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I have always kept my caravan plugged into the electrics at home with the battery charger left on, I have now been told leaving the charger on will damage the battery and that the charger should only be switched on a few days before a trip, what would other members advise?  

If you have got the proper smart charger specifically designed for charging leisure batteries such as the C-Tek charger then you can leave it on 24/7 as it constantly keeps the battery on a float charge which it stops the charge from dropping and avoids any unnecessary cooking as a car battery charger would. This type of charger is designed to charge in 4 stages so as the voltage increases the power reduces accordingly. I have a 'Durite' smart charger which is identical to the C-Tek and it advises in the instructions to leave the battery on charge permanently when not in use. Until I bought this smart charger, a leisure battery only lasted about 2 years but with this charger it's still going strong after 3 years without any problems. Basically leisure battery voltage should be kept to a minimum of 12.7 volts otherwise the battery could be permanently damaged reducing the life which I think happenned to my previous two batteries. A typical 4 stage charger is shown in the link below.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/CTEK-Multi-Functional-4-Stage-Battery-Charger/dp/B004TLF4PC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342637655&sr=8-1

we have spent months on site with no indication of damage.a caravan charger can not go over 13.5 volts on charge.ours has been parked on the drive for years and plugged into the EHU on a timer for 4 hours a day.if your caravan was sited you would not turn off your charger at any time unless you were going home.