Bongo Fury

I've got the winter pack on my ford freda and it looks like the "spare" battery is dying.
When I take it off and put it on charge its taking 2 days to fully charge and then when i put it back on, she starts but then when I go to restart it wont turn over (had to use the battery from the FF kitchen to jump start)

Does anyone know what size battery is needed to replace it (I dont want to make it into leisure battery)
The 2 batteries that are on don't seem to be original, they're both "Chloride Heavy Duty" with no model number or amperage !!!!
Will it matter if they're different batteries ???

You should only need one and if the second is broke it could have been draining the "proper" battery, try insulating the leads to the broken battery and leave it off, see how you get on.

If I am wrong some one will put me straight

just had to replace my batteries. I still had the original Panasonic ones on mine. The original ones were Panasonic 80D26L(55) as shown in the hand book.

The garage IU purchased the new batteries soomed to know all about these looked them up and said the equivalent are BO88 70AH I had Delta ones fitted, costing £51.60 each.


It is amazing starts first touch of the key now.

If one goes it even if the other one is good both will be drained by the faulty battery

Also it is worth changing them both if they are the same age.

Hope that helps.

Personally, I would isolate the 2nd battery and just replace the first battery with a good new one. I think the ones I use are known as a type 335. Means nothing to me but probably would to a battery specialist.
Approx 90-100 amp and should be fine on just one.

There are a couple of critical factors about battery choice:
There are obvious constraints of physical size H x W x L etc and orientation of the positive and negative terminals (important if you dont want to alter wiring harnesses)
The next is capacity a fully charged 70 Ah battery will deliver 70 amps for 1 hour or 7 amps for ten hours until flat therfore a 100 AH battery is a higher capacity unit and will last longer.
The other factor to consider is maximum current delivery or maximum cranking current (its the same thing) somewhere on the battery there will be a figure of for instance 300amps or somewhere near that value. it is what the battery can deliver safely without damage to the battery although it will only do this for a much shorter time eg 1 or 2 minutes.
Finally the differences between normal duty batteries and leisure batteries.
Leisure batteries are designed so that they can be deep cycled- fully charged to fully flat more often. because of this the internal construction is such that they are not suited for heavy car starting currents as the thinner internal plates do have a tendancy to buckle more easily under load. these batteries usually have a taller appearance as there is a space left at the bottom of the battery for the build up of positive piller decay - a symptom of charging /discharging batteries regularly.
Normal car batteries are designed to be kept near to their optimum charge at all times but are subject to short heavy current demands, for this the internal plates are usually thicker and take up alot of room. because of this these batteries suffer if deep cycled as the small deposits of positive piller decay have a tendancy to short out the plates within the battery lessening the battery's capacity over time.
Still awake? the short answer is for starting the vehicle a normal battery is best. typically greater than 75AH will suffice for an engine in good condition ( but better witha 110Ah if available) and for the kitchen a good leisure battery of a similar size. you can charge both batteries off the Bongo with a split charging relay but I would resist the temptation of linking the bateries together or using the wrong battery for the wrong application.

Well after a disasterous start to our long weekend to Scotland

Finished work at 1am (yes thats 1am ) and jumped in the Freda to travel up to Scotland...................no joy, both batteries flat (after being charged the day before)
Anyway to cut a long story short, eventually got it started (2:45) and off we went. Got to the campsite at 5am and parked up till it opened at 8am, batteries flat

So rang halfords Dumfries and he said none of the numbers came up on the computer, so I'd have to bring it in, but couldn't get a battery till Tuesday
So he gave me the number of a motor factors in Dumfries and I rang and he said the same, but he said come in and he would see if he could sort me
So we jump started the van with the leisure battery and of we went, parked up and within 5 minutes had 2 new batteries fitted and working

1x068 & 1x069 68amp £60 each

Using the Radio all weekend didn't even seem to affect their power

A weel chuffed but poorer Gozzy

BTW thanx for the help

You have 2 batterys and a leisure battery?

where is the leisure battery please?

westonwarrior wrote:You have 2 batterys and a leisure battery?

where is the leisure battery please?

In the Factory Fitted Kitchen

I would check you are charging OK. Two batteries with no life in them is a bit odd. Anything over 13.5V is fine.

smartmonkey wrote:I would check you are charging OK. Two batteries with no life in them is a bit odd. Anything over 13.5V is fine.

Yep it was charging them 13.68v