# Autocruise Starburst Leisure Batteries



## DavidRon (May 1, 2005)

The Autocruise Starburst has two Leisure Batteries which lay on their sides. Does anyone know if you can lay ELECSOL 100 Carbon Fibre Leisure Batteries on their sides, or of any suitable replacement for the originals.

David


----------



## spykal (May 9, 2005)

Hi David

You will need "Gel" VRLA batteries if you want to use them on their side. I am pretty sure that the normal Elecsol batteries must be used upright but you should visit the website and maybe give them a call to ascertain that ( maybe they also make a gel battery :roll: )

http://www.elecsolbatteries.com/ << click

Our Starbust ( 2010 version) has two 95ah, wet lead acid batteries ... it would have been delivered with just one hab battery but I ordered an additional one to be fitted before delivery. The additional one is fitted in the under bed locker space, above and adjacent to the battery box ...which is not large enough to hold two batteries in the upright position....so I am wondering if sometime during it's life your van has had the gel batteries fitted just so that they can both fit into the battery box.

I believe that although Gel batteries will work in "any" orientation they may suffer some loss of capacity if they are not upright... but I am not sure if that is right. ( any gel experts out there?)

I would be interested to see how your batteries are fitted as if you have had no ongoing problems with the gel batteries fitted on their side it I may keep it in mind for when my batteries need replacing ...any chance of a picture?

Mike

P.S. I just had another thought ...what sort of onboard charger do you have as I am pretty sure that the charge rate for gels is different from lead acid.


----------



## Fatalhud (Mar 3, 2006)

It doesn't matter wether you lay Elecsol batteries on there side, upside down or right way up. Either way they are rubbish "in my opinion". :roll: :roll: 
Save your money and get Proper Deep Cycle Batteries
Alan H


----------



## DavidRon (May 1, 2005)

Thanks Mike
Both batteries are AGM Longlife 100 amp, and are under the floor,
I'll get back to you on the charger.

If anyone else has this arrangement and you've never removed them,
remove the retaining bolts now and oil them up. Because the bolts stick out under the van they rust and you can't get a good purchase on them as they are not hexagon, they're a pig to remove.


----------



## spykal (May 9, 2005)

Hi David

Thanks for posting the picture ...this is one of those cases where a picture is worth a thousand words. I can see that your battery compartment is very different to mine and also in a different place. Ours is much smaller and fitted under the nearside bed, hung below the floor like yours and accessed from the external locker or by lifting the bed :wink: 

From the picture I can see that your box does not look deep enough to change to upright batteries and is only suitable for mounting the batteries on their side. So I guess you will have to continue to use the same type of sealed AGMs ..if you do that then the question of will the charger be OK will not enter into it. I only queried the charger as I think GELs require a suitable charger and you would have had to check that out before buying GELs ( I may be wrong about this but better to check first :wink: )


Best of luck
and I hope someone comes along with some "best" battery recommendations.


Mike


P.S
The Starburst has, for many years, retained it's layout which we think is spot on, but there have been so many changes along the way. Some changes were good but some, quite a few actually are not so good. I do think the earlier models made when Autocruise were Autocruise were finished better but the decline in build quality and a "cost saving" finish seems the norm now for many makes of van


----------

