologies if this has been asked before but can you charge a leisure battery with an ordinary car battery charger.  Or do you need a specific charger?

Thanks for your help in advance.

In most cases being hooked into the 240 v.a.c. system automatically maintains a "float" charge to the battery in order to keep it (almost) fully charged without damage to the battery.  Sometimes there is an additional on/off switching facility on the onboard charger.

We keep our caravan at home, permanently hooked into the 240 volt supply, and the battery is always on charge, without risk of overcharging.

The onboard charger is designed to "float" below the fully charged state in order to prevent evaporation of the battery acid.

Bertie.

Quote: Originally posted by SoundsDigital on 02/7/2007

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I have a Gunsons charger on my van. Not sure if it is set right. It has two switches, "Auto On / Auto Off" and "Floating Charge / 100% Charge" anyone know how it should be set? It is sealed from the accomodation area so toxic fumes are not an issue, is it OK to set it to 100% charge?

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I have a Gunson battery charger with similar facilities.  To avoid over charging, I would advise that the two switches are set to "Auto ON" and "Floating Charge".

Bertie.

Quote: Originally posted by Ginaherd on 02/7/2007

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Just a new question on this subject. This may sound a bit daft but when the caravan is hooked upto 240 is it charging the leisure battery as well?

Ta
Gina

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Quote: Originally posted by scuba on 02/7/2007

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Quote: Originally posted by Ginaherd on 02/7/2007

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Just a new question on this subject. This may sound a bit daft but when the caravan is hooked upto 240 is it charging the leisure battery as well?

Ta
Gina

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 There should be an onboard battery charger switch to manually turn on to charge your caravan leisure battery. The battery will not automatically charge on 240 electric hookup without this switch being turned on. On my caravan it is situated with caravan electric circuit breakers in caravan wardrobe (red plastic switch that lights up when charging). I have a battery condition meter, a needle with red, yellow, and green background that shows battery condition but it is on different panel with car, van switch. 

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We have a 2006 Coachman, and in my case the answer to Gina's question is "yes".  My onboard charger is designed to operate to 12 volt system without a leisure battery fitted, so the charger does not have a switch.   But our previous van (a 2001 Elddis) did ahave a switching facility mounted on the charger itself.

So the ability to switch off the charger depends on what type of charger was fitted by the van maker in any particular year.

Bertie.