leisure battery - 4 terminals!

dtm

Hi guys

I have bought a transit camper (professional fit out) but i have a question about the leisure battery.

There are 4 terminals on it.
On one side there is a big plus terminal and a small plus terminal.
On the other side there is a big minus termial and a small minus terminal.
First question - Why are there four terminals?

Also it does not seem to be working/charging correctly.
A drive from dublin to galway would still result in a fairly weak leisure battery.

Any ideas?
cheers in advance for the replies!

killalanerr

Im no expert when it comes to wiring but it seems your van has been wired for 2 leisure batts not unusual it will work fine with one, the 2nd one gives you longer periods with out hooking up or running the van .
As for not holding the charge its simple enough to check if its charging when the van is running but a meter across the leisure batt terminals it should read 13v dc but TBH it sounds like your leisure batt is shot, had the same problem my self a while back as soon as i but the battery under a bit of stress re ruining the tv for a while or the heater fan bang every thing tripped,a new leisure batt cured it for me

Buford T Justice

Putting a voltmeter across the terminals of a battery won't indicate problem holding charge. You need to have it load tested. Most garages will have a machine that can test them for you. How old is the battery?

Aidan_M_M

killalanerr wrote: »

Im no expert when it comes to wiring but it seems your van has been wired for 2 leisure batts not unusual it will work fine with one, the 2nd one gives you longer periods with out hooking up or running the van .
As for not holding the charge its simple enough to check if its charging when the van is running but a meter across the leisure batt terminals it should read 13v dc but TBH it sounds like your leisure batt is shot, had the same problem my self a while back as soon as i but the battery under a bit of stress re ruining the tv for a while or the heater fan bang every thing tripped,a new leisure batt cured it for me

Actually , batteries with pairs of terminals aren't unusual , some of the Numax ones we get have them . It makes no difference whether you attach to the big ones , small ones , or one of each , as long as , obviously , you use one plus , and one minus .

Re the voltage , it should be at a minimum 13.5 , and more normally around 14v when the engine is running . Anything less suggests bad connections , or a shot battery .

dtm

ok thanks for that lads.

yes i thought that it would not matter as long as i have one positive and one negative.

at the moment it is connected to only the small of the negaive and both big and small of the positive.
it is a 110amp battery.

im going to charge it externally via a battery charger until its "full" and then see how it lasts. it could well be a shot battery!

will let ye know!

cheers

Buford T Justice

Bear in mind though, even if the battery is knackered every time you put a multi meter on the terminals of the battery you could well get over 12 volts. Its only when there's a sizeable load on the battery that the voltage will drop.... Thats why you need to put a load test on the battery.

In my experience anyway.

jamdec

Hi all.

The dual post terminal batteries tend to be more common in marine applications but in general marine leisure and camper/ motorhome leisure batteries are the same.

On some occasions the battery voltage will drop rapidly when you remove the external charging source indicating either an internal short or dead cell but as said previously the best way is to load test.

Rather than do a high current test take something like a 60 watt headlamp bulb and run that on the battery after charging is finished. For every hour it's connected you will use about 5 amp hours (ah) of battery capacity .You should get around 80% + of the marked battery capacity if it's still in serviceable condition.

Hope that helps....