Leisure battery recommendations
- Thread starter Johnston97
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I decided in the end I would take my California Ocean leisure batteries from 75ah up to 115ah each but stay on the AGM sealed. It's a decent step up for me at least. They will get solar before long..
There is so much stock equipment designed to be used with the AGM (and to be fair to use it pretty well) I think that's a reasonable choice, especially as so much of it is tucked into hidden spaces it would be hard to get equivalent aftermarket items in. Especially the twin LB variants like the Ocean.
Yep, these came in very reasonable, a pair for £250.00. the fit laid on their backs was absolutely the max you could get under the passenger seat or in the rear locker without staring to butcher things a bit. I found room for a victron bt shunt too, a slight curve on the rear compartment and a trim to the inner part of the rear seat base cover, but all in all I was happy with it all.
For anyone else thinking about doing this in a Cali beach or ocean, the front needs the 8mm stud kit adding and the rear doesn't have room for that, in fact you might want to get some stubby cap heads or even countersink to minimise the stick out for the cover. Cables cannot trap behind the rear battery at all. You will need a decent rated crimp set to terminate ends with 8mm to go onto the battery, and 10mm to go to the shunt. Shunt sits between the negative rear battery terminal and the brown vehicle neutral that heads straight to the front battery, and remember to only connect to the backside of the shunt as not to confuse the load readings.
I also brought an 80A inline fuse back into the positive for the rear battery since it had one built into the stud terminal previously. It's working very nicely and pickup up the Aux battery from the starter too.
Also learned a few lessons about how the smart alternator and the DSG interact too, with regards to stationary idle and expecting batteries to be charging. Interesting that the alternator draw is zero when stationary most of the time. Had my local garage really scratching their heads at one point. Reversing out of the garage, it all came up.. also with the full regen on desk breaking being sent back to leisure side interested me. Must lean pretty heavy on the belts though..
Nice, thanks for posting the pictures as give useful context for future visitors 
The regen braking is interesting - when I had the fan based peltier coolbox you could really hear it working, especially on downhill sections where the DSG would downshift to get the engine revs up but use the alternator to load it up and brake. You can still hear that somewhat with the main blower though it's more subtle.
If you need to be sure the alternator is engaged, even at idle, just bang a big electrical load like the blower on reasonably high and it should cut in regardless.
I take your point on belts but at the end of the day if you have a 250A alternator they need to be sized to be able to deliver that amount of energy - they're not removing any more energy from the engine when doing that for braking vs driving on the flat.
The regen braking is interesting - when I had the fan based peltier coolbox you could really hear it working, especially on downhill sections where the DSG would downshift to get the engine revs up but use the alternator to load it up and brake. You can still hear that somewhat with the main blower though it's more subtle.
If you need to be sure the alternator is engaged, even at idle, just bang a big electrical load like the blower on reasonably high and it should cut in regardless.
I take your point on belts but at the end of the day if you have a 250A alternator they need to be sized to be able to deliver that amount of energy - they're not removing any more energy from the engine when doing that for braking vs driving on the flat.
Yea, agreed I guess I'm just thinking about screechy idler that meant I had to have all the auxiliary belts and gubbins done prematurely. Last week.. I still haven't recovered from the ungreased drive shaft when the DMFW Got it's wobble on..Nice, thanks for posting the pictures as give useful context for future visitors
The regen braking is interesting - when I had the fan based peltier coolbox you could really hear it working, especially on downhill sections where the DSG would downshift to get the engine revs up but use the alternator to load it up and brake. You can still hear that somewhat with the main blower though it's more subtle.
If you need to be sure the alternator is engaged, even at idle, just bang a big electrical load like the blower on reasonably high and it should cut in regardless.
I take your point on belts but at the end of the day if you have a 250A alternator they need to be sized to be able to deliver that amount of energy - they're not removing any more energy from the engine when doing that for braking vs driving on the flat.
I like the look of the look of the fogstar mentioned early in the post, it's smaller that my current battery that was fitted during the conversion. This is my current set up.
The first year I got the van I left the fridge on all the time, now I find it really slow to charge. It charges well on EHU but after I unplug it depletes quickly, even with.nothing on. I tested the battery and the result is it's OK.
Obviously the lithium in more expensive, is the expense justified ?
Is it as simple as replacing like for like ?
Does installing Solar reduce battery depletion significantly?
The first year I got the van I left the fridge on all the time, now I find it really slow to charge. It charges well on EHU but after I unplug it depletes quickly, even with.nothing on. I tested the battery and the result is it's OK.
Obviously the lithium in more expensive, is the expense justified ?
Is it as simple as replacing like for like ?
Does installing Solar reduce battery depletion significantly?
Yes,no,yes, as in yes a lithium iron phosphate battery will beat a lead acid or AGM version hollow, no the lithium isn't quite a straight swap as it has different charging requirements than the lead batteries and yes solar input can input quite a lot depending on your setup.
I've got two 175 watt Renogy flexi panels stuck to our poptop....
For this typical charging input below and given the vagaries of collecting sunshine, that's going to be probably 23A going into the leisure battery given the fridge typically draws 4A and fairly constantly when it's holiday time...
I've got two 175 watt Renogy flexi panels stuck to our poptop....
For this typical charging input below and given the vagaries of collecting sunshine, that's going to be probably 23A going into the leisure battery given the fridge typically draws 4A and fairly constantly when it's holiday time...
A simplified way to understand Lithium vs AGM batteries is this:
PM me and I may be able to get you a good deal on a branded lithium.
- A 100Ah AGM battery typically only lets you use around 50% of its capacity before the voltage drops too low, risking damage or drastically reducing its lifespan. So, in practice, a 100Ah AGM gives you about 50Ah of usable power.
- A 100Ah Lithium (LiFePO4) battery, on the other hand, maintains a higher voltage for longer and can typically be discharged up to 80–90% safely. That means you get 80–90Ah of usable power from the same nominal capacity.
PM me and I may be able to get you a good deal on a branded lithium.
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