Beach leisure battery

syrup1971 · May 4, 2012

The Beach leisure battery is located under the front passenger seat. There is no charge indicator, so one of the of the previously mentioned 12v outlet testers will probably be a worthwhile investment.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/RAC-Battery-and ... 164&sr=8-8

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ring-Automotive ... B001VC4PVG

http://www.amazon.co.uk/COMPACT-BATTERY ... 164&sr=8-1

BikerBoy · May 4, 2012

Should be easy to hard wire a decent invertor with an indicator to it! :thumb

BikerBoy · May 5, 2012

Is it easy to get at? Do you have to remove panels?

Any idea what he capacity is? Is it 72AH like he Cali?

syrup1971 · May 6, 2012

Quick look would seem to indicate it is not that easy to get at. There are a few fuses there. I suspect you need to take the chair out. Perhaps some regular California owners can comment on how theirs work.

Chris

Kimmhu · May 19, 2012

syrup1971 said:
The Beach leisure battery is located under the front passenger seat. There is no charge indicator, so one of the of the previously mentioned 12v outlet testers will probably be a worthwhile investment.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/RAC-Battery-and ... 164&sr=8-8

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ring-Automotive ... B001VC4PVG

http://www.amazon.co.uk/COMPACT-BATTERY ... 164&sr=8-1

Just wondered if you got one of these & if so which you recommend? I also noticed in 'Wilcos' a socket that plugs into the 12v outlet and converts it it a 3 pin plug. Has anybody come across those? Any suggestions?

calikev · May 19, 2012

I have these in my shop. Take a look
http://www.homesteadcaravans.co.uk/batt ... or-tester/

BikerBoy · Jun 6, 2012

My leisure battery is 80A, slightly more than thought. The SE has 2x72A.

Italiahorse · Aug 26, 2012

Beach leisure battery help please

Trying to work out what power I need when I go away for the first time in my brand new 2012 Uk Beach.
I am assuming that the leisure battery will power all the 12v sockets in the vehicle and that once the leisure battery is exhausted it will leave the main battery alone. ie not flattening the starter battery. I have turned the ignition off and all the sockets are working. However the manual supplement for Beach etc reference sockets says that the vehicle battery will be flattened if the engine is not running. This cant be right otherwise what is the point of the leisure battery.

Any advice would be appreciated before I find out the hard way.

Thanks in advance

Keith

James · Aug 30, 2012

Re: Beach leisure battery help please

Italiahorse said:
Trying to work out what power I need when I go away for the first time in my brand new 2012 Uk Beach.
I am assuming that the leisure battery will power all the 12v sockets in the vehicle and that once the leisure battery is exhausted it will leave the main battery alone. ie not flattening the starter battery. I have turned the ignition off and all the sockets are working. However the manual supplement for Beach etc reference sockets says that the vehicle battery will be flattened if the engine is not running. This cant be right otherwise what is the point of the leisure battery.

Any advice would be appreciated before I find out the hard way.

Thanks in advance

Keith

Hi Keith

I can only pass on what another Beach owner told me - that is, everything in the back of the van worked from the leisure battery - 12v. They run down their leisure battery and that included the rear interior lights, and the van still started from the main battery.

James

syrup1971 · Sep 3, 2012

My understanding is as James - all rear 12v sockets, and lights run from the leisure battery. Also, if fitted, the power for the parking heater from the same battery. This has a cut out to prevent full dis-charge (bad for lead-acid batteries).

Fully discharging this battery will not affect the ability to start the vehicle.

Italiahorse · Sep 23, 2012

All sorted
Started a bit of a blog for what I'm up to

http://www.walktrot.com/VW%20Camper/ireland.htm

jamesC · Mar 8, 2013

Picked up my Beach last weekend and already on my second outing this weekend!!... was this actually tested by anybody??.. the owners handbook is fairly unclear.. Clearly the whole point of this type of battery is for running lights, sockets... fridges etc, but I don't want to be left high and dry with two flat batteries!! Thanks

syrup1971 · Mar 8, 2013

Nice spec on the Beach btw.

I am sure (though can't find where I read it now), that the leisure battery is independent of the main battery. So long as you use the rear electrical outlets, and the lights, then you will not be in danger of flattening the main battery.

Next time I am out, I will try to verify the theory, by using my 12v battery tester on the cab 12v outlet, and the rear 12v outlet.

jamesC · Mar 17, 2013

Still on the topic of the factory Beach Leisure Battery.... It seems to me that those with a Cali SE have detail battery condition info in the overhead display, however, that does not exist in the Beach. Can it really be necessary to buy a cheap battery meter from amazon and put my faith in that??... Seems crazy!!... It's like having no fuel gauge on the dash!!

Does anybody with a beach have any real world experience of the battery running low, and what it involved in charging it up?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

James · Mar 17, 2013

As I said I spoke with a couple who had a Beach - they run their leisure battery down and all that happened was that everything behind the cab didn't work, lights etc but the van started fine.

I believe it's common place on multivans/dayvans/weekenders that that your leisure battery powers the back of the vehicle.

In that sense, to me, there is little need to have any display to tell you what the battery is doing, the worse case situation is that a light or socket won't work. Granted it would be nice but to me not a must.

In nearly a year apart from curiosity I've never wanted to or needed to know what my leisure battery is doing. That said, mine is a more day to day vehicle perhaps for those who go away more it is something more missed.

James

jamesC · Mar 17, 2013

Thanks James... I guess the reason that I think it would be useful for me is that over Easter I will be away for several nights in the same location, and if I knew the battery state I would feel more confident that I wasn't going to run into difficulties with something like my parking heater during the night.

Obviously I could choose to run the van for a while during the day, but I will have no idea if this is useful or not for my leisure battery.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

James · Mar 17, 2013

redredzimmer said:
Thanks James... I guess the reason that I think it would be useful for me is that over Easter I will be away for several nights in the same location, and if I knew the battery state I would feel more confident that I wasn't going to run into difficulties with something like my parking heater during the night.

Obviously I could choose to run the van for a while during the day, but I will have no idea if this is useful or not for my leisure battery.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

From that perspective completely understand why you'd want to know. Depends what you run but i don't think the full fat Cali owners have ever struggled.

Great spec on the van btw :cool

James

BikerBoy · Apr 28, 2013

redredzimmer said:
Still on the topic of the factory Beach Leisure Battery.... It seems to me that those with a Cali SE have detail battery condition info in the overhead display, however, that does not exist in the Beach. Can it really be necessary to buy a cheap battery meter from amazon and put my faith in that??... Seems crazy!!... It's like having no fuel gauge on the dash!!

Does anybody with a beach have any real world experience of the battery running low, and what it involved in charging it up?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

I don't think the leisure battery is independent, but I think there is a cut-off to protect the engine battery from running totally flat. I did run it all down and I had a little issue starting the engine, but it did start in the end.

I have made some preliminary investigations about adding another leisure battery under the driver seat and that seems possible according to VW. I think I might just do this and fix an inverter in at the same time.