Who can remember when caravans didn’t even have an on-board battery? There was probably a gas stove in your caravan, but if you couldn’t find a power point to plug in to, nothing else worked. These days, things are quite different. We have a three way fridge, (power, gas and battery), two way hot water system, (power and gas), two way TV, (power and battery), a gas stove and battery operated lights. When we occasionally camp off power, our small solar panel helps to top up the battery, but what happens in cold and wet conditions? Last weekend when we were camping off power at Kaitoke, it all came to a grinding halt. The temperature dropped dramatically overnight, but that didn’t bother us, we will fire up our recently installed diesel heater, right? Wrong! The heater may well be diesel fired, but it required the battery to make it start, and run. The battery was able to start the heater but after quarter of an hour of running the battery showed only 10 volts so was unable to maintain a modest load. Robin suspected that it had a collapsing cell under load, so decided that the time was right to replace it, and to think about increasing the battery capacity at the same time. A long involved visit to the battery specialist proved that nothing is ever easy. The first step was to work out what load was required, and working out which appliances drew what power. Then, shall we just replace our existing battery, or get a matched set and join them together? Decisions, decisions. Robin decided to get two new AGM 100ah sealed batteries and then spent a couple of days head down under the seating area putting everything in place.
Do they work?
As the new batteries were so much larger in capacity he had to buy a heavier battery charger to be able charge the larger size.
Another purchase was a pure sine wave inverter to be able to run electronic equipment off the battery bank such as the satellite decoder and the TV. The existing inverter is a modified sine wave and is OK for running his CPAP machine but puts out a too noisier current for electronic equipment hence the PSW unit.
This was fitted to the wall just above the folding TV arm.
Will the new batteries make our off power rallies more comfortable? Will the heater work OK? The test will be over Easter when we are staying at school grounds at Levin for a joint rally with Wellington and Wairarapa Caravan clubs. If this fails then there is always the generator!
3 comments:
Hi, Ive never heard of a diesel heater on a caravan before! Is that common down under! They are used on lorrys here, and the odd camper van. We have a electric/gas fire as standard fit so dont have that problem when off grid. All though we are on the lookout for a portable generator as backup.
Our caravan did not come equipped with gas/electric heater unlike English and European vans. To enable us to weather out the winter off grid I have fitted an Eberspacher Diesel Heater. LPG heaters are available but I wanted an alternative fuel to my cooking. The diesel heaters are becomming more common in motorhomes and are now appearing in some caravans. We have recently purchased a Honda EU20i generator and although it would be the most expensive on the market I figure you get what you pay for. It has been faultless so far!
We have just bought a generator, and its true what you say about the cost, but we couldnt stretch to a Honda! So have gambled on a cheap import, if it lasts a year then for the money I wont mind! We will see how it goes over the summer at all the shows we intend to do!
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