12 Volt in a Dove

a battery?

Hi garytee.
Your Dove should all ready be wired for 12vold lighting. Have you got a live wire in your plug on the tow vehicle? This should run your lighting while connected up. If you want to run the lights independently of the car then you need a battery fitted to the van. Brian

hey Gary

We have a Swan(with a lot of history...) get yourself a deep cycle battery with big amp hrs, and it will run your light for about 5 days without charge....
we have five kids and also run a portable dvd of it every night and with a small solar pannel it lasts about a 4-5 days depending on the sun...then its onto the back up in the car....you never can have enough... especially when you have to keep your beer cold in the engal because the fridge in the camper is full of cordial...
keep smilin

Hi garytee, we own an 05 Offroad Dove which came with a fancy gel battery which died soon after purchase. So I moved the connections from the bin under the lounge next to the queen bed to the bin in front of the wheel arch just foward of the sink. This was because the original location for the battery was in the middle of the bin making it less suitable for storage.
As long as you are plugged into your car via the 7 pin plug you could survive on the car battery if you only use the van lights for an hour or so. Beyong that it's like leaving the car headlights on and you will flatten the battery too much and not be able to restart in the morning.
Our Dove has the old style incandescent bulbs which we hardly use. You can spend $$ and get LED's or go to a camping store and buy a compact fluoro for $30 which has a cigarette lighter plug. Buy the socket and wire it in in parallel to the wiring to the CD player if you have one.
The purists will object but I use an ordinary car battery (instead of gel) which was 2nd hand from a battery supplier. The first one lasted 2 years for $50. But I only run the fluoro plus the laptop and we tend to move along on most days so it gets drained of a night but recharged the next day.
The magic box of electronics under the seat might bip at you if the voltage drops too low and a few times we have come back from a walk and it's bipping but you just flick off the switch. Cheers, Warrie