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OK, there's been lengthy debate in many threads about the correct method of charging a leisure battery.

There has been some well informed detail on the requirements for a "special" leisure battery charger and plenty of anecdotal evidence that standard car battery chargers are also OK.

My question is this:  What sort of battery chargers do caravan manufacturers fit to their vans?

I've looked at the wiring diagram of the charger in my 1996 Elddis and it does not look very sophisticated at all.  Should I rip it out and replace with a more modern pulsed charger?

My caravan resides in my back garden, hard up against a brick wall.  The only way I can get it in is with a mover.  Thus, once in position I can't get at the battery box to remove the battery to charge it on an independant charger, so it's plugged in to the mains via the hook up lead all the time.

I have had my present 110AH leisure battery since March 2003 and transferred it to my new van last year.We have a mover fitted to the van and this is used to park our van at home etc etc.

We always leave it in the van and use the van charger.Throughout the time the van is at home we leave it connected to the mains via a plug in timer that is set to come on every day for one hour

We have never had a problem with the battery and I would suggest in spite of all the "expert" evidence the on board charger keeps the battery fully charged. I believe if this was not the case the 10-12 minutes we use the mover for on our depatures from home would soon exhaust the battery if it was in a poor state of charge.

Dave

The manufactures don't fit battery chargers, they fit 12 volt power sources set at 13.8 volts which have a secondary use to keep the battery at a fairly high state of charge.

The reason is fully charging produces more gas than charging to about 85% so safer, least this was the reasoning when the rules were set. Today more modern  electronics can get round this problem easily and cheaply but rules is rules for the time being.

Lastly though, the common 12 amp output at 13.8v power source can be used without a battery, you can't do this if it was set at 14.4v or 14.8v  that a proper charger would be

Gary,I use my van for every day use,so I presume the alternator keeps my liesure batterys topped up,so when on site with EHU,dose it charge through the Zig unit,or the power source you mentioned,when ever I test my batterys they are allways showing around 13.4,and have nevr gone lower than about 12.8,sorry but I am a little confused with this.

thanx  Gary for the help with the water system last month! got it working

can anyone help with my battery charging problem?

we bought a new leasure battery for our early 90s coachman, 5days into our holiday the battery ran flat, there is no amp meter in the van only a unit by the door which holds fuses, pump and light switch and a on off switch for 240v( this fuse keeps blowing) . There are only 2 wires coming off the battery, does this mean there is no charger in the can?? 

we are new to vanning we bought the van in May

any help will be gr8