# Which is which ?????



## peaky (Jul 15, 2009)

I have just changed my leisure battery for a new one, it was under the van and very awkward to get at (garage did it ) it was a 95 ah long battery. The on board pc says both batteries are now between 13 and 14. I assume the battery we changed was battery 2 as it was really low. I have since "FOUND" i assume battery one under the passenger seat !!! it seems to be charging ok its a 105 ah 12v does anyone know what thisbattery does , i think it does the lights and perhaps the tv etc, the new one must do the water pump and heater ?? do they feed off each other as they are both now at the same voltage, i hav nt a clue what the engine battery is at !!! (condition wise ) but no probs starting her up !!!


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## richardjames (Feb 1, 2006)

The two batteries, I'm assuming one is leisure and the other vehicle, are two different amperages and do different jobs and would reflect different voltages. My Leisure battery shows 14volts and engine battery 13.2volts after a full charge


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## weldted (May 1, 2005)

*batteries/*

Hi what year is your van? Have you looked under the bonnet to check their is not an engine battery there/ not being funny but I have had Fiat Ducato from 1986 up to 2003 all had the engine battery under the bonnet only on my 2008 x250 is the battery in the cab under the floor. Is the no 1 battery in a vented box as their is more chance of the engine battery being subject to gassing owing to the higher rates of charge and discharge?


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## weldted (May 1, 2005)

*batteries again?*

High I forgot to mention how thick is the cable from battery 1 if it is the starting battery the cables will be as thick as you little finger if it is for leisure a lot smaller and should have an inline fuse of 20-30 amps rating. All the domestic services usually run from a common point I have never seen seperate batteries for seperat domestics?


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## peaky (Jul 15, 2009)

our van is a 1994 fiat ducato 1.9. Yes the engine has its own battery under the bonnet, then there is the under the passenger seat battery I think on smaller cables (dont quote me on that )which is the 105 ah battery, and the one we changed under the van was a long size 95ah battery. We also have a solar panel on the roof, do u think this might be charging this battery under the seat ?? I cant see that the solar panel does much at all really. 
we had our first real night away last night, we had the tv on for about 2hours max (before the dvd player buzzing got too much, had 2 lights on for 2 hours, i had a 5 min shower, now this am our battery is showing 7 !!!! u would think with 2 batteries and solar panel it would be better ?? or am i expecting too much ?? sorry to go on, im thinking maybe we need to invest in some sort of generator ?? out here we dont have the luxury of hook up anywhere as there are no official campsites I need to ask fellow M/homers, most are Foiegn of course any thoughts anyone ??


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## madontour (May 19, 2008)

I'm sure the electrical experts will be along shortly but:

It would be unusual to have the habitation circuits split and served by different batteries.

Normally if there are two leisure batteries then they will be linked together in parallel. This effectively creates one large battery bank to serve the habitation area.

For two batteries to work effectively together they need to be "matched" - the same size and condition - otherwise the weaker battery simply drains the stronger one. If you've only changed one battery, and they are linked together, you'll only get performance roughly equivalent to the 'old' battery that remains.

The solar panel is probably charging the two leisure batteries, but don't expect miracles. It will extend the time you can stay off hook up but is unlikely to completely recharge the batteries each day.

hope this helps

mike


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## peaky (Jul 15, 2009)

thanks mike another battery is on the shoppng list just hope we can get a 90ah but a bit smaller than the other under the van as it wont fit otherwise !!!!


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