The battery on my 2004 PVC 2.8 JTD Ducato is goosed... Had two dry cells and now will not hold a charge very long.
Its 10 years old obviously as it is a Magnetti Marelli so must be original fitment so it owes me nowt. Its an 88 Ahr regular van battery but is shorter than what new batteries are being listed at...?

I have been looking at Banner and Varta 100 Ahr batteries but they are 353 long whereas mine is just 305 long at the base including lugs.

So, presumably these longer batteries will fit... Will they?

And does anyone have any advice on which make of battery to go for. i want a premium make with a long guarantee. What do you suggest?

All advice appreciated.

K

When mine died I fed it a nice 95ah Exide and it has been fine for the last 4 yrs. Tried a cheap Russian made heap of crap first but it died after 9 months so took it back and got the refund the better battery was only£25.00 more from my mechanic!!

You say its a regular 'van' battery. Does this mean it is not a leisure battery?
As far as I am aware, if it fits the supplied brackets and space, the bigger the amperage and heavier (physically) the battery is, the better.
Varta, Banner and Exide all seem to have good reports.
If you have space for two high amperage batteries ( 100+amps each) and they fit, you should have a good reserve of energy.
Sorry if this is already known to you but do not mix the two types of battery up, use starter batteries for the van and only Leisure batteries for the habitation.

Alan

I am in the same process of buying a new engine battery.
If you look on the Varta/Bosch etc websites you will find the top recommended battery either 95 or 100 amp is 353 x 190x 175 so yes it will fit

Should have added check out www.adavancedbatterysupplys.co.uk
they have both Varta and Bosch batteries of that size
For around £100 with free next day delivery

look at Varta H3 or either Bosch S5 013 or S4 013

Or try this offer.
http://www.justcarbatteries.co.uk/va...attery-h3.html

Whatever battery you think of make sure they give you the rated number of recharge cycles. If they don't know the answer - go try somewhere else because they are not up to selling batteries!

Nowadays, you should also make sure that the tell you the Cold Crank Amps. One day you will want to know how good your battery is and you will probably want to get it tested with an "Conductance" - the latest and most reliable technology for battery condition testing. You must know the CCA to use one of these things.

Personally, I would always got for flooded lead acid even for "leisure" use. The term Leisure battery has more to do with marketing than battery performance

Patrick

Maybe nothing but be careful of that website both of my internet security software programmes block access and list it as Malicious.

And for the previous poster the OP is buying an engine battery !

Thanks for the answers so far and yes it is the Vehicle battery I need to replace. I also have two 100 Ah liesure batteries, one under each seat, and they are ok.

The Banner range confuses me with the battery names but its the Varta H3 that I am comparing with. i will look at the exide battery spec too.

Does anyone have any direct experience of any/all of these? Or perhaps a comparison test on line somewhere?

Thanks again and keep them coming

K

Hi,

I have bought (online) from that Company recently with no problems and can recommend the Varta Silver Dynamic (same as the Bosch only cheaper) for use as both engine and habitation.