wolfy Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 :-D Hi all, I am a newcomer the motorhome fraternity I am currently looking a different models ,and at the mo i like the look at the Swift 590rs and I am hireing one out in Sept to the York show, and I hope from this show that I will make my decision on what to purchase for next year. Can someone tell me about the leisure battery's as I believe there are no hook ups on the york raceground, will the battery last or will I need to be careful on light usage etc many thanks. :-> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 Well Mark, It all depends! How big is the Leisure battery in Ampere hours on this motorhome? What electrical 12 volt equipment do you expect to be running? Do you read all night with a light on? You can almost disregard the energy taking by the water pump and gas hob igniter as these are only on for very short periods of time. But lighting is on for a long time. As as very rough rule of thumb say a flourescent light takes 1 amp out of the battery when turned ON. If you run this for 4 hours over 3 nights its 12 ampere hours. Many of the spot lights take similar amounts of amps so can be calculated the same. Finally only plan to use HALF of the ampere hour rating printed on the battery and you should be OK. Does that help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 Hi wolfy, Welcome to the fraternity, you have not got to be nuts to join, but it does help, & bring your wellies. As for the battery, how long is a piece of string??? Quite frankly if you are only using lights you don't need to worry. Think of a leisure battery is a box of 12volt electric, tells you on the top how much is stored in it when fully charged, in 'amp-hours', to work out the usage take the Watts of equipment used, divide by 12, and that gives you 'Amp-hours'. So you can see that using a couple of 20 Watt lights for about three hours every evening, plus occasional use of 35 Watt water pump, and a couple of hours of 45 Watt TV, is not going to make much of dent in the capacity of a 100 Amp-hour battery. That is just a rough guide for you. Sooner or later Clive or David, or Uncle Derek and others with high-tec brain power will be along and tell you what it is really all about, but in the mean time don't worry about it, one battery will see you through the show. An old mate of mine had a Swift 590rs, lovelly lay out, but a long way up to the door, and even further coming down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest starspirit Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 Don't worry about the battery. Just run the engine on tickover for 15 mins or so each day - not late or early - if you are worried. You should have a little guage that tells you the battery state which might help, but one soon learns that when the lights dim and the pump slows trouble looms. Even if the TV goes off through lack of volts you can still start up and recharge enough to get by at any reasonable time. More annoying is the heating going off when 'tis a cold night due to same lack of volts but this is only an issue for fan driven and diesel heating, and even then as long as the battery is OK it will last at least one night if not two. You can spend a fortune on electonics and batteries but it is so easy just to turn the key and run the engine for a while as an alternator gives out a very healthy charge rate even at tickover. Simplicity and cost effectiveness has always been the answer for me. Welcome to the fold and I do hope that you will be able to live without mains as it opens up so many new horizons other than the captivity mainstream sites. Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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