A car battery can be used but it will have a shorter life, you can help it by ensuring battery is not left in an uncharged state for too long. If you already have the battery then you might as well use it but if you are buying one then get a leisure battery.
It all depends on how you will be camping. If you intend to always have an electric hook-up, a cheap car battery will be perfectly adequate. If not, you need a leisure battery.
Hi
When we got our caravan i went to volvo scrapyard got one for a tenner had it 7 years no problems and yes we do have a mover fitted but we only ever use e.h.u sites.
Tommy.
A leisure battery is constructed differently to a car battery because each does a different job. A leisure battery is discharged to a greater extent than a car battery and for a greater number of times, it is required to give a smaller current for a longer period of time so the plates are made thicker, on the other hand a car battery is required to give a large current for a small amount of time (starting the car and take it from an auto electrician thats all a car battery does :- starts the car nothing else) so the plates are made thinner. Also not all leisure batteries are leisure batteries (that has been proven by the caravan club) if a so called leisure battery has a label on it which states Cold Cranking Amps it is a car battery and not a leisure battery