Leisure Battery or No Leisure Battery??

I don't understand the advice aqbout removing batteries because the van charger onl makes 13.8 v, every time you tow assuming you have an S or 13 way connection you will get a 14.4v charge from the car. Not many tow for less than an hour, those that keep their van on a site then that is a different matter. I you anyone decides they don't need a battery then I suggest they remove the battery connectors of whatever type then fully insulate the battery leads, depending on the wiring it may not be fused, and if it is the fuse may be used for other services as well.

grrr no edit  should read " about" " only" and "if" should have used spell checker

You will get the car voltage applied to the van when towing. However this voltage goes through the vans power distribution unit (PDU) and this then applies the required voltage to charge the battery.

As far as I understand this is to do with the vans electronics and ensuring they are not subjected to over voltage.

I have a 96ah sealed battery which stays in the van all the time and I have never experienced problems.

It also depends on where your battery is located. If it's in a dedicated compartment which is ventilated to the outside, no problem, but it's under the lounge seat on mine so it's got to be a fully sealed leisure battery that doesn't gas.

I'm a bit puzzled by this discussion but I admit my knowledge may be a bit out of date. I always thought that in order to get a full charging voltage of 14.4 volts from the car you would have to have a split-charge relay fitted on the car so as to take a direct feed from the alternator. Can someone more knowledgeable than me please enlighten me. :-)

I'm a bit puzzled by this discussion but I admit my knowledge may be a bit out of date. I always thought that in order to get a full charging voltage of 14.4 volts from the car you would have to have a split-charge relay fitted on the car so as to take a direct feed from the alternator. Can someone more knowledgeable than me please enlighten me. :-)

You can just take a feed from any decent sized cable in the car but directly from the battery would be best (the manufacturer might even have provided a fused supply). The split charge relays used to have a feed directly from the alternator to switch them, but these days due to modern electrickery, a voltage sensitive split charge relay is used ....... less wiring needed. The relay just connects the two batteries in parallel when the engine is running. (sorry if I'm teaching Grannie to suck eggs )

Am I right in thinking that you still a separate feed to the caravan that would be wired to circuit on the car which is controlled by the ignition switch? Or has that also been superseded by modern electronic circuitry?

Am I right in thinking that you still a separate feed to the caravan that would be wired to circuit on the car which is controlled by the ignition switch? Or has that also been superseded by modern electronic circuitry?

Without looking it up I can't remember what pins are which (13 pin or 12N/S dependant). One wire is fed via the split charge relay & powers the fridge when your car engine is running - split charge relay can tell via the voltage ie 14.4v that the engine is running. The permanant feed that you can power your caravan with as a back up becomes the feed for charging your caravan battery via the habitation relay inside the caravan - this gets a feed from the fridge supply. ;-)

Am I right in thinking that you still a separate feed to the caravan that would be wired to circuit on the car which is controlled by the ignition switch? Or has that also been superseded by modern electronic circuitry?

Without looking it up I can't remember what pins are which (13 pin or 12N/S dependant). One wire is fed via the split charge relay & powers the fridge when your car engine is running - split charge relay can tell via the voltage ie 14.4v that the engine is running. The permanant feed that you can power your caravan with as a back up becomes the feed for charging your caravan battery via the habitation relay inside the caravan - this gets a feed from the fridge supply. ;-)

Thanks for that, Emilysdad.