Something I like about campers is the ability to run lights and fridges and laptops and such all without the chance to drain the driving battery. I've been looking into this. It seems there is a lot to consider here. You need a secondary battery which is not the same type as the main driving battery. This leisure battery is designed to cope well with slowly being used up and going comepletely flat and then being recharged. It is very different to the starter battery in cars which deliver huge power for a very short time and then like to be recharged straight away by the alternator. The Leisure battery will cost about £95 including delivery.
In order to safely connect 12v appliances to the battery you need some addons: I'm going for some Quick release terminals which are very secure once fitted, safe and will allow multiple sockets to the attached to them. These are about £7 for the pair. And then to enable my 12v appliances to be plugged in I'm going for these water proof 12v double sockets. They have an inline fuse built in and simply attach to the battery via the terminals. They are about £10 each including delivery.
All that gives me a standalone leisure battery which I can plug two appliances into safely. However after a few hours this battery will eventually run out of steam. So I need a way to charge it. As a first step I'm not going to plug the leisure battery into the van's electrical system, it will be standalone. So it won't get charged by the alternator. I'll need a separate charger for it. I'm going for this ring smart charger which will enable me to charge the leisure battery by connecting it up to the battery with jumper leads (and with something more permanent later) and then simply plugging it into the mains. With the help of a mains hook up cable (see Accessories) I will be able to charge the leisure battery and power all the 12v accessories I connect to it from the mains when on a campsite. The charger is about £59 including delivery.
Once this phase is complete I'll have a leisure battery which can be charged from the mains, is totally independent of the driving electrics, is safe and which has 2 x 12v safely fused sockets attached. And I can leave that all at home when driving around and pop it into the back of the van when going camping, along with the 12v coolbox and other accessories on the list.
Total cost of this initial outlay would be about £95 + £7 + £10 + £59 = £171 parts. There is no labour charge as nothing is being done by anyone save me.
The trouble I'm having here is trying to source the specific leisure battery I have my eye on. It always seems to be out of stock. So I'm now looking around the net to find a suitable replacement to this battery.
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