Bongo Fury

Hi,

Do you have an idea how much installing a leisure battery costs?

I'm thinking of installing a waeco coolbox compressor but the chap i'm dealing with says it's not necesary to have a leisure battery with the waeco.

Is he right? Is there any risk of my Bongo not starting if I leave the coolbox running overnight or longer?

Local autoelectrician estimated ?150 inclusive, for an 85ah Leisure battery, fitted and wired to the stereo, cigar lighter outlets and interior lights.

sossylm, it is not worth taking the risk of being stranded in the morning.

I would recommend the fitting of a secondary battery.

Thank you to both.

?150 - I take it that includes cost of leisure battery itself. If so that's ?100 cheaper than that quoted to me by specialist converter!

Sosslym - I run our Waeco CF25 coolbox of the main battery - trickle charge to the liesure battery is pants and doesn't keep it topped up enough to keep the fridge running for more than a few days.

(currently looking for alternative recharging methods - thanks all who have contributed)

I was sceptical at first but having just run the fridge at 0 degrees for 7 days, only using the van as normal - few short trips to work - trip to campsite an hour away, short trips while there and then home and the van has never failed to start once.

As a precaution I run the tap of the leisure battery and have replaced the interior light bulbs with LED types.

The main battery rechargers at a much higher rate than a liesure battery will through trickle charge, so as long as your using your van at some point it will keep th main battery charged.

Thanks to Rich at Clearcut Conversions for the advice, I think Nic now agrees our expensive fridge was worth it.

So in summary I would agree with the fella your dealing with.

?150 includes the battery.
Just go to any autoelectrician.
I read on here and found out which fuses do the interior lights, stereo and cigar 12v outlets and the autoleccy said he would just feed to these from the leisure batt.
He says its easy.
Must remember to go get it done soon.

Been meaning to ask this for ages.

Consider a Bongo on which the power supply to the interior lights has been moved to the leisure battery.

Now suppose the leisure battery is flat. With all the doors shut, I think the leisure battery can charge from the main battery via the dashboard "door open" indicator. (Route would be main battery->dashboard light->door switch->interior light->leisure battery.)

Is this a real problem or can I just ignore it?

Thanks

I thought bongos had two leisure batteries and that split-charge systems don't drain the engine battery as it's protected with a relay ?

Nick

Parabat2

I suspect that the dashboard door open indicator would be lit using some logic devices rather than a direct connection as you have detailed.

The electrical wiring diagram is just too complicated to fathom out otherwise I might have been tempted to work it out!

ScotsNick

No Bongo has a leisure battery fitted as a factory option, unless it is the one in the Mazda kitchen unit.

Some Bongos come with two engine batteries that are simply wired in parallel.

One of them can be disconnected and re-jigged as a leisure battery using a relay or other split charge device for isolation.

Bongos with only one engine battery have a space where a leisure battery can be fitted.

It is usual for a specific leisure battery type to be fitted as different characteristics are required.

Pippin,

I will ignore it for the moment then.

Cheers

Forgive my ignorance but is it possible to use a 240v hook up to power up my battery charger and to then plug the output from this into the leisure battery 12v socket, if I use a multiple socket unit will the charger supply the feeds to the tele, cool box etc and still charge the battery if it needs it.

Not sure about Snowy's requirement. However it is interesting to note members different requirements they want from a leisure battery.

On a personal note i started with the question, "What do i actually want to run off a leisure battery and for how long?" For us it is to run a dvd/tv, a cooly box and perhaps some lighting over the duration of a weekend.

I now have an 85aH leisure battery connected with an item i bought from a local caravan store consisting of a fused power (cigar lighter) socket with crocodile clips. Additionaly i bought a twin socket connector which plugs into this to power the cooly box and the DVD player or TV. You can get these with four sockets but i think if all four were used the battery would run down very quickly.

I will be trying out this combination at the forthcoming Seaton bash and will let you know how we get on with it.

Cheers

Tim

Hi Tim,
It is quite likely that a cool box on its own will completely flatten an 85ah battery in just a few hours unless you have a mains hook-up to keep it topped up via a battery charger. They are notoriously huge consumers of electrical power. The DVD player and TV will not consume half as much.

Snowy,
you can use a mains hook-up to charge your leisure battery whilst running appliances from it, but if the output from the charger is less than the total power drain (amps) of the appliances, the battery will still run down.

I would not use a cool box at all without a battery charger connected to a mains hook-up.

Hi Tim......you are going to use the same system that we do eg cigar socket with crocodile clips....we run two florescent lights and occaissionally a dvd player with no problems at all..put it on trickle charge ftercamping...no need for a split charge cct..Alan

I fitted a standard traction battery in parallel and the Bongo starts in an instant even in the coldest of temperatures.

I only use the interior light and watch a DVD occasionally, everything else is powered by gas. I usually travel around most days while on site and that's enough to top it up if I overdo it.

I have camped without hookup for up to 5 days with no problems at all. I carry a small battery charger in case I can find a main supply but never had to use it in three years.

I have to admit I tow a very small caravan with an enormous leisure battery and use the fridge in there and also watch television, but for those that don't need all the comforts of home it's an ideal solution considering the overall benifits, just fit the battery and cables and don't touch anything else, just excersise the little grey cells.

Because our caravan is small I spend most of the time in the Bongo and only sleep in the caravan when it's extremely cold, I often spend a few hours on the PC and generally amuse myself during the night because I don't need that much sleep at my age. We have been away over long weekends without the caravan and no hookup, (air shows ) with no problems, except the wife misses "Neighbours".